Since today is packet pick-up for the Ashburn Farm Thanksgiving Day 2K/5K/10K, I thought I’d write a recap of the previous years that Bill and I have run in this local Thanksgiving morning turkey trot.  We estimate that we’ve run the race about 10-15 times, and some of our friends have run it every year.   Originally I think they offered the 10K and a 1-mile fun run, but now they have a 10K, 5K, and 2K.  The race has grown to a pretty decent sized field of over 2,500 runners over the past twenty years.  The race is put on by the local Methodist church as a fundraiser to support needy children in Uganda.  The money goes to pay for tuition, supplies, and other school related items.

My first photo I can find from this race was taken in 1997.  I ran the 10K just five days after running the JFK 50-Mile Ultramarathon. I proudly wore my shirt, and hoped that everyone would have pity on me if I limped!

1997TurkeyTrotDeb

1997

Bill didn’t run the race that year, so he was out with his camera and snapped pictures of the race.  Here are the serious (and wanna be serious) runners toeing the line just as the race started.

1997TurkeyTrotStart

Bill also snapped this photo of me with my running girlfriends. That’s Susan in purple (we go way back), and two of our other friends hidden behind Susan and the girl in black. I have no idea how fast we ran this race, but it looks like we were booking! I’m inspired to contact the church and see if they still have race results from those early races since I can’t find them online!

1997TurkeyTrot

1997

In 1999 I placed second in my age group in the 10K with a time of 47:05 (7:34 pace). The thing that I remember about that morning was that at the starting line one of my running friends and I were talking. She mentioned that she was glad that she was older than me and that I wouldn’t be competition for her. I suspected that we were close to the same age, so I asked her when her birthday was. We were tickled to discover that we were both born on the very same day and there was only about four hours difference in our age!

1999

1999 – Medal Back

In 2010, my friend Lolly ran her very first race, and I was honored to run it with her! She and I ran the 10K together in 1:00:55 (9:48 pace).

2010TurkeyTrotDeb

2010

The Cruisers had a great turnout that year. Apparently, if I promise to feed them after the race, they will run!

2010TurkeyTrotCruisersBeforeRace

2010 Cruisers

Bill finished in front of us and and snapped a picture as we approached the finish line.  More importantly, check out the girl on the left sprinting past us.  I love her effort!

2010TurkeyTrotFinish

2010 Finish Line

After the race, we headed back to our house for our first annual Thanksgiving morning post-race breakfast.  We serve things like muffins, crumb cake, fresh fruit, and mimosas!

2010TurkeyTrotBreakfast

It was a big hit, even though I made everyone put on the race shirts for a photo!

2010TurkeyTrotBreakfastCruisers

2010 First Annual Post-Race Breakfast

Last year I broke the 10K tradition and signed up to run the 5K with my friend Jessica in her very first race ever, and we finished in 40:27 (13:01 pace).  It ended up being a very good idea because we got to watch the crowd’s reaction to seeing a turkey run with us.  After the race I posted the following picture on my Facebook, and people commented that they didn’t see me, but that they had seen the turkey!

2012TurkeyTrotCruisersBeforeRace

2012 Cruisers

As you can tell from the picture, last year’s race was on a gorgeous day. Here’s the start of the 5K race.

2012TurkeyTrotStart

We ran between two really cool balloon turkeys that marked the starting line, and we were off!

2012TurkeyTrotBalloonTurkey

After Jessica and I crossed her very first 5K finish line, her daughter caught this awesome picture of us!

JessicaFinishLineHug

We hung around to watch some of the other runners cross the finish line, including our favorite turkey runner!

2012TurkeyTrotFinishLine
And finally, here are some of the shirts that Bill and I still have. Because they are long sleeved cotton, I don’t know if I’ve ever worn mine since I discovered technical fabrics!

2008TurkeyTrotShirt

2008

2010TurkeyTrotShirt

2010

 

2012TurkeyTrotShirt

2012

 

2013TurkeyTrotShirt

2013 shirt for tomorrow’s race

  • Questions:
  • Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving morning race?
  • Do you and your friends/family ever celebrate post-race with a special breakfast?
  • Do you have a favorite repeat race that you run?