The Great Petrucci - Wooten Turkey Trot Throwdown

David, Mom, Myself and Melissa

On Sunday, the day after the JFK 50, if I had to do a 5K I would have probably done 90 minutes.  On Monday I felt a little better and may have pulled 60.  Tuesday I felt like I could do 30 minutes if really pushed.  Come Wednesday though I felt 95% less sore and was definitely feeling better as that was the day I began talking smack to my stepdad David.

David married my mom in 1997 and he wasn't the most active person.  He started playing tennis and doing other things with mom and after a few years he finally began running which before he claimed to always hate.  Now he does pretty good often placing or winning in AG in distances of a half marathon or under.  For today's race he wanted to get a new 5K PR which would require him to beat his time from last year which was 22:59.

My family did something different this year for the holiday.  We actually had our Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night so that everyone who needed to be here could be here.  Actually it worked out quite well except for when David and I were starting on our second plates of food I told him that the race the next morning would not have anything to do with speed, fitness or leg turnover speed... it would depend on who could digest their food the fastest.  To keep things fair we even both had two slices of pumpkin pie for dessert.

Anyway, I had no idea how this morning would turn out.  I really wanted to help David to get a PR anyway I could as I knew that me getting one was really out of the question just days after a 50 mile run.  Really I just wanted to keep up with him and urge him on if possible.  Or maybe just get slightly in front and pull him with me.  But really I didn't know if I could keep up but that did not deter me from still talking shit.

The Frederick Way Station Turkey Trot is sort of a part of our family Thanksgiving tradition really anymore so everyone ran it including Mom and Melissa.  After we all were downtown David and I started running a bit to warm up.  I didn't feel bad but I didn't feel great either.  I still had some lingering aches and pains which really made me doubt if I could keep up with him or not.  After running some more and doing some speedier pick ups I did start to feel better and things warmed up.  After about 20 minutes of this we went to the start line with a minute or two before the race start.

Once the gun went off David was GONE!  Now I really did not know if I could keep up or not.  I caught up with him though and felt good enough.  I decided to take a different tactic and keep going.  Hopefully pull him with me but I sensed after a while (though I didn't look back) that I had opened quite the gap.  I figured I could still help him by not slowing down and hopefully he was back there trying catch up, chasing me.

As for me the first mile went great, the second mile still good but there is a half mile incline in there that can take it out of you.  Between miles two and two and half another little climb. I was losing speed on the climb but my heart rate was staying the same so I knew my level of effort was still consistent.

About a half a mile from the finish the same guy that placed 2nd in our AG two years ago when I came in third passed me.  I just let him go as I knew I was pretty maxed out and considering everything else I really didn't care as I was running WAY better than I had ever expected.

I crossed the finish line in 21:13 (fourth in my AG) and once I was done bending over determining if I were going to puke or not I stood up and started looking for David.

He wasn't that far behind really.  22:57 was his time and he beat last years time by two seconds.  Mission accomplished. A new PR for David.  He also came in second in his age group.  Mom came in first in her AG so at least two of the four of us brought hardware home.

This race is probably my favorite 5K of all time.  Every year it grows more and more and I think this year they had over 4,000 people running it.  If it were a touch warmer today without the wind, times might have been faster but who knows.

This was the one planned deviation from my running break.  I just couldn't miss this run no matter how long it took me to finish it.  I thought earlier in the week I would have to run with mom and again just hoped to keep up.

Next up is the Summit For Life on December 7th which won't be a run but a hard hike up Aspen mountain.  I am still taking donations and I am 75% to my goal of raising $1000 for the Chris Klug Foundation which raises awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation. Please consider making a donation and help me to reach my goal of raising $1000 for this great cause. I have 9 days left to reach my goal. You can make a donation by clicking HERE. Thank you!