Detroit Turkey Trot 10K 2009

The Detroit Turkey Trot for 2009 has come and gone. Although as of right now the results have gone into some digital never-never land. They were there, I got screen shots, went back to check on some other runners and now nothing is available. (Update about 8:30 pm they came back.)

I have to hand it to those people that are willing (and able to) run the entire race in these outfits

This is always a fun race to be part of. Many people come in costume, and there are awards for the best ones. In the photo album you will see some of them, but the photographer felt some of the best were not captured. I have to hand it to those people that are willing (and able to) run the entire race in these outfits, even if it is “only” the 5K. Some look very hot, others just physically difficult to actually run in.

“The Detroit Turkey Trot 10K 2009 Photo Album will be posted when it is complete!” It’s ready now!

This year we managed to avoid the hour long wait in line to get into a parking garage by bypassing all the cars waiting to get into Cobo Hall parking structure. Instead we went directly under Cobo coming out of the tunnel a couple blocks away and went straight to a garage by the Renaissance Center. While that was great, we were now quite early! We hiked over a couple blocks to Cobo Hall and hung out getting some coffee and using the bathroom and keeping warm. Oh, did I mention it was 36 degrees with about a 30 mile per hour wind. Brrr… I had checked the temperature before leaving home and thought I would be okay with a regular shirt and shorts along with arm warmers, gloves and a head band. If I had known about the wind I would have added tights to that list. Since I didn’t have them I ended up leaving the warm up pants on for the race. Ended up okay, legs did get a little warm, but maybe better than to cold and stiff.

The Detroit Turkey Trot 2009 flyer.

The official bib number.

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As last year the place was packed! With 14,000 people registered they ended up with 12420 finishers! A lot of people crowding into the same space, both indoors and on the course.
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So… after the race was over, without a PR unfortunately, we found each other in the hoards of people in Cobo Hall basement… remembering this year to take cell I phones! (I even wore the SPI Belt to carry my cell phone for after the race!) We took our walk back to the parking garage, where being early had gotten a close parking place, and got into the car, started it up and pulled out into the aisle… where we sat for over fourty five minutes before we moved even one car length. Seems they opened the exit above us, and every car in the parking garage from the higher decks got through the one exit booth before our floor did. Finally after one hour and twenty minutes we were able to pay our money (which included an hour time @ $4.00 waiting to get out) and hit the road for home again. While I felt I ended up higher in the overall and age group standings the time was a couple of minutes off my best effort to date. Maybe the warm up pants slowed me down, or maybe I just have been doing to many “easy runs” and absolutely no speed work in months. The final stats from Active.com web site are below.

The official final stats.

    • …. and this breaks down into these numbers for the race:
    • a) 10 kilometers = 6.1 Miles
    • b) finished 3456 out of 6579 overall in the 10K.
    • c) finished 24 out of 68 in my age group.
    • d) finished 2284 out of 3511 men.
    • e) had a 10:01 pace, 1:00:14 total chip time.
    • f)

You can see the full details on the running stats web page.

    h) had a great time – which is always the goal right?… Right!

Until the final gobbler is gobbled,

George

Detroit Turkey Trot – The rest of the story.

I wrote in the last post about the new technology used, the disposable RFID chip on a strip. I also noted that the “Chip Timed Start” . . . did not start!

In the last post I wrote:

UPDATE 11/30/2008:
Attn: Active.Com

I just wrote the following email to the Active.Com web site contact regarding the chip timed start issues. Will see what happens.

================= Start of eMail Sent ==================
UPDATE 11/30/2008:
Greetings,

I am writing to ask about getting my time for the Detroit Turkey Trot 10K adjusted.
It seems that my chip did not get recorded at the start of the race, and included the time from the gun to when I actually was able to cross the timing mat.

My bib number was 4683, and the time posted was 01:01:38.
My stop watch time was 00:58:02.
As confirmation I have a picture of me crossing the start line at 8:04:54
https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/2008/detroit-turkey-trot-10k-2008/#more-384

The difference is not the entire 4:54, since I believe a video I have also shows the race gun did not sound until about 8:01:22 (approximately, you may know the actual start time showing on the clock.)
The difference of the two is about 3:33, which when subtracted from the finish time of 1:01:38, gives a time of 58:25, much closer to my stop watch time of 58:02.

Also, if other nearby runners were recorded I have pictures showing I cross the start line next to runners with the bib numbers: 6230, 1612, 5719 and 3546

Bottom line is can my time be adjusted to reflect the true elapsed time of 58:02 (or 58:25, or if available the actual start time of the runners listed above.) so the “historical” records kept on your web site are more in line with the actual time.

Thanks for the assistance, and looking forward to a reply,

George Kasdorf
===================End of eMail sent ======================
Today I received a response from Gault Race Management.
What do you suppose they had to say about this?

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Detroit Turkey Trot 10K 2008

Another race in the books! Today was the Detroit Turkey Trot. I entered the 10K race, there was also a 5K and a mile run.
The day started off pretty good, meaning we all got up and in the car right on time for the drive into Detroit. Very little traffic at 6:30 am on all the expressways so had smooth sailing. gyümölcsös nyer?gépes játékok That is until we got to the final off ramp to Cobo Arena Parking…. It seems when 10,000 people all try to get into the same parking garage inside of maybe an hour, it just doesn’t work so well. Finally we were down to 15 minutes to race start. I am SO glad I went the day before to pick up my bib and chip!! nyer?gépes játék letöltése ingyen Really!

I was in the wrong lane to get to most of the garages, but my two copilots noticed a small sign for public parking at the GM Renaissance Center – on the right – three lanes over… so, around the u-turn, back the other side of the median, another u-turn (I never saw that sign that said “No U-Turn here”, honest.) Into the correct lane, into the garage, up a couple of floors, grab the backpack with gear, down to the street, and we all hustled over to the start line. Getting there with about 4 minutes to spare! I stripped off the warm ups and jacket, added the ear warmers and jumped into line. tippmix sportfogadás szelvény
Whew.
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Interesting Running Stuff – Latest Tech

Tomorrow is the Detroit Turkey Trot, and I have entered the 10K race. Today I went and picked up the packet of “stuff” which includes the Tee Shirt and Bib Number.

Detroit Turkey Trot 10K November 27 2008

Most races use a “hard” chip such as the Champion Chip. A disc about the size of a quarter and about .250 inch thick and has slots to run shoe laces through (or plastic ties) to secure the chip to the shoe. This works great, and you can even purchase your own chip if you like. They have only a few downsides. One is that if you lose it, or forget to remove it from your shoe they charge you $30 for it. Ouch. The other is at most races there are marshal’s right at the end of the line that stop you and remove the chip. While they remove it for you, normally I am huffing and puffing and do not really feel like standing there and waiting for them to remove and retie my shoe. It doesn’t take all that long, but when I can barely stand anyway……
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