I love post marathon racing! I find that three to four weeks after a target marathon is always a fun time to race a shorter distance. My body still has all of the adaptations from the long distance and speed training involved in the marathon programme, but has had a few weeks to recover. So when the opportunity to race a 5-miler, nearly four weeks out from the Dublin Marathon, I was eager to take it on. The 28th annual Tiger Turkey Chase didn’t disappoint. The race is a fundraiser for the Oliver Ames High School Cross Country team, which is something I can surely get behind.
Immediately following the Dublin Marathon on October 30th, I hopped on a plane and headed the 3,000 miles east to Boston to spend some time with my son as well as the rest of my family. I had done little training while in recovery mode, but I had done some hiking, rucking and some light running. Surprisingly, I hadn’t sabotaged my fitness by over-indulging during this time in the States, like I am prone to do.
Early on Thanksgiving morning I picked up my neighbours, Tovar and Vero and we drove to North Easton, MA to meet my sister, Kathy Ann, and friends Pauline and Taylor. We arrived early enough for a short warm-up, but there was great difficulty getting warm as the temperature was a mere 0 degrees celcius. I prefer to race in a vest, but on this day, I chose to wear a light jacket over my vest and race number. As you can see, I thought it best to lift the jacket up when crossing the finish line.
The course was excellent and started out with the first two miles or so running net downhill. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t much of a hill until just after the fourth mile and we were approaching the final stretch towards the finish line. As I had hoped, the miles just flew by and before I knew it I was on that last 200m straightaway to the timing mat.
It was a pretty good size field with just under 570 finishers and I was quite happy to be up near the front at the end of the race. I finished in 17th position with a time of 31:26. This was good enough to win my over 50’s category and send me home with a turkey from one of the local sponsors of the event. I would highly recommend this one, as it is superbly organised and the atmosphere on Thanksgiving morning is tremendous.
Everybody is different, but for me, I really enjoy racing this shorter distance as part of my post marathon recovery routine. Five miles literally ticked by in no time. My body was eager to race after taking a few easy weeks, but it was also still in good shape. I’d encourage everyone to take on something like this, I know you’d enjoy it.
On a side note, while over visiting and spending some really enjoyable time with my son, Daniel, I had the opportunity to watch my brother Kevin compete in his first two body building competitions. He’s been an active weight lifter for years, but this year he opted to take on the much bigger challenge of competing in this new discipline. On this day he was competing in the OCB Battle of the Godz in Woonsocket, RI. In only his second competition ever, he took 1st in the over 40 category, which earned him his Pro card enabling him to compete professionally going forward. In addition, he captured the over 50’s title and took 3rd overall. You can follow him on instagram @kevinofkrypton. Needless to say, we are all extremely proud of him.
