Keyworth Turkey Trot 2019
In a fit of excitement while we were over in the US we booked ourselves in for the Keyworth Turkey Trot to round off the year’s minimal racing. Lazing on a hotel bed in Austin it all seemed far enough away for us to have loads of time to prepare and smash it.
83 days later and it was upon us. Both of use were feeling a bit undertrained, I’d only been ove 13 miles once, and Mrs BeestonRunner hadn’t. Blaming work for this, a very short staffed team at work for me, and a new job in the NHS for Mrs BeestonRunner meant we’d not gotten as much in as we’d wanted and were both feeling tired and suffering from niggling colds!
Hearing roaring winds and rain overnight didn’t do much for our minds, but Sunday dawned bright, cold, breezy and dry. At least I wasn’t having to brush snow off of the car like I did for our last half marathon at Retford.
Very short drive across from Beeston to Keyworth, so not suprising that over 40 Beeston AC members had turned up for the race. Overall there were about 950 starters. A tiny rain shower got everyone worried, but it soon cleared up and that was the last rain we saw
Start was just a mass gathering, no time pens so just stand where you thought things would workout. Start was scheduled for 10:30, but was delayed while we waited for the Keyworth Connection bus to clear the route
And we were off. First 3 miles felt good. I was holding myself back trying to stick to about 7 minutes a mile and keeping an eye on my Heart Rate as well. Then a large hill loomed up! People had talked about the hills, but with only a squeezed elevation plot to go on I’d not thought much of them. This one was quite large! Steeper than anything at Retford or Worksop halves any way
Got to the top and got my breath back as we dropped into Wysall. Nice to get a bit of vocal encouragment here from Beeston CC out on their sunday club run.
Just after the halfway point at Willoughby on the Wolds we turned back towards Keyworth and the wind made itself known along with another lump. There was a bit of changing of sides of the road to be run on, the rules said left, but right feels more ‘right’ as I was taught in the Scouts, and it was nice to run on the opposite camber for a bit to give the left leg a bit of a break
At mile 10 the wheels came off. Legs and lungs weren’t happy and I was fighting off the urge to just walk a little bit. 3 lumps of Clif Blox were forced down and the sugar eventually kicked in, or just the amount of chewing took my mind off of things for long enough, and I was moving along. Slower than before, but definitely forwards
A fast drop back into Keyworth, and a sharp left into a residential area for the last half a mile. Of uphill! Bit of a sting in the tail here as it was hard to gauge how far you had left to go until finally another left hander showed the finish line. Unfortunately the wind mean no traditional finishing arch as it wouldn’t have stayed there for very long
A time of 1:32:06. Happy with that given the lack of training, the hills and the amount of snot I left along the course. Bodes well for when next years proper training starts off after Christmas.
Nice buff as the memento, great to have something different from a technical shirt. Free coffee and soup helped get the temperature back. And I happened to get lucky and find the free massage when there wasn’t a queue. The 10 minutes from Keyworth’s Movement Matters Sport & Remedial Massage really seems to have helped the legs feel human the day after
A good event, and I’ll give it another go but be a bit better prepared for the course. Here’s a better quality elevation profiles, just in case anyone else wants one: