Fantastic weather brought out a great turnout for the 2012 Turkey Trot. 60 degrees and bright sunshine brought out 7000 runners.

I have done this race for the last few years, have had some solid races, but a win has always alluded me. 2011 I got second by a few seconds, so was hoping to notch a win in 2012. Got a solid warm up,  started in front row, and as gun went off, I felt like I had to keep a solid pace or get mowed down!! My niece started in the back row – She said it took almost 5 minutes to reach the starting line! First mile was under a 6 minute mile pace, I knew that was too fast, tried to slow it down some, but with people passing me left and right- it was tough. Second mile slowed it down some, but was feeling good. As I hit mile 4 could tell I had gone out to hard – but was still well under my goal time pace (32 minutes) – ½ a mile from finish, out of the corner of my eye – I recognized a guy from Berea in my age group, who I had battled with in several local 5k’s (heavy breather at Tallmadge 5k). He was coming on strong, and as much as I wanted to pick it up – I was at my limit. The bad thing, he had another guy from my age group on his heels.

I ended up 3rd in my age group (out of 160), 135th overall (out of 7000). I still ended up with a new PR of 31.55- a 6.23 pace, 45 seconds faster than 2011- so hard to be disappointed- there’s always next year!

Ken Frankenbery