Today's race was in Upper Saddle River, NJ and was my first Turkey Trot since I started this crazy hobby 4 years ago. I arrived at the Cavallini School around 8:15, parked the car and headed into the school gym to pick up my number and chip. A chip timed 5K? Who ever heard of such a thing? I put my race shirt and knit hat in the car and started to warm up. I can't believe I never ran this race before, this year's race was the 10th anniversary of this race and unbeknowest to me, quite popular in Bergen County. Many of the Jr. high school and high school cross country teams show up and compete against each (as if the regular meets aren't enough). About 20 minutes before the start, I hear the race director announce that this year's race reached record participation, approximately 1,600 runners. This is by far the biggest 5K I've run. Most of them have a few hundred runners at the most.
As for the race itself, the course tok us through some lovely residential areas of Upper Saddle River. The first 3/4 of a mile was uphill but we were immediately treated to a nice downhill. The rest of the course was mainly flat with a few rolling hills thrown in for good measure. I wasn't exactly sure when to start my watch because I never saw a timing mat at the start. Anyway, according to my Garmin I finished the race in 22:53 for a 7:20 pace. My official time was 24:00 for a 7:43 pace. I'm not sure if that's the gun time or not. I ran a much better race today compared to the Westfield Garden State Plaza 5k. There was a lot of weaving in and out but I did manage to run negative splits. You can check out my Garmin splits here: Dick Meighan 5K Turkey Trot .
On a personal note, I wanted to thank everyone for reading. I truly have a lot to be thankful for this year. I made an extra effort today to thank all of the volunteers, both civilian and public servants, for helping out. In general, I try to thank the volunteers and race organizers becuase without them our favorite races would not happen.
Happy Thanksgiving!
1 comment:
Aaron, congrats on your 5k race. That's a really good time considering that you ran a marathon about only a month ago.
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