Eat Drink Run Woman

I’ve been dying to do this race for several years. Started in the early 30s, the Whistler International Turkey Trot has grown to more than 25,000 participants. As with the New York Marathon, they receive far more entries than they can handle (more than 55,000 this year alone), so they instituted a lottery system about five years ago.

Although I really wanted to run the race last year, since I was running the Seattle half marathon three days later, I decided to hold off. Good thing too, considering the amount of snow that got dumped on the village (I wasn’t looking forward to running in snow boots). But I was thrilled to see my name chosen this year; must be first-timer’s luck!

While most turkey trots are 5Ks, the Whistler Turkey Trot is 5 miles (I think it has something to do with the exchange rate). Fine with me — it meant I could justify one more slice of pie. The race starts at the end of our condo’s driveway (score!), and heads down Blackcomb Way to the entrance of Lost Lake Park. At first it seemed race organizers lost Lost Lake — we backtracked several times and had to loop around a parking lot — but finally we got on the trail that winds along the lake.

It was a glorious sunny, crisp day. The run was very quiet and serene (well, as quiet and serene as can be given there were 24,999 other runners) with gently rolling hills. Although I wore my Garmin I decided not to monitor my pace; I just let my body decide how fast it wanted to go. I crossed the finish line, feeling like I had put in a terrific effort. I glanced at Garmin to see I finished in 47 minutes, 58 seconds. Not my fastest, certainly, but I’ll live with it!

As I made it toward the refreshment tables I was thrilled to see a meat, cheese and vegetable platter waiting for me, along with an ice cold beer. I had been pretty hungry going into the race, and this was just the sustenance I needed.

The race results were posted within an hour; as I was scanning the names I was shocked to see I not only came in first in my age group, I came in FIRST OVERALL! I couldn’t believe it! Talk about beginner’s luck! Truly a race for the history books.

What’s that? You’ve never HEARD of the Whistler International Turkey Trot? Well, I can assure you it’s quite popular. Hmmm? When you click on the race link you don’t get anything? Well, it’s not MY problem your computer is broken. Huh? Why would Canada hold a turkey trot when Thanksgiving is an American holiday? How am I supposed to know? Must be because of all the American tourists. Excuse me? You don’t think Whistler could handle 25,000 people at once? Goes to show how much you DON’T know. Haven’t you heard the 2010 Olympics are going to be there? They’ll get WAY more than 25,000 people then, mister/miss smarty pants.

WHAT? You think I’m just making the whole thing up? You think because I had such a lousy skiing experience I’m just trying to boost my ego by claiming I won the race when in actuality I was the ONLY person running? I can’t believe you’d say such a thing. You’re just mean. I’m going to take my blog and go home.

HARRUMPH

We interrupt this blog post for the following announcement:

“Happy 7-year anniversary Pooky Darling! Thank you for an absolutely FABULOUS trip. I love you!”

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog post.

I’m sure no one forgets their first marathon, but the Marathon du Medoc is exceptionally memorable. Perhaps I’ve now set the bar so high — every marathon from this point on will pale in comparison — but I prefer to think this fabulous experience merely assures there’ll be more marathons in my future.

As many of you know, I’ve been planning this trip for more than a year. I read about the Marathon du Medoc in a “Runner’s World” article on the most fun marathons in the world, and given it combines two of our favorite pastimes — running and drinking wine — we were immediately hooked. Add on a few days in Paris and we now had an extraordinary trip to celebrate our 7-year anniversary.

Every article I read raved about the marathon, but I then stumbled across Vince’s blog on last year’s race. Mind you, he too had an incredible time, but temperatures in the 90s and a water shortage diminished the fun (during the first half of the race there was more wine available than water!) I was undeterred, but planned accordingly. I made sure my costume could withstand the heat and I planned on carrying extra water.

The race limits the number of racers to 8,500 — less than a quarter of whom can be from countries other than France. Once I set my mind to something I can’t let it go, so I researched ways of assuring I’d get in this year. Marathon Tours of Boston not only offers a guaranteed entry, they also offer five nights’ stay in a hotel (which can also be especially hard to find during race weekend), along with tickets to the Milles Pate carbo-loading dinner the night before and the 9K recovery walk the day after. The itinerary also included two days of wine tasting at several of the chateaux.

While certainly not a cheap way to go, it sounded like a fun trip (although considering we aren’t “tour people,” I was concerned my darling wouldn’t get as much enjoyment as he would if we were to just go ourselves). Fortunately, my concerns were quickly allayed when we met the group for a 40-minute warm-up run along the Garonne River in Bordeaux on Thursday (there’ll be more on our Bordeaux itinerary in a future post). I think the fact we were all like-minded people (aka crazy runners) helped.

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Although I’ve run several races during my running career, the 5K distance is not one I gravitate toward. Sure, I’ve run the St. Patty’s Day dash several times, but it’s not officially a 5K (lately they bill it as “almost 3 1/2 miles” but I think the distance changes over the years). And of course one of my favorite runs — the outside loop of Greenlake — is basically a 5K at 3.2 miles. But a TRUE 5K? Just hasn’t happened. In fact, in looking through my race portfolio, I’ve found just a couple: Fremont in 1996, and possibly my very first race, the Teddy Bear Run in 1990.

Given my insane desire to qualify for Boston some day, I’ve decided to take baby steps and set new personal bests for certain runs. I knocked off a few of my Greenlake PBs a couple of weeks ago, but due to the heat I was unsuccessful in my attempt at a new PB for the half. So my next target was the 5K, and once again, I chose Fremont.

Fremont, which bills itself as the “Center of the Universe,” is one of the quirkier neighborhoods in Seattle (where else would you find a statue of Lenin and a troll under the bridge?) and the 5K truly highlights its eccentricities. The race starts with a briefcase relay — 5-person teams dressed from the waist up in regular business attire carrying a briefcase (each member runs a 1K). The fun run starts immediately after.

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Question: what has two thumbs and looks like a total dork? THIS GAL! I mean, really; could I have strapped any MORE gadgets to my body? Sheesh…

Anyhoo, all geekiness aside, I had an absolutely fabulous time on Saturday, despite not meeting my goal of a sub 2-hour half. I read about the Green River Marathon in the same Runner’s World article where I learned about the Marathon du Medoc (although I feel compelled to make a correction: the article states to not expect volunteers or aid stations at Green River as the race is more training run than actual race. Not true! While indeed there isn’t an entry fee, we were supported by some fabulous volunteers at several aid stations. We could even buy a commemorative t-shirt for just $12!).

I originally had hoped to do the race as a relay with my darling, but he had a photo assignment. So I asked the race director about doing it as a half, and he said “No problem!” I picked the latter half since it ends along Alki beach, which as you can see offers fabulous views of the city (and okay, I also was looking forward to the post-race lunch at Spud’s Fish & Chips). However, given how hot the day was to become, I probably would have been wiser to choose the first half. Oh well!

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I first heard about this race through the LUNA Chix message board when one member had to back out due to work. I offered my name as a replacement, but they went with someone else (a fatal error, I’m sure. They obviously didn’t realize what a bad-ass studdette muffin I am).

But once I get something in my head I can’t let it go. Years ago I ran the Hood to Coast relay and had an absolute blast. This race promised to be just as fun. With Hood to Coast, if your team needed a replacement, you could contact the coordinators and they’d match you up with a runner (or runners) looking for a team. Although the Mt. Si Relay didn’t mention such a program, I shot an email to the coordinator just in case. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I received an email from a team captain saying one of their members had to drop out due to injury. Hooray! (Let me clarify: “hooray” that I’m in; NOT because a team member became injured).

I was to be on one of three teams formed by a local running and fitness coach. Although everyone was serious about fitness, the group definitely put fun above competition. I was inspired by their stories; Coach Lesley had recently qualified for the Ironman competition in Kona (unfortunately a knee injury kept her from competing in the relay); Deanna, one of my team members, has run 59 marathons; and several other members were triathletes and marathoners. And in one of the “it’s a small world” coincidences, I had met our team captain Julie through a women’s networking function more than two and a half years ago.

Julie also happens to live close by, so we decided to carpool. Our wave started at 7 a.m., so we planned on having her pick me up at 5:30 in order to meet the other teams by 6:30 to pass out bibs and t-shirts (we also had to pick up another team member). Pre-race jitters started early, as on Friday night I dreamt I was sitting on my couch in my jammies — with nothing packed — when Julie arrived. The next night I dreamt it snowed more than a foot and a half, but I kept telling everyone it would melt away before the race start. (Fortunately neither of those scenarios came true.)

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