2011 Scott County Family Turkey Trot, Davenport, Iowa

One may be thinking this. Really a race on Thanksgiving, WHY? If you are not a runner, then you clearly just don't understand. If you are a runner, then you were probably doing a Turkey Trot as well, or wishing you were doing one. I prepared well for this day. I had several things to bring my friend's home for Thanksgiving dinner and since I knew I'd be gone most of the morning for my race I prepared in advance. The banana bread was made a couple weeks ago and was frozen. On Tuesday night I boiled all 24 eggs for the 48 deviled eggs and cooked the bacon for the broccoli salad. On Wednesday I assembled all the ingredients for the broccoli salad in a giant bowl, then in a separate bowl made the dressing. I then proceeded to make 4 pies from scratch. One chocolate cream pie, 2 pumpkin and one apple pie. This took me about 3 hours. Then I made the crust for the pretzel salad and baked it, chilled it and then put the next layer on and chilled it. Then I packed all the pickles, specials platters and serving utensils in a bag for the next day. I was almost ready.

Thursday morning at 5:15 I woke to my alarm. I was surprised that outside it was Perfect weather for a Thanksgiving day. 40 degrees out, cloudy and only a slight wind. I dressed for my race, then finished the top layer of the pretzel salad and put that in the fridge to chill. Then left for the race in Davenport around 5:50a.m. The drive there was quiet and peaceful, not a lot of cars or trucks on the road. I thought there would be more early morning traffic of people going to their Thanksgiving day celebrations.

I arrived bright and early to packet pickup around 6:50a.m. It would have been earlier, but I wasn't quite sure where I was going exactly or where to park since roads on my directions were already blocked off. As it is I pulled in the wrong way on a street that was being blocked off by volunteers, the one guy didn't look happy that I was pulling past the barricade that was half set up (now had it been fully set up I would have turned around and went around the block). However all was well because I found a spot right next to the YMCA and it was a perfect spot to just scoot right out of there after the race was finished.

I entered the YMCA building at 7a.m. and was thinking that things were way too quiet. I wondered for a bit if I was there too early, or if packet pickup was moved or something. I only saw about 5 people on the first floor and this race was expected to have 1800 participants, plus spectators. There were claw prints on the floor leading you to packet pickup. Someone did that with orange duck tape which you will see below in one of the pictures. Very cute idea by the way.

If you care about full results go HERE
My personal results are these:  I was 795th place of 1725 total people in the 5 mile run.  I placed 42nd of 124 in my age group of 35-39.  My final time was 48:17 and that is a 9:40 mile pace.

This race starts you out going up hill for almost an entire mile. The same nasty hill that Davenport run their famous BIX race in July.  My first mile time was close to 11 minutes.  My second mile was around 10 minutes, 3rd mile 9 minutes, 4th mile 10 minutes  I had walked through a water stop so I could drink and I had to fix my shoe that was becoming loosely tied and felt like it was falling off.  Last mile I wanted to do my very best so I ran as fast as I could handle and I was lucky that the last mile  was downhill on that crazy hill and it did the mile in only 8 minutes!

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

The claw prints on the floor leading you to packet pick up.



The back of my shirt.

The front of my shirt.

My race number

The starting and finishing arch.  It was so nice to see this when you turned the corner in your last 1/4 mile on 2nd Street.

Huge signs advertizing the race.

Beautiful awards. 

I ran into these ladies and loved their hats.  I asked them if I could have a picture of their hats, they insisted I get in the picture with them.  Their names are Jessica and Jennifer.



Cute turkey hats.

I loved this turkey costume and asked him if I could have a picture with him.

The back of the turkey cosutme.