If you run the same race four years in a row, that solidified it as a tradition, right? Even if your cousins seriously consider staying in the car instead of running??
2019 was the fourth year that I ran the Garden City Turkey Trot, a tradition that my cousins and I started in 2016. Some years we make it to bib pickup on Wednesday night, and other years we are not so ambitious - this was one of those years.
Kasey, Ryan and I loaded into my car and headed to garden city on thanksgiving morning, all thinking of the cinnamon buns and egg sammys that would be waiting for us after our 5 mile adventure. Kasey was seriously re-evaluating her life choices, as she realized she could be soundly asleep instead of prepping for a run.
When we got to the start area, which is at a local school, we fought the wind as we made our way into the gym to pick up our bibs. It wasn’t a cold morning, especially when you consider that last year’s race was a real feel of 15 degrees, but the wind was whipping at around 15 mph. By the time we got inside, we felt like we were severely underdressed - and I had my running clothes covered with a full turkey onesie, so I had anticipated being warm if anything!
The race had texted us our bib numbers, so we were able to hop online and grab them quickly, and then headed to the other side of the gym to pick up our shirts. This year they were heather gray shirts with a red and yellow turkey print. Once we had all of our race gear we made the trek back to the car to drop off our shirts, and then relaxed in the car for a bit since we had some time to kill before we needed to be at the start line.
About 20 minutes before the start my friend Carson met me at the car, and she pulled on an outfit to match mine - a magnificent turkey onesie, which my Dad had found on clearance after thanksgiving last year. Dad had bought them thinking that Kasey would wear one, but when she downright refused, I had to call in backup for my costume shenanigans. We headed to the start line, and made it there with a few minutes to spare.
The national anthem was sung, one last bathroom stop was made, which caused us to loose Ryan for juuuuust long enough that we were among the last starters to get over the start line - there was going to be a lot of weaving ahead of us. I let the others know that we were going to be weaving, and then started the race with Ryan by my side, and Kasey and Carson just behind us.Ryan wound up taking the lead and I spent the first mile trying to keep up with him as we weaved through the crowd, tying to catch up to people running at a similar pace.
I had started the race with my costume zipped to the top, my Buff fleece headband om, and wearing a pair of wind-resistant turtle gloves, but by the time we finished the first mile I was taking off the gloves and headband, and stuffing them into my pocket. By mile two the amount of weaving we needed to do had decreased, but we kept a solid pace as we reached the half way point of the race. There was a water stop before mile three, and we were all gald to have a short break while we had a drink, as the wind was really drying us out The course laps passed the start line just before mile four, and Carson didn’t have time to run the full five miles, so she debated when to make her exit. It came as we approached the school, and she split from the crowd of runners to head home - I was glad that I had another turkey to run with for most of the race.
Ryan, Kasey and I continued running, and found out that the worst winds so far were when we headed west, directly in front of the school. We were all relieved when we turned a corner and the wind died down. There was one more official water stop in the last mile, but we wound up skipping it, since there had been an un-official one that was handing out cups of water earlier on the same road. Since the race was largely on residential roads, a lot of people were hanging out on their front lawns cheering, or offering runners water.
The last mile took us around the back side of the school, and put the wind at our backs. When we turned the final corner and could see the finish line, Ryan broke into a sprint. I started to try to keep up, but decided to fall back rather than risk irritating my knee. Ryan waited for me in the finisher area, and we found Kasey near the post-race refreshment table a few minutes later. The three of us grabbed a bottle of water each and a post-race bagel, and headed to the car.
All in all, I enjoyed another year of upholding our family tradition, and getting to run the turkey trot with my cousins.