2nd annual City of Conroe Turkey Trot 5K; Cook takes Masters Male

The day after Thanksgiving, Rick Cook, Bill Dwyer and myself met at Luke's Locker in The Woodlands at 6:45 a.m. to take part in the second race of the Montgomery County Thanksgiving Triple -- the 2nd annual City of Conroe Turkey Trot 5K!

I don't even remember where I originally saw the event listed before going to find it on the City of Conroe's website. We got there a little after 7 a.m. and met up with our good friend, Andrew Perry, who is a Caney Creek HS graduate and works at Luke's Locker.

As we made our way back in to Joe Barton Park, we saw that Andrew already had the Luke's start and finish scaffolding that was up for the Koala/Luke's Houston Half Marathon (and two weekends ago at Run The Woodlands 5K #165.)

All three of us registered and then spoke at length to Andrew's cousin, Scott Perry, who works for the City of Conroe and ran the event last year. (They had 9 runners.)

This year, they got Luke's involved as well as Chick-fil-A in Conroe (1321 W. Davis St.) and a couple of other local business including Willis Spine & Rehab as well as the Trophy House in Conroe. They did the really nice awards for the event.

The race was a cross country course that included two loops around the park's softball, baseball and soccer fields. It was pretty flat - much on par to the cross country race that I did back in September at Bear Branch Park in The Woodlands - and had some concrete trails and sand on the course.

Since the scaffolding structures were set far apart in a clearing between these two tree lines, I had the chance to toe the starting line without interfering with any faster runners. (And did I pay after a couple of tenths of a mile for the too quick of a start.)

I passed the first mile marker in 9:58.49. I thought to myself that maybe I shouldn't have done those 2 miles last night, but it was more that Waverly needed the work and I hadn't run on the grass surface that far in awhile.

I eventually made it through the first loop in 16:12.19 - knowing that it wasn't going to be a promising overall time.

Just after starting the second loop and before I reached the mile 2 marker, I saw Bill walking back with his camera. He said that he had a charley horse in his right leg and that he couldn't continue.

I made it to the mile 2 marker at 20:41.89 -- a second mile of 10:43.40. However, I now had company! There were three runners -- two young ladies (in their 20's) and their dad. They were having a nice little conversation going on and me -- well, I could have talked but I was a little bent that they were drafting off of me.

I stayed to the white chalking in the grass almost at all times, which put me in the middle of the route. However, once when I thought they were going to pass me, I went to the closest tangent (to also avoid running in some sand.) But it was to be short-lived.

At what I would estimate to be about 2.9 miles, one of the daughters went past me. In the last .05 mile, I got pipped by the other daughter and the father.

Mile three came in at 11:20.74 while the last tenth a mile went down in 1:09.37 for a total time of 33:12.00.

We stayed around and chatted for quite a bit. Andrew made sure that we got T-shirts. (They gave one to everybody that pre-registered, which is completely fair.) However, what was funny is that they made an announcement that they were going to sell any that they had left for $8.

I understand all about ordering to make sure that you have enough, etc. I told Bill that if they didn't have enough to go around for everyone that pre-registered to do a "have to be present to win" drawing. About 10 minutes later, Andrew (who we hadn't talked to) gave us each one as it is what they had leftover.

The sponsor - Trophy House - had some very well done age-group medals and engraved them on the back with "City of Conroe 5K Turkey Trot". They had them in gold, silver and bronze. My bronze one looks pretty nice!

Yes, that's right. I took third in my age group -- out of three! (I know as we help get the word out for them next year that it will change.)

Rick though not only took first in his age group, but he also won Masters Male! This earned him a trophy and a $25 gift certificate to Luke's Locker. (I think Rick's time was 24:09.) He'll race tomorrow and then begin his buildup for his third attempt at a 100-miler in February for Rocky Raccoon.

(It's 6:38 p.m. I get an e-mail. Cook wins a trophy with a gobbling turkey on top of it and he wants me to record his splits! 7:39, 7:28, 8:04 and 51 seconds for the 24:09.)

We had a great time and it is something that we'd love to get more people into doing with us next year!