WhooHoo! The Fort Worth Turkey Trot today was my first post stress fracture race. I averaged 08:32/mile for the 10K race. I am thrilled! The best pace I had maintained since the injury was around 8:55/mile for 6 miles. But I had on my lucky turkey hat today! And that apparently did the trick.

The first mile was so crowded that I wasn't able to get up any speed. I didn't line up near the front prior to the start because I wasn't expecting to run fast. The 1st mile had the slowest pace (8:54), but the other miles had a much better average. I kept looking down at my Garmin and saw that miles 2 and 3 were 8:13 and 8:16. That was way too fast for me! Now I know why I was breathing so hard. I was running in my anaerobic zone and was going to have to slow down. But I kept going... I just slowed down to around 8:30/mile so I could complete the distance.

Wearing the crazy turkey hat helped to pass the distance. All the spectators kept cheering on the "Turkey Lady" and other runners said "Hey GPS Turkey Lady, how many miles have we gone?". It was so much fun! I just wish the guy in the chef's hat had finished right behind me. That would have been a cool photo with the chef chasing the turkey. :) Click here for the the photo album from the race.

In the finishing chute, the guy in the full turkey costume gave me a "High 5" as I went by. And afterwards a guy from the Star Telegram came and asked my name. UhOh....They say everyone gets 5 minutes of fame. And apparently mine is with a deranged looking turkey on my head.

It's funny that if I had not taken up cycling, I would not have had the turkey hat. I actually purchased it in a little shop along Main Street in Red River, New Mexico. I was in Red River to ride the Enchanted Circle Century last September and we were shopping the day before the rally. The hats happened to be in a little tourist shop that had a lot of everything - fudge, coffee, and various tourist gifts. I bought it as a present for our dog Hobo, who happens to love wearing hats. But I also had the Turkey Trot in the back of my mind. I hadn't been cleared to start running yet but I was hoping I would be running again in time for the Turkey Trot.

The Fort Worth Turkey Trot had around 12,000 runners, whereas the Dallas Turkey Trot had around 38,000. I opted for the Fort Worth event because of easier parking logistics and a smaller field of runners. Plus the timed Dallas event was 8 miles and I was only up to 7.5 miles on my long run. I could have done 8 miles, but not as fast as I did the 6.2 miles. I can't remember if the Dallas Trot was a flat course or not. The Fort Worth course had just a few hills. Mile 2 to 2.4 was uphill and miles 3 to 4 were predominately uphill. But the hills were predominately gradual. There was only one spot where there was a shorter/steeper part of the climb. I just shortened my stride and leaned into the hill and it was over!

I don't know if it's the cycling or something else that has improved my body's ability to handle "going anaerobic". Previously if I went anaerobic on a run, I was toast and could not recover for the rest of the run. I would end up having to run the rest of the distance really slowly after going anaerobic. Since returning to running after the stress fractures, I have been able to maintain a normal pace even after going anaerobic. That was the case during today's race and also during several of my tempo runs prior to the race. Maybe my body has learned to better handle lactate/hydrogen ions (by-products of anaerobic metabolism) as a result of long distance cycling with lots of hill climbs.