Pensacola Beach Turkey Trot Recap - 26 Nov

My first #1 Race!

Nothing better then to run a race Thanksgiving morning.  Good way to pre-burn some calories.  This was the first ever beach Turkey Trot.  They were rasing funds for "Communities Caring for Christmas".  Participants were also asked to bring one new toy for "Toys for Tots". Both very good causes!

Marianne C from Dailymile

I also got to meet another local Dailymile member.  Marianne C. stopped by to congratulate all the runners she knew that were running the race.

Interesting note.  There is another Turkey Trot at Seville, downtown Pensacola. I heard rumor that some attorney was upset with this group for naming their race a turkey trot.  I say whatever, this area is big enough for two turkey trots.  Even more so considering this one was actually on Thanksgiving day and at a totaly different location.  That said, let's get to the race.

The race had a late start time of 8:30 which I appreciated.  I was glad not to have to get up too early on Thanksgiving morning.  Since this was a first time ever run for this group, I was curious to see how things would go.

First off, they only expected about 50 to 75 runners.  By race start time, they had closer to 300.  That should tell you right there how things might go.  They had no official time keepers and that usually means trouble. The race off on time.  They have lots of races at the beach and they used one of the usual routes.  They only problem was they started at the wrong place and ended up making the route a tad short.  Not a really biggie.

The weather was really nice, except we had a pretty strong wind East/South wind.  It had to be gusting over 20 MPH at times.  There were times when it felt like I wasn't even moving.  Pretty normal actually for the beach.  Seems every race they have there, the wind is killer.

Wind and all, I finished with a pretty good time of 24:01. Not a PR, but a dang good pace nonetheless.  Here's where the part about being a first time race comes into play.  After hanging out and congratulating many of the finishers as I always do, I made my way to where the awards were taking place.  I walked over to the table and noticed there were not many awards there.  Come to find out, they had the age groups set at 10 year intervals and not 5.  I hate that!  And, and here's the kicker, they were only awarding awards to the winner of each age group and not the top 3.  And yes, there is more. They stopped at 50 and awarded a winner in a 50+ age group.  Needless to say, I was pissed.  Why diss on the old people you know?  Oh and they didn't have a Master, Grand Master, or Senior Grand Master award either.  What really made me mad was that I ran a fast race and would have done pretty good in my age group had it been a 'normal' race.  Oh well, maybe they'll do better next time if they do it again.  If they make some changes, I'll be there with bells on.

The turkey after I told him he was going in the over!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got a picture with the turkey too.  Yeah I know he looks more like a chicken, but hey, what can you say, he tried.

As always my friends, remember, "Real athletes run, all others just play games!"