New Paltz Turkey Trot

Our family has settled into a Thanksgiving routine of alternating trips to each of our hometowns to celebrate with whichever side of the family is lucky enough to receive us. This year, my parents were the chosen ones. We made the three-hour drive to New Paltz, NY, on Tuesday, which turned out to be well timed, as we arrived just ahead of an early snowstorm that turned the Hudson Valley into a glistening snowscape by Thanksgiving morning.

View of my parents' front yard on race morning. Should I have packed my snowshoes?

The New Paltz routine now includes a turkey trot, which was introduced 10 years ago and has quickly become a gathering place for runners and non-runners alike on Thanksgiving morning. The race is put on by Family of New Paltz as a fundraiser for a good cause. While it has drawn nearly 1000 runners in previous years, it's not your typical big race. There are no major prizes (more on this later), no timing company, and lots of people out to have a good time and catch up with old friends.

Driving to the race. FYI, DWP (driving while photographing) is not yet illegal in NY.

 When I arrived at the registration area, it was noticeably emptier than usual, most likely due to the previous day's weather conditions. As I was checking in, I heard an announcement about a change to the race course; we'd be doing an out-and-back on the road, rather than completing the usual loop along the rail trail, which was buried in 6 inches of snow. That was fine by me, as I didn't have any idea what kind of footwear would have worked for both the road and the snow.

After a short warm-up, I got to the starting line, where I bumped into a few former high school XC teammates. One was wearing a pair of striped women's leggings under his running shorts, while another dropped to the wet ground and started breakdancing as the national anthem was being played. The quirkiness of XC runners was on full display.

Milling about before the start of the race. I'm in the yellow. Eventual race winner is the one mid-air.

Five seconds in and still laughing at my goofy HS teammates.

This race is always a mixed bag in terms of competition, depending on who's visiting relatives in the area in any given year. There was one guy in particular I took note of before the race, as he was acting the part of fast runner -- singlet, arm warmers, doing drills on the line, etc. I've learned that appearances mean almost nothing when it comes to actual running ability, but I just had a feeling this guy was legit. Sure enough, as we took off, he shot out to the lead. Another young guy shadowed him, while I fell into the back of a pack of 5 or so others.

I didn't know any of the people I was running with, so I used my watch to gauge my position rather than basing my race off the other competitors. I intended to run around a 5:20 first mile and found myself drifting off the pace a bit; fortunately, when I tried to pick it up, my legs responded. By the time I hit the mile (in 5:24, slowed a bit by a couple of short hills), I was in third place, 15 seconds back from the top two, who were basically in a different race.

In the second mile, I saw up ahead that the fast-looking guy had dropped the not-as-fast-looking guy and was beginning to gap him. Any hope I had of winning the race was more or less dashed by this point, but second still seemed feasible. With the course modified to the out-and-back variety, I had a chance to see the top guys as they came the other way. Both looked pretty relaxed. I hit the turnaround in 8:35 and noticed that I was just over 1.6 miles on my watch. I had a suspicion that the revised course would run long, since the rail trail section that was eliminated was a straight shot back and the road took a more circuitous route.  Going back the other way, I fed off the enthusiasm of the back-of-the-packers (though I was nearly knocked off my feet by a teammate's vigorous high-five). My 2nd mile split was 5:19, now only 5 seconds behind 2nd.

I finally caught the 2nd place guy with about half a mile to go. I think he heard me coming up behind him at the start of the third mile and put in a little surge, but I gradually tracked him back down and pulled up along side him. I tried to say something to the effect of, "Hang with me," but, as a strict mouth-breather, I suffer from frozen-face syndrome on cold days, so what I actually said was, "Haaamwimmee." I'm think he got the gist. He did hang in there for a few seconds before I started lengthening my stride back down the hill we'd gone up at the start of the race. First place was a bit closer at this point but still far out of reach, so I just focused on maintaining 2nd and finishing strong. Mile 3 was 5:11. I rounded the final bend of the race and felt good as I kicked in toward the finish.

My final time was 16:56 for the ~3.2-mile course. This roughly translates to somewhere in the mid-16:20s for a 5K, which I am very pleased with. I still got thrashed by the winner but was satisfied with the race.

What award did I get, you might be wondering. Well, none. You see, this race is technically a 'fun run,' and the organizers take that to heart. There are no longer official results, or even unofficial results. The male and female winners are handed an envelope at the finish, and that's that. No one even took down their names or times, so I have no idea whom I lost to or by how much. I actually prefer this approach to the one they took two years ago. Then, they gave out overall awards and age group awards. However, the awards only went one deep, the overall winners were not removed from the age group awards, and the age groups were under-18, 18-64, and over-64. Can you tell this race isn't put on by runners?

This was my 5th time running this race, and really only the second that I've run my hardest; my history is shown below. You'll see I ran with three different high school friends over the years. Yes, I had that many friends in high school. Not many more but at least there were three.

History at the NP Turkey Trot
2014 - 16:56 (3.2 mile course)
2012 - 17:45 (very sick)
2007 - 17:30 (ran w/ HS friend a)
2005 - 18:06 (ran w/ HS friend b)
2004 - 18:30 (ran w/ HS friend c)