Iroquois Thanksgiving Run - Race Report

The Iroquois Hill Runners Thanksgiving Day Run is in the books! I ran 35:45 for the 5-mile distance on a beautiful morning in Louisville, good for 48th place overall. Temps were about 32 degrees at race start, and the course was modified due to some downed trees the night before.

I'm happy with the result and loved the race. It was nice to go into this with a few recent runs under my belt, whereas there have been too many since college where the training is basically nonexistent. I was probably averaging two runs a week leading up to race day, which is very far from ideal (even for a busy schedule) but a lot better than two runs a month. 

My first mile was a little too slow (around 7:49) as I tried to feel out my pace without blowing up. Since I averaged 7:09 overall, that opening tempo definitely could have been a touch more aggressive. The course was an out-and-back; I didn't actually check my halfway split, but things were a little wild after the turnaround with different runners from the 5K and the 5-miler going different directions without any particular delineation of traffic flow - again, this was a last-minute course change and we all made it work. By about mile 3.5, the traffic flow was orderly again. 

Overall, the course was pretty continual gently rolling hills, some tougher than others. My lowest point physically was during Mile 5 on the last major climb before the last descent and mostly flat finish. I was getting a little worried about my breathing, which I just couldn't get under control as I continued to try to push uphill. I ended up slowing down a little as I approached the top - I'm not sure if that was necessary in hindsight - but you probably could have heard me wheezing and heaving for air from a hundred yards away. I recovered enough to accelerate again on the downhill, and then it was just a long and brutal push to the finish.

It felt just wonderful to be done, and to enjoy a post-race hot chocolate, muffin, and granola bar. 

I really like the 5-mile distance, having now raced it twice. My first time was nine years ago (wow!) in the 2016 Cleveland Turkey Trot, where I ran 30:08. At that point, I was running 40-50 miles per week and in the middle of marathon training. It was also a pretty well flat course. It's pretty stunning to compare, but the training begets the results. Leading up to this race, I was running 0-15 miles per week. 

The next obvious milestone is getting back under 7:00 per mile. I can now see that sub-35 is absolutely attainable; I think that with a better 1st mile, and a little less weaving in and out of traffic, this race could have been closer to 35:00 than 36:00. One thing I've learned over the years is that running progress usually seems to come more slowly than I expect it to, but even with that in mind, I could realistically target sub-35 in the spring. 

Next up, I'd like to run the St. Malachi 5-miler in Cleveland coming up in March, with a goal of seeing how far I can dip below 35. I'd like to get into a routine of 3 focus races each year - March, July, November, each 4 months apart. March and November would be shorter races (5 miles!) with a longer endurance effort in July (eventually, Lord-willing, the Burning River 50 miler). My vision is something like...

March '26: Sub-35

July '26: 50K Run

November '26: Sub-34

March '27: Sub-33:30

July '26: Burning River 50

I wonder how many years of steady training it would take to get back to PR shape in the 5-miler. Four years? Five? I think it would be really neat to get all the way back down to 30 flat, and then dip under 30 in a 5-miler one of these years.

Anyway, this was a good first step! Thanks to all the volunteers at Iroquois Park! I'd love to do this race again, and on the usual course, which involves a big uphill (like a mile long), a loop at the top of the park, and then back down. 

My plan moving forward is as follows:

1. Take the rest of Thanksgiving weekend off.
2. Since I didn't really have an actual training block to recover from, start training Monday for the St. Malachi Run.
3. Stop writing more plans that I never end up following. Just do what I did at my running best in college, and start training consistently. Train a few times a week all through the winter - maybe it's only twice in crazier weeks, and maybe it can get up to 6 on routine weeks! The more the better. Just keep getting out there. If I can average 3-4 solid runs a week, that'll get me up to 10-20 mpw. That would be a great and reasonable next step. 
4. Break 35:00 on March 14th!