Drumstick Dash 10K Race Preview

As far as race previews go, this one won't take too long.  Honestly, I signed up for this race yesterday on a whim.  Back in high school, I did the Arena Club 5K (which has since morphed into the Lifetime Fitness Turkey Day 5K) along with the rest of my buddies on the cross country team.  With The Wife out of town this week, I figured now was as good a time as any to renew the Thanksgiving race tradition.

The Drumstick Dash 10K will follow a 2-lap course around Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis.  You may remember this from the Monster Dash a few weeks ago.  Like the Monster Dash, the activity will be centered at the Harriet Band Shell.

What am I expecting for the race?  Well, for one, weather conditions will be unfavorable.  The forecast is predicting snow from tomorrow afternoon until early morning on Thursday.  Temperatures are aiming to be in the teens for the race.  We'll have to see how the weather affects my performance.  Cold weather can really wreak havoc with my asthma.  Some days, there's no effect.  Other days, it can really be a little bastard.

I've also been pulling back on the training volume lately.  sure, I still get some kind of workout in about 5 days a week, but I haven't done many runs lately over 6 or 7 miles.   Do I feel prepared to run the 10K?  Heck yeah.  Am I taking this race seriously?  Heck no!  I'm approaching this the same as I would a tough workout during the summertime.  I'm not going to get bent out of shape if my time stinks.  Heck.  I'm not even going to bother predicting a time.

"No time?" you ask.  "Why bother racing?"  you say.  Well, there are lots of reasons.  For one, it'll give me a kick in the butt for running in the cold.  It's a long winter, and the sooner I get used to it, the better.

For another, there's the Wow Factor.  When I tell people that I ran a 10K on Thanksgiving, they'll say "Wow.  You're nuts!".  For some reason, people thinking I'm nuts feels good. 

Still not good enough for you?  Fine.  How about knowing that the calories I burn at the race will help to offset that extra helping of turkey, or 2nd slice of pie?  If PIE isn't a good reason to race, then I don't know what is. 

What?  You STILL want a time goal?  All right, all right.  If the course hasn't turned into a luge run, traction isn't a problem and the asthma behaves itself, then I'll be aiming for mile splits around 9:30.  Yeah.  I know.  That's significantly SLOWER than my splits for the Monster Dash.  Like I said, I haven't put in the longer distances lately.  Hopefully, my recent speed work will help keep the pace up, but who knows?

I'll do my best to get that race report up on Thanksgiving, but I'm not making any promises.  Whether you're hitting the road for a race, spending the weekend with friends and family, or celebrating the holiday solo like me, I hope you and yours have a happy Thanksgiving.

Later dudes.