San Dimas Turkey Trot 5k

This was to be my final race of the season (I elected for a small 5k over the San Dimas Turkey Tri because I was just burnt out from racing and training 11 of the 12 months of the year).

The Renegade Racing San Dimas Turkey Trot is a 5k, 10k, and Kid's fun run that is held at Bonelli Park (a venue I'm very familiar with having raced there several times before).  I elected to do the 5k over the 10k - mainly because the 10k goes "off road" and I was 50/50 as to how well a stroller would handle that (not completely knowing the course) and I was 100% certain that all the jostling around wouldn't be much fun for my son.  So, the 5k it was.

The course is pretty straight forward.  It's an out and back 5k that goes straight up a hill and then back down.  Not ideal for a stroller race, but this was more of a fun run for me than anything else.

Before the race with my son all set and ready to go.

Race was about as standard as any other running race is.  The 5k group started out at the same time as the 10k group and I was able to get to "pre-park" my stroller at the front of the line.  When the signal went for us to go - I darted out ahead of everyone and just worked to keep a good pace.  

I managed to keep a lead for the first part of the race, but two things happened that made it quickly apparent that it would be difficult.

1)  There was a gigantic hill in front of me.  The amount of time you lose on a hill when pushing a stroller is huge, and the bigger and longer the hill - the more time you lose.  Again, this wasn't going to be an overly competitive race for me and I wasn't going to kill myself doing this - so it wasn't a huge deal.

2)  The bigger deal was my son gave me one of those whines.  It wasn't a "Dad, I'm bored" type of whine.  It was a "Dad, something's wrong!" kind of whine.  When they whine happens, the race/run/whatever stops and I check to see what's wrong.  In this particular case, a couple minutes into the hill - my son had snaked his arms into his chest harness and was stuck.  This was because his harness was loose (he was wearing a jacket that morning and I took the jacket off of him for the race - so there was a bit of extra room).  Again, not a huge deal - a quick pull over to the side, got his arms straightened out, and tightened the harness - and off we went!

The uphill was brutal.  A combination of me not training much for this race and being somewhat out of shape, pushing a stroller, and just being plain old tired all made this race much tougher than it needed to be.  

The downhill (after the turnaround) was much better - but still difficult due to having to control the stroller.  In any case, it wasn't that bad and we ended up with a first place finish in my age group.

Podium for Brucie!

All in all a spectacular race and incredibly well run by the folks over at Renegade Racing.  

We even caught up with some friends after the race who did the 10k!