I was excited to do the O’Side Turkey Trot. I’ve been signed up for several years and just never made it there, whether due to injury, illness, or life. This was the year. The week before, I found out I had HMPV. While I was no longer “sick,” I did have the aftereffects of congestion. I don’t recover well from congestion, so I didn’t have super high expectations. Nevertheless, I was feeling grateful because I got to even race. I thought on a good day I could run between 6:45–7-minute miles.
The O’Side Turkey Trot has two 5k options: an early bird at 6:45 and a main wave at 8:05. They used to offer a 5-miler at 6:45, but I guess there were too many complaints that it went through the neighborhoods. That’s unfortunate because that would have been fun. I signed up for both, and you can get a second medal if you do both.
Before the O’Side Turkey Trot
We headed down to the O’Side Turkey Trot around 1 PM the day before. There was a bit of traffic, we ate at one of my favorite Greek restaurants, and got to packet pickup around 5:30 PM. From there, we relaxed in the hotel, and the 5 AM wake-up came early. I probably stayed in bed too long and only ate about half of my bagel + peanut butter breakfast. I still have concerns from when I ate too close to the Long Beach Half Marathon. I was only able to do a 1-mile warmup to the O’Side Turkey Trot before heading into the packed corral. My body generally needs 2–3 miles to warm up, but that’s all I had time for. Before I knew it, we were off for the early wave 5k.
Early Wave O’Side Turkey Trot – 19:58
I took off, not knowing how I would feel. As with any turkey trot, there are tons of people whizzing by you who may fade later. I was like, “Man, I am feeling slow,” fully expecting to be running around 7-minute pace. When I looked down, it said 6:30, and I was surprised. I told myself to run my own race. We hit the turnaround about .75 miles in, and it’s a tight turn. I hit the mile 1 marker of the O’Side Turkey Trot in .9 miles and thought: how does such a well-established turkey trot not have the mile markers aligned? I hit the first mile in 6:31 and was surprised. Was this when I was going to fade?
The next mile went down the main road, and it was gorgeous with views of the ocean. I told myself to stay engaged and hit mile 2 of the O’Side Turkey Trot in 6:32. It felt like I was breathing through a straw, and I just kept trying to push so I could pass a couple more people. I was somewhere around 6–7th woman, trying to keep my place.
The next mile heads along the beach, and you can see the O’Side Turkey Trot finish line for quite some time. I could tell the race was going to be short, although I thought closer to 3 miles. I hit the last mile in 6:29 and crossed the O’Side Turkey Trot 5k in 19:58 and 3.07 miles. I thought maybe this year was a fluke, but I looked at past results and it appears it’s almost always short? I don’t get it.
You can see Strava here.
Between the O’Side Turkey Trot 5ks, I ran 5 miles. My goal for the day was my last hard/long workout. I averaged about 8:45 pace, then headed for the second 5k (which would be miles 9–12 of my day).
O’Side Turkey Trot Main Wave 20:21
I didn’t realize how much bigger and more crowded the O’Side Turkey Trot main wave was. It probably had double or triple the people. I barely found a spot at the start. From there, we were off. My toxic trait is that I believe I can run faster for the second 5k than the first.
During the O’Side Turkey Trot main wave, it was actually about 10 seconds before I crossed the O’Side Turkey Trot start line. It was hard to run at first, but I finally got some room. My watch beeped mile 1 in 6:29. I had taken it out a couple of seconds faster than the first time LOL.
At mile 1.5, a pack of about five high schoolers cut in front of me on a narrow turn, and I ended up falling and taking one down with me. I fell… hard. The crowd went “OOOH.” Luckily, I kind of tucked and rolled, and one of the high schoolers helped me (which was super nice). There was no serious damage, but it did cost me somewhere between 10–15 seconds. I hit mile 2 of the O’Side Turkey Trot in 6:44, and I was honestly shocked it was under 7 minutes.
From there, I just focused on the finish line, but I was struggling. I was tired, and the fall took the wind out of my sails. I focused on the O’Side Turkey Trot finish and crossed in 20:21/6:37 pace with the fall.
You can see Strava here.
O’Side Turkey Trot Thoughts
I’m super happy with the results based on everything. I know I could have run a sub-6:27 pace 5k if I felt good breathing, so that was motivating. Now to hopefully feel better for CIM.
You can see more race recaps here.
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Questions for you:
Did run you a turkey trot?
How as your Thanksgiving?