Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 2017: so many blessings!

What a way to end a long season! While I started right away with a fast ultra at the beginning of February (Jed Smith 50K in 3:19:59) and ran 18 races this year, including 1 marathon (podium at Boston!) and 12 ultra marathons, I like to get back to some speed before my yearly break.

Today was my 51st 10K race in my log but only my 8th one at this event, although I'm proud these were consecutive (2010-2017). I say only because nobody can beat Carl Guardino at his own game, Carl being the founder of this wonderful event for our community. As the head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, he can be really proud of the tenure and impact of this race which is gathering close to 25,000 participants year after year, and raising close to 1 million dollars each year for local charities. A double dip of getting us healthier and sharing our wealth with others in need! Leading by example, Carl has run each of the 13 editions, competing in the CEO Challenge (5K).

I don't recall why I missed the first edition, I was just back from a business trip to Europe that Thanksgiving weekend but the race wasn't on my radar yet. As a matter of fact I had run the Home Run 10K in Palo Alto 2 weeks earlier, then CIM (California Internal Marathon) beginning of December, that was already a lot back then.

In 2006 I started running ultra marathons and got hooked with the Pacific Association Ultra Grand Prix which includes the famous Quad Dipsea race, 2 days after Thanksgiving. I was still learning a lot about ultra running and wasn't going to push it on a 10K two days earlier!

In 2007 I was in France for the popular Saintélyon, a 69K race by night, between Saint-Etienne and Lyon. Back to Quad Dispea in 2008 but, in 2009 I went for the double, running both the Elite 5K race at the Turkey Trot and Quad Dispsea 2 days later, phew! So that makes 9 consecutive Turkey Trot participations actually, may well go for 10 next year!

Back to 2017, the main new news is that I had missed getting IBM to sponsor the race, after a successful 4-year round at it. To my surprise though, while warming up and jogging toward the main field to see the elite races, I discovered that the main stage banners still had the IBM logo on them so I think this is a strong message from SVLG that we have to come back... I'll pass the non-subliminal message to the people now in charge!

As the tradition goes, Mark Winitz was overseeing the proper execution of the women and men elite races while the 23,000-strong crowd was gathering in their respective corrals. I must say that it's too bad people don't realize there are world-class athletes to watch in town that morning (few spectators), but how inspiring to see these athletes flying and zipping by, before we get to push the envelope ourselves.

Even more impressive and inspirational was to see Jose Pina Jr now part of this elite field (2nd yellow top). I did compete with him when he was younger, along with his father, Jose Pina Sr, I'm super impressed to see him now running for San Jose State and clocking a 14:49 (4:47 pace) today!

I just had a glimpse of the women race, but was able to see the men twice, before it was time for me to warm-up and get to the remote start line. See this short video clip from the second lap:

At 8:25 the only wheelchair competitor was sent off by himself, then it was our turn at 8:30, after Carl was asked to leave the mic and stage to get lined up with us. This year again the 5K and 10K were both ran simultaneously, making pacing super tricky at the start since you don't know who is going for 3.1 miles only versus the whole 6.2 miles of the 10K. I admit I got caught into the excitement this time and was astonished when I realized my Garmin GPS watch was indicating 5:10 min/mile after the first turn, yikes! No wonder why I was gasping for air already! Sometimes we say "and from then, it was all down hill!" Well, for me today, from there it was all up hill. Not the course profile which is super flat except for 2 dips under a bridge at mile 3.2 and 5.5, but the perceived effort.

Resetting a pace is really tough when you start too fast, not to mention when you don't know who you are racing against (between the mix of 5K and 10K runners on one hand, and all the unknown faces at these popular races). To make the matter worse, the mile markers looked to me, or rather my watch, quite off this time, on the short/early side, like by 0.08 to 0.06 depending on the mile. If 8 or 6% don't seem a lot to you that may be because you are not trying hard enough! ;-) When you are running hard against the clock, 80 or 100 yards make quite a difference. As it turned out, though, I think the course ended up 0.1 mile too short so that was a great opportunity to get a PR!

After a few turns, I had lost sight of what was happening at the front. Once we passed the corner of the SAP Center at mile 3, a large chunk of the pack turned toward the finish of the 5K, phew! Way less people ahead but I was clocking 5:40 to 5:45 miles so I wasn't surprised when a volunteer said, if I heard correctly, that I was in 25th position. It was around mile 3.5 and a young runner, on my side, suggested we close the gap with the three runners ahead. I wish I could accelerate but we were already running 5:40-5:45 and I didn't have the stamina to get back under 5:30 this year. I'm super happy to report that, in the next 2 miles, he was able to not only close the gap but passed these older guys and finish 6th overall at 17, congratulations, Jeffrey Xu!

Ah, so if Jeffrey was 6th, there weren't 24 runners ahead of us after all. Indeed, looking at the results published this afternoon (kudos to Race Central for their speed in posting!), I finished 9th overall, 2nd Master, and 1st in the M50-54 age group with an age-graded performance of 88.22%. Very pleased with my time of 34:57 although slightly disappointed by the fact that I (and others) believe the course was slightly too short. Which would explain why this is my fastest time on this course (my times since 2010: 35:05, 35:20, 35:12, 36:09, 35:41, 35:49, 36:10, all within 35:35 +/- 40" for some consistency!).

Here are key stats to summarize my run (Strava activity):

And the Relive.cc 3D-flyover which will make you relive our quick journey through downtown San Jose:

After this great work out, and good sweat given the warm temperature for the season (65F!), it was time to socialize with friends!

I first ran into my IBM colleague, Jérôme, who had just finished his 5K and was waiting for the rest of the family.

Then we gathered near the main stage, to meet with the Run For Valentine group participating in memory of Valentine, Tanguy and Virginie's daughter who died in a tragic car accident 5 days before Thanksgiving, 4 years ago. (Photo: Anouchka Gaillard.)

I also had a long chat with Ethan Veneklassen who, among many endeavors around our sport, directs the super competitive and challenging Broken Arrow races in Squaw Valley, one week before Western States.

Then a few Stevens Creek Striders, Bill here with Agnès, but also Mike and Hugo at the 10K finish.

We drove back home and I went for another 10K in 42' flat. I'm 53 miles from my yearly goal of 3,240 miles which correspond to a 100 km/week average, but I'm going to take a break now as, big decision and scoop, I decided to go OFM (Optimized Fat Metabolism) with Peter Defty's help and guidance. A strict diet in the family of LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) and Keto, with adjustments to take into account the specifics of ultra running at high intensity.

I'll certainly share more about this significant endeavor over the coming weeks and months, the ultra experiment continues...

Overall, so many blessings to be grateful for on this special day: family, friendships, health, success, local opportunities. It's sad to say, we just need to take some distance with the politics happening in DC which get our country so many years backward, and look up at our Californian blue sky to keep hope in the future. Starting with wishing for more rain in December, or even starting this Sunday as forecasted. The people in Silicon Valley rock, keep leading and inspiring!