Race Report: Fairfax Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving morning I participated in the inaugural Fairfax Turkey Trot! This new race is run on much of the course the Fairfax Four Miler is - which I've done the past few years - is a fun race / course! The new race benefits the City of Fairfax Fire Department Benevolent Fun and started and finished right in front of the fire station! 

Race morning I arrived early for packet pick up and managed to snag lucky number 7 as my race number! In fact, I arrived so early I pretty much had my pick of spaces in the closest parking lot! After getting my bib I headed back to my car to stay warm for a bit.

When it was time to head to the start, I noticed that there were many dogs out for a run that morning! I sure wish I had though to ask ahead of time about that... While I did not have a time goal for the race, my plan was to try to negative split and even have descending splits as I need to get better at that. I think I lined up in the middle of the group. The announcer said there were over 1,000 runners out! 

My first observation: the course looks different in the daylight! I ran steadily and was warming up a bit. Turns out I should have removed my pink long sleeved shirt, which I did during a short walk break at about the half way point. I thought my second mile would be slower than the first because of my walk break - but surprisingly that was not so! There's a bit of a gradual downhill in the first half which means the second half has a gradual uphill. I know it would be hard but vowed not to walk! 

When I hit the 3 mile mark I did my best to sprint to the finish. And then my rabbit ears fell off! I had to do a quick back track to get them, but then we were off again! I could see the official clock ahead reading almost 30 minutes, and I was not sure how many second it took me to cross the start line. So I sprinted even faster! I hit my stop button and the time read 30:00.07 and I scrolled through my splits and found I'd not only done a negative split but each mile got faster - even mile 2! My official time listed in the results was actually 29:59 and a 9:40/mile average, so I was very happy with that! 

At the Fairfax Turkey Trot!

Also: Two weeks ago Monday I did my first Monday night fun run at Potomac River Running's (=PR=) Fairfax store. The course is great as they host a  couple of races from that location and I did two races there last year. One guy there was running with his dog! I thought that was great and planned to bring my Riley the next  time I went. Which was two nights ago! Here's a picture that =PR= Fairfax posted to their Facebook wall:

With Riley at the =PR= Fairfax Fun Run on December 2, 2014!
(Photo Courtesy of =PR= Fairfax)

Riley would not turn around for the picture! She had a blast, though I think she started out too fast. Newbie runner mistake. :) I also had to rein her in because I cannot run as fast as she does! Riley got a bit tired around the 2 mile mark, so we cut the course short and only ran 2.61 miles. She will definitely attend more fun runs with me in the future! We will work up to the full 3.1 distance of the route! 

Next up: Blue and Gray 5k where my fellow Team Rabbit-mate Carol will do the half!