Running with Eric

On Thanksgiving morning I ran the Turkey Trot for the 12th time, finishing the five mile course in 41:44. This was a little slower than I have ran this course in years past, but not too far off my typical pace.

The weather was fairly good this year, and with Brittany running alongside me, I felt pretty good for the first two miles. After that I began to slow down a little bit as I am apparently incapable of running anything quicker than my half marathon pace. Toward the end we were running into a rather significant headwind, but that was more annoying than something that was actively slowing me down.

My next race will be the It’s a Wonderful Run 5k in Seneca Falls in early December.

On Thanksgiving morning I ran the Buffalo Turkey Trot for the first time since 2019. I finished the five mile course in 39:21 which is my fastest time on this course since my PR in 2015, which was only a minute quicker.

This was my 11th time running in what is the country’s oldest race so I know the course well. Yet it is always hard to find your pace when there are constantly slower runners ahead of you, and faster runners behind you. Still things went really well with my per mile pace only 4 seconds slower than the shorter 5k I ran a month ago.

My next race will be the It’s a Wonderful Run 5k in Seneca Falls.

On Thanksgiving I ran the Buffalo Turkey Trot for the tenth time. The race started in 1896 so I have only ran in 8% of these events, but that is more times than I have ran any other race.

I finished the 5 miles in 40:37 which was a minute and a half quicker than last year, and only two minutes behind my PR from 2015 (and 18 minutes quicker than my first time on this course).

This race is always a mess of people that have no idea what they are doing and this year was no different. I started as close to the front as I could and still ended up starting behind a guy carrying a canoe and hundreds of walkers. However, once I got going the run wasn’t too bad. It was cold, but far nicer than last year, and inexplicably at the finish line they gave everyone a loaf of bread.

Thursday morning I ran the Buffalo Turkey Trot for the ninth year and finished with a time of 42:02. This was a little slower than last year, and for that I mostly blame the cold.

With a race time temperature of just 16 degrees, I believe that this is the coldest the race has ever been since I started running it. The race also got off to a late start, which only increased the amount of time we had to stand around in the cold. Once the gun finally did go off, I still took over six minutes to reach the starting line which also made the run more difficult.

This race has always had a large number of people who have no idea what they are doing, but getting stuck starting so far back only increased the number of walkers and oblivious runners that I had to deal with. As such I could barely run the first mile, and I was still ducking and weaving around all the way to mile three, at which point the race is already more than half over. Once I finally had a little room to run, my feet went numb from the cold, so I never really got a chance to push the pace anywhere on this course. Maybe next year the weather will be nicer, and I will have the opportunity to push for a better time.

On Thanksgiving I ran the Buffalo Turkey Trot for the eighth year. I finished the five miles in 40:34 which is a minute slower than last year. This is almost identical to the pace I held for a shorter 5k a month ago.

After 122 years, the Turkey Trot continues to be the oldest race in the country, but it is likely to be my final road race until the spring.

On Thanksgiving morning I ran my final race of the season, covering the five miles of Turkey Trot in 39:35. This was quick enough to put me in the top 10% of the race’s finishers.

This was the first time in the Turkey Trot that I didn’t improve upon my time from the previous year, but my time was only a tad over a minute slower and more or less where I expected to finish this year.

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the oldest race in the country at the Buffalo Turkey Trot. I finished the five mile course in 38:21 which is 19 seconds quicker than last year. This put me in 883rd place, meaning that I achieved my goal of finishing in the top thousand. Additionally I placed in the top 7% of finishers, which mostly just indicates how many non-runners are in this race.

This was my sixth Turkey Trot. I have improved my time every year since I first finished with a time of 58:20 in 2010. Overall that is a twenty minute improvement between my first Turkey Trot, and this year.