I woke up bright and early on Thanksgiving morning to burn off the calories before I piled them on at Thanksgiving dinner by running the Prospect Park 5 miler Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot is a small race with only 2,500 runners trotting their way through Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
I laid out my gear the night before to make sure that I didn’t wake up the whole house on a morning where everyone else got to sleep in a bit. I ran in my Swiftwick socks, Altra shoes and Free Motion gear for the first time in a race, and I was super comfy the whole way through! At least, as comfy as you can be running a hilly 5 miles. 🙂
We arrived at the race bright and early because we still had to pick up our packets. Packet pickup went very smoothly and we even got some cool neck warmers/hats which came in handy because it was a chilly morning at the start line. I also used the bag drop for the first time at a race, and that went off without a hitch, as well.
At 9AM, we were off. We all ran together for a bit and then we all fell into our own running grooves and parted ways. I felt great for the first two miles and cruised the whole way, but around mile three my left foot started bothering me a bit on the decent from the hills. It kind of made me angry because I was struggling up the hills and couldn’t get a rest going down because my foot was hurting. I need to work on the mental aspect of running races because I get caught up and focus on one little thing and it throws my groove off horribly.
The rest of the race flew by. There was only one portion where we crossed the same part of course twice, so it was nice to have a constantly changing scenery. I also loved that there was a ton of people out playing with their dogs. Happy puppies make me happy.
The finish line was packed with lots of spectators, which made finishing all the better. There is nothing like crossing a finish line with a bunch of people yelling and cheering you on, even when you’re finish with a time of 1:03:36, which isn’t exactly gold medal time. Best feeling ever. On the way out I grabbed my finisher’s medal (which is so so sweet looking) and headed up the hill to grab some post race fuel. There were tables set up with lots of volunteers handing out apples, bagels, hot chocolate and water.
Overall, the race was very well organized and a lot of fun to run. I can’t wait until next year where I will beat my time, fo sho!
Did you run a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving?
Great job on those hills! I know what you mean about focusing on one thing that’s bothering you. When something starts to bother me during a run, I think of all of the things going well, and I focus my attention on those things instead. If it’s really bad, I go to my mantra, and just repeat it, or I even just count my steps until I forget about what’s bothering me.
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I’m really bummed I didn’t think to run this race until the night before. Next year!
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