5K Turkey Trot, #1 of 2

Like I said in my previous post, my sister talked me into coming to the cities this weeking, bribing me with a 5K race..... the 5K Turkey Trot in Chaska, MN. I jumped on the opportunity. Plus, I was looking forward to spending a relaxing weekend with her and my brother-in-law.

Saturday morning we headed to the Chaska High School, the location of the race, and registered. The school was packed. Supposedly a basketball tournament was going on as well. Once we were registered, and our bibs and timing chips were attached, we waited patiently in the cold 30 degree weather at the starting line. It wasn't too bad but the wind wasn't pretty. We both went into this race hoping to just have a good run, enjoy our time, and possibly run the entire course, something I had never been able to do in a race before!

Shortly after 9 the race started. Our first short stretch of the route was downhill and before we knew it we were heading uphill soon after. We all know that what goes down, must go up, or vice versa, right? Throughout the race there was some mild hills, but nothing too terribly difficult. I will admit, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to run the entire time with the hills.

We did a pretty good job pacing ourselves. Our goal was to keep up with the lady-in-the-pink-hat a few feet in front of us. Once we saw that 2 miler marker we picked up the pace a little bit. At this point I was starting to feel nauseous, and this has never happened to me in a race before. In the last tenth of a mile we did a full out sprint across the finish line. Talk about finishing strong. I stopped to get my chip cut out of my shoe and thought I was going to puke, but it went away pretty fast. It turns out that the lady-in-the-pink-hat was using us as a pacer as well. Glad we could return the favor.
The results?

Well, we haven't seen any official results yet, but according to my watch and what I believed to have seen when crossing the finish mat, I broke my 35:30 PR by 2 minutes flat. Both of us finished in approximately 33:30! It felt great! I am going to cash this in as my "freshly shaved" time for the Shave Your 5K Challenge! Thanks for putting this challenge together, Half-Fast!

After the race we grabbed some fruit and water. We got a nice little goody bag too.

Steph and I after the race

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, shopping, and relaxing! Thanks Steph and Blaine!

We have another Turkey Trot (one I have done for the past 3 years) in less than two weeks, on Thanksgiving Day in Bismarck. I hope that race will go just as well, if not better!

********UPDATE**********

Here's the official race results! We finished in 33:33, a 10:47min/mile average! Yeah!