It used to be that if I was traveling, the first thing I did was to check listings to see if I could see an improv show or some other comedy show while I was in that town. Now, the first thing I do is see if there are any races happening. So for a trip down to Austin to see my family for Thanksgiving, right after I booked the plane tickets I signed us up for the 5 mile Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot. (For the record, we did also see Master Pancake Theatre’s Hanksgiving show while in Austin.)

Erica and I ran the Turkey Trot back in 2010 as well, but that year there was a mistake by the leading runners that ended up mis-routing the course for everyone following them (which is to say, just about everyone) and we only ran 4.5 miles of the route. There were no such problems this time around and I ran a full 5 miles. And did so at a personal-best pace, as well. Disco ran at his own pace (which is to say, fast) and Erica wasn’t feeling well and so opted for a shorter course, so I ran on my own. My headphone jack on my iPhone is busted, so I was without my Nike+ pace feedback, and I’m really pretty bad at knowing what my pace is based on just feel. The clock at the first mile marker let me know that I was at 10:00/mile, so I was expecting a pretty average race. The clock at the second mile marker was broken and so by the time I got to the third mile and saw that it was 27:00 or so, I was really surprised and figured it must be off as well. I guess somewhere in a year of endurance training I got a little faster as well.

Official Results:

Time: 45:03
Pace: 9:01/M
Overall Place: 1672 / 4191
Gender Place: 1168 / 2423
Division Place (M40-44): 138 / 253