Turtle Trot 2012 (Recap)

I didn't get to run the Turtle Trot last year because I dropped a cymbal on my big toe and had stitches. We did go last year and watch, cheer the runners on. When we went last year, our friends Randy and Judy walked it.

So this year we decided to walk it. Actually, Dave said he would walk it if I would walk it. When we got there, I was itching to run and tried to give Dave puppy dog eyes but he said if I signed up to run then he wasn't going to walk. So I circled the "Walker" category and said ok.

They had the runners start, first, and then the walkers started about 2 minutes later. As walkers, we were not allowed to run at all. We actually walked with Randy and Judy the whole time. That was a lot of fun. It was pretty relaxed; we were talking the whole time, and Randy kept asking people for a ride. ;)

When the horn sounded, I felt my adrenaline go just like it does when I'm running a race. (This is the first time I've walked one.) So I automatically started fast- thank goodness I didn't actually break into a run- they would have seen that and said nope, disqualified already! Thankfully Randy said, whoa, whoa, be patient! And I realized I was chomping at the bit to go. But I slowed down and stuck with the group from that point on.

This course is extremely flat, and out and back. It starts in Turtle Creek but I have no idea what the building is or how to describe where it is. For any Pittsburghers, it's near the Palmieri's, kind of. It takes one road (not sure what the name was) out to Banquets Unlimited, does a little circle around, and comes back. I have never even driven on that road so I was looking at what was around. (Now we know where Wilmerding Beverage is! And Dave pointed out places that are closed now. "Oh, that used to be an old ice cream stand.")

Most of the way where there were stores, bars, restaurants, etc., the employees were standing outside watching. At the hardware store, near the turnaround, one of the guys was out there and Randy told him to clap for us. He was kind of grumpy, did clap, but walked back into the store and we heard him complain to someone else about how they shouldn't have to close a road for walkers. LOL. I said (to our little group), well, we're out walking. He's not.

We went fastest the third mile- I was walking with Judy a little bit ahead of Randy and Dave. When we were about .1 miles away, Randy decided he better catch up and beat us so all 4 of us started walking faster. Dave and I hung behind a little, and Randy and Judy were trying to push each other out of the way, fighting for who between the two of them would finish first. I also tried to step it up and wouldn't you know it, Dave kept up! But I did push ahead just at the finish line. I'm not sure if the people at the end were laughing or rolling their eyes.  I would have laughed.

We stuck around at the end and it's a good thing we did- Dave ended up getting 2nd place for his age category! I couldn't believe it. His category was Men's ages 20-50. So now he has a trophy, for his first full 5K ever. And I still don't have one! ;) Congrats, Dave!

Dave with his trophy. Randy is actually in the Pitt hat to the right of Dave (and that's Judy's head on the very side of the picture)

I did take data on my Garmin and told the group whenever we hit a 1/4 mile (that's what my laps are set at and I didn't change them for the race). Since I have it, here are our mile spilts. I did not stop the watch at the end of the race, oops. So I don't know what our official time was. I think around 53 minutes?

Distance	Time	Total
1	17:26	17:26
2	17:13	34:39
3	16:48	51:28
3.15	02:37	54:05

Look at the negative splits. ;) I kind of have to ignore the last .15 just because I did forget to stop the watch for a bit.

The walkers got timers, too, so when I got an official time I'll put it on the race recap page on the blog.