Encenitas Turkey Trot

I came in 5th place for my age group and 101st overall at the 2025 Encenitas Turkey Trot. Was it my fastest race? No - 8 seconds slower than the Rino 5k I ran in September. But I felt almost none of my typical post race self loathing.

Some logistics for anyone running this in the future: this race is massive. Over 6000 runners and another 1000 spectators crowd the tiny main street of Encenitas, north of San Diego and right on the Pacific.

I picked up my bib a day early because of daily email prompting from the race organizers warning of long race day lines. This was probably fake news as they say.

I arrived at the parking area next to the train station at 7 am and had no trouble getting a spot, fitting in a porta potty visit and two mile warm up run with three .05 mile strides. Had I been so inclined, I easily could have picked up my race bib as well as gotten a coffee at a shop near the start.

I set my watch to auto lap every quarter mile. The theory here was this would allow me to keep my paces a bit tighter on the 5k course.

The start was congested so unless you are right up front it will be hard to PR on this course. The plus side of the crowd was that I had no choice but to stick to my conservative start strategy.

The course is an out and back with some rolling hills, which impacts pacing. The run is along the coast so it's quite lovely.

This is the first race I've worn headphones for. I'm in my I question all that is holy era.

I started slow, 7:24 for the first quarter and tried to be disciplined about speeding up while leaving enough in the tank for a strong finish. While not my PR, I met my goal of not blowing up, racing smart, and getting faster as the race went on.

This next year of running will focus on racing without self loathing. I'm going to set conservative goals and allow myself to feel awesome when I surpass them.