Peoria Turkey Trot: 2005

Today, Tracy and I did a race: the Peoria Turkey Trot "4 mile" race. It is Peoria's oldest race.

This was my first "public race" in Peoria way back in 1996. I ran a 29:14 that year, and was very annoyed to have gotten passed three times in the last .25 miles. In 1997 and 1998, I did the Galesburg half-marathon Turkey Trot race on the same day. In 1999, I was out with a stress fracture and in 2000 I did the Galesburg 5 miler in the morning followed by this 1 pm race in the afternoon (29:23). I remember chasing Deb Wresinski's (now Fienburg) red tights up the large hill. In 2001, I went with Tracy and ended up fighting though a nasty cold to run 29:16. Tracy ran 40:35. In 2002, I sat it out due to severe shin splints. In 2003, I ran a decent (for me) 28:58, getting outkicked by Jim McIntyre at the end. It was cold and windy that day, with some icy rain. Tracy ran herself sick and finished dead last with 41:37; still she won her age group.

The course: the course is a little more than 3 miles of park road, followed by .8 miles of soccer field grass. One starts up a slight incline and then takes a turn. Then one goes up a rather steep, 1/2 mile long hill. Then there is an almost flat spot, about a 1/4 mile down, a small up, a larger down, and then another steep hill. Then there is a long downhill segment that takes you back to the start; this is about a 2.7 mile loop. Then you go along the slight incline again, but when one gets to the end of the straight-away, one turns left to go around the boundary of a soccer field complex on the grass. The rest of the course is grass. One then hugs the boundary of the Fields, passes through a path through some trees, and then goes around part of the perimeter of another set of soccer fields. Then one turns and makes a straight away to the finish.

Tracy and I started side by side; she was running while I was walking. At the turn going up the hill I eventually started to pass walkers. Surprisingly, I was able to keep the racewalking straight knee while going uphill and made some reasonably good time. Here I passed people.

The slower runners caught me on the down, and I passed them again on the next large up, only to get blown away on the next long down.

The hill section is hard, but lovely. There is forest on both sides of you. For me, the downhills were tough as I was making an effort to walk legally.

The last relatively flat road stretch was no big deal, and I could see many runners all strung out in a line. Unfortunately, I could not catch any of them.

Then came the grass section, where I gave up any pretense of legality due to the unevenness of the turf. So I more or less held my own and finished in 40:09 (my watch, 40:16 official). Tracy came in later at 42:56 and 5 people finished after she did. She won 3'rd in her age group.

I've always enjoyed this; people run it, most give it their all, but this is a no frills, "just get out there and do it" kind of thing. And it gave me some confidence going into next weeks cauldron.

Placewise, my walking got me 110 out of 125, and Tracy finished 119'th.

Afterwards, someone asked me if I ever wanted to try to run this course; I had to laugh. It is almost as if walking were viewed as somehow being inferior to running. But I notice that my previous running times had been remarkedly consistent where as for Tracy...

1996 (beginner) Ollie 29:14
2000 (2'nd race of the day) Ollie 29:23
2001 (had a cold) Ollie 29:16, Tracy 40:35
2003 Ollie 28:58, Tracy 41:37
2005 Ollie 40:16 (walk), Tracy 42:57

Ah, it appears as if time is taking it's toll on a certain someone.