On Thanksgiving Day 2014, I was lucky enough to be one of the 500 FREE registrants to be able to participate in the Hood to Coast Race Series (formerly Better Series) Turkey Trot in West Linn at Mary S. Young Park. The Turkey Trot is one of my favorite races of the year to do because everyone is pretty much in the same headspace – ‘work off, family, food’. Everyone is kind of abuzz in their own way over excitement over a day or two, potentially, off work.
There are a lot of races to choose from, but this one was a no-brainer for me due to its relative location to Thanksgiving brunch (my mom’s house in West Linn, yay!). Also, another item in the ‘pro’ list is that this race was FREE! I am not sure if this is something they will do again, but free is a pretty good price in my book. I also was able to register my toddler for their ‘1k’ kids race, he is almost 3 and pretty obsessed with “mommy running???” He always wants to come with me so I thought this would be a good start as any to his olympic running career.
We drove into the park about an hour before the race start, got our bibs, got my little guy to the race start and off we went! Many kids and parents running together, maybe a pack of 20. I have to say, I actually was a little nervous. Toddlers are not the most predictable bunch… But, he did great! He was second to last because he decided to stop midway and take off his jacket (we had words about this ;-). He finished with a huge smile on his face and I was definitely feeling the mama pride. He looked like a natural out there and it’s one of those moments that is going to stick with me forever.
Then we moved onto the actual 5k, which was called out as a 3mi run right before. I wasn’t feeling super picky about this one seeing as it was free and it was Thanksgiving. We took off, about 200 of us, and before I knew it we were taking an unexpected loop through the parking lot. “Hmmm…..this doesn’t seem right”, I thought to myself, but I continued on anyways, making this same loop twice. Well, my gut was right, it was the wrong loop. After being urged by the emcee, I went ahead and made it onto the correct loop, which was supposed to loop twice. I went ahead and did both loops because I am all about doing the “right” thing. The course was hard to get around as the runners caught up to those who were walking both times around and the trails were pretty darn narrow for the amount of people there. But, oh well! I had a great time and I think it just reminded me to not take things too seriously and just have a good time – the way a Turkey Trot should be!
I finished up the race and had run about 3.6mi (the more the merrier, a lot of food to be consumed) and collected my lovely diner-styled mug with the same logo you see above. We also got goodie bags! Wow, a full pumpkin pie for each person in our family, plenty of different chip bags, beef jerky, a lot of grocery store snack odds and ends. I was a little caught off guard by this as we hadn’t paid for the race – but fine by me. I deeply appreciated not getting a race shirt and the mug instead. The mug is really nicely made and heavy duty, wonderful!
This was a great race and I wonder what they will do with it next year. I liked the small feel of it and the volunteers were wonderful as usual. I also really enjoyed the emcee, to be honest. He was pretty funny.
Until next year!
