11/28/2019

Lexington Mansfield Turkey Trot 5K, 10K and Half Marathon

Lexington, Ohio

Scott Orlando

Finish Time:  44:36

Overall Place:  4th Place

Division Place:  1st Place

Race Recap By Scott Orlando

The Lexington Mansfield Turkey Trot is a new race held for just the second year.  The race give runners the distance options of 5K, 10K, and a half marathon.  Last year this race had a total 70 participants but the word quickly spread of the quality of the race and over 300 people ran or walked this year.   The entire course (for all distances) is on the paved bike trail.  Race conditions were cold and windy.  All three race distances started and finished at the same location, but did have different turnaround points on the out and bake course.  The course itself is very flat and fast.  The only thing that slowed runners down was the headwinds gusting at 13 – 15 mph on the way back after the turnaround points.  The most popular distance was the 5K with a lot of families and dogs taking to the course.  The Lexington Senior Center was the host location for the race which made for a nice warm place for pre and post race activities.  I chose the 10K course.   I started a little bit slower then what I had hoped for my first 2 miles.  I was looking to be at under 14 minutes at the 2 mile split and I was very close averaging a 7:02 mile pace.  At the turnaround point I was at an even 7:00 mile pace and saw that there were 4 people in front of me.  I decided not to worry about the other runners but instead to challenge myself to see if I could finish with a sub 7:00 minute average mile pace.  The heavy headwinds had me increasing my efforts to maintain the same pace.   At the finish my GPS had me just missing my goal with a 7:03 mile pace for 6.33 miles.  I though I had secured 5th overall but I was surprised to learn that the overall winner who clocked a blistering 38 minute finish time wasn’t registered for the race.  He was a bandit!   This moved me up to 4th overall still maintaining 1st place in my division.  The race directors were very engaged and friendly with all of the participants and did an outstanding job.  All participants received performance hoodies, finisher medals, and individual pumpkin pies.  Post race snacks were plentiful with most of the offerings of muffins, cookies, and cupcakes being home made by volunteers.   I have no doubt this race will continue to grow.  I certainly plan to return next year!