Turkey Trot Race Report: (ALMOST) a Family 5K!

Wednesday morning (the day before Thanksgiving), we woke up to the world covered in snow and ice for the first time this season:

Our road was ALL ice.


Side streets were just as bad.


Chipping ice off our sidewalk next to our house.

I was SO glad that happened TUESDAY night and not WEDNESDAY night just before the race! We were in for (and still are in) a cold spell, but an extra day to get sand and salt working was hopefully going to make the race course not so slick!! (Or my race plans would just go out the window and I'd just run to try not to get injured...)

Let's back up another few days. I've been mentioning how I want to be running more errands on my bike like I was 1-2 years ago, so after taking Henry to school for robotics earlier last week, I kept biking past his school to stop at packet pick-up on my bike:

My bike out front after picking up 3 race packets!

My wife worked on Thanksgiving (the life of someone in healthcare), so the boys and I got up after her and got ready to race.

Pre-race tradtional photo (at home because we were going to get to the race JUST before the start!).


Staying warm in the car before heading out to race.


After a jog to the start. A BIT worried about all the ice you see in the foreground!


Henry and I were ready to race!

Charlie was signed up to race too, but his cousin (who he was going to run with) backed out because it was cold (mid-20s), so he decided to just wait for us at the finishline. So Henry and I hung out for a few minutes, and then I worked my way a bit closer to the front.

Where I started. People packed in tighter in front of me
to put me about 10 rows back. Pretty ideal for me!


View behind me.

The race ending up starting 10 minutes late. We got to the race site hearing "We going to be starting a little late..." over the loudspeakers, and we were concerned we were going to freeze. But then we heard it was just going to be 10 minutes, and that was A-OK. After a little wait, we heard the gun and we were off!

Blurry cell phone shot about a 1/2 mile in!

I zipped past a woman running 15 minute miles who lined up DIRECTLY on the starting line of a race with 5000 people in it, and I collided a bit with another guy trying to get around her. But the roads were in decent shape as you can see from that photo above!! I wasn't worried about ice because it would make me "slow," but because it could make me "injured" - lots of slip tends to make my achilles flare up.

I took off pretty hot, and then knew I was easing up a bit. So when my first half mile was 2:53, I knew that if I held my current pace, that my next split would be a lot slower. So I sped up a BIT. I was mainly passing people, but I was also occasionally being passed - it was a very "random" start to a race. My opening 2:53 half mile was about perfect, and I was afraid that I'd end up having a few splits over 3:00 pre-race (based on slippage, cold weather that's harder to run in, and my general slow-down over the last 5 months). But I was happy to be running into the 9 mph wind with an opening mile like this:

• MILE 1: 5:44.2 (2:53 + 2:50)

We rounded 2 corners and started running along the river WITH the wind now. And I'd counted at one of the corners (just before the 1st mile marker) that I was in about 39th place at the time... I was going to try to work my way up.

Around the Hennepin Ave bridge, there was a big cheer zone with lots of turkeys:

My 2nd (and final) photo from during the race.

Notice I had runners close to me - I like a race like that! I had guys to work to "pick off."

The 2nd mile ended right before the climb up by the Guthrie, and I was THRILLED with my splits. Again, I was hoping to keep them all under 3:00 and I wasn't sure if that was realistic. But these were great:

• MILE 2: 5:41.5 (2:52 + 2:49)

I was still catching people. I was around 30th at this point, and there was a bit of a gap in front of me. I worked up those small hills by the Guthrie, and then pushed as we were now running back into the wind. I found another gear as I passed someone who looked about my age with about a half mile to go, and I kept pushing to the finish. I started this race at a nice pace, and I felt great building speed toward the finish! I moved up to 24th with a half-block to go, but then the last 2 people I had passed (both younger guys) passed me back before the line. It turns out one of them was the kid of a friend, and that friend got a photo of his son passing me seconds before the finish:

Me in pink, and friend's son in the gray shirt.

The friend's son ended up starting 0:02 in front of me but only finished 0:01 in front of me, so I technically beat him in the final results. I ended up 25th overall, and the 1st master!

• MILE 3: 5:38.2 (2:52 + 2:46)

• TO THE FINISH (0.13 miles): 0:37 (4:57 pace!)

I posted my splits online, and a running friend/coach said "Nice kick!" to which I replied with "I *may* have been sandbagging a little... 🤷🏼‍♂️😂" I definitely just raced this casually, turned in some decent splits, and then pushed hard to the line!!

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel
44, M, St. Paul

17:42
5:42 pace

25th out of 5330 overall
1st out of 222 in age group
1st master

[Garmin: 17:41.5 for 3.13 miles (5:40 pace)]

It wasn't one of my fastest 5Ks, but for hoping to break 18:00 and being concerned I'd have a few splits over 3:00, I was THRILLED with this! I had a 17:51 5K about 2.5 years ago, and that was my most recent "slower" 5K. Just before that, I ran a 17:39 indoors and was happy about that.

I raced through the finisher's chute, jumped the barricade at the side, found Charlie who was cheering for me, and we ran back to look for Henry. We found him coming through a few minutes later:

Go Henry!!


Just out of the chute, ready to head home for Thanksgiving dinner!

Henry hadn't ran much since the end of CC season a few weeks ago, so he knew he wasn't going to post an amazing time - nothing near his 19:09 or 19:10 like he got in his last 2 races of the season. So he finished in 21:13, which was good for 161th overall, and 12th out of 314 in the "male 10-14" age group!

Full course.


Close-up of the finish. Nice build over the last half mile
after getting up a few small hills to the right.


First skinny dip in speed is an icy turn, and then the
2nd dip is lost signal going under the big Hennepin Ave Bridge.

Again, notice that nice boost in speed in the final 3 minutes! And I was right about my start: I started fast, eased up, and then sped up a bit to keep my splits more even. But my heart rate in that graph is NOT right - I was NOT at 153 bpm max! I was well over that! My Garmin beeped during the race telling me I had a "+14 performance condition" which is INSANE. It's usually good when I have a "+4." On days after hard workouts, I might see "-1." But "+14" means it wasn't reading correctly - it saw I was moving very fast with a (falsely) super low heart rate.

I mentioned how I passed someone who could have been in my age group with about a half mile left... well it turns out that someone my exact age finished 0:07 behind me (5 spots), so that burst in speed gave me the age group win! And then the person who was 0:04 behind him was in the next age group up, so the top 3 masters were all within 11 seconds! In front of me, I had a 33 and 38-year-old, but everyone else was younger - the vast majority were in their 20s. I like feeling like a "faster" old guy at a race. ;)

And I passed both of those guys in the final mile or so, so that strong final kick moved me from 3rd master and 2nd in age group to 1st master and 1st in age group. Nice! Feeling good about that!

We all jogged back to the car, which was parked just 3 spots behind Mama's car who was downtown an hour before us for work:

Sarah's car on the right, and mine with the lights on 3 behind her!
(My barely-visible finger is pointing to my car.)






Henry had a huge age group! And notice the 2nd "peak" in
finish times: those were 55-59:59 finishers trying to break an hour.

We were actually in the driveway at home 40 minutes after the race started! We quickly stretched, showered, and got to Thanksgiving dinner with family:

Some "Tom & Jerry" on Charlie's upper lip.