Race Recap: Turkey Trot for Hope

Hey guys! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, got to spend some time with friends and family and got to eat some Thanksgiving food!

I ran the Turkey Trot for Hope 5K in Mobile this morning. I can’t think of a better way to start off a day of thankfulness than by going for a run! This race has become a wonderful part of our Thanksgiving Day tradition. This was my third consecutive year to run this race.

I asked Daniel if we could stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way across the bay. As long as I got ready on time, he was game. My husband bribes me with coffee to promote punctuality, and I’m not sad about it. In fact, this is also part of the tradition. We met Jessica at Starbucks at 6:45. Yes. We met at Starbucks, but stopped at DD. I prefer Dunkin’s coffee over Starbucks every. single. time.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I only ended up drinking a few sips of this XL coffee.

As we drove across the bay, I looked back at my race recap from last year and remembered that there was a grown man dressed in a fleece lined, full body turkey costume. I also was reminded that I had to really work hard to beat him. I wondered if he was going to be at the race again this year …

We got to the race with plenty of time to spare! We got our packets and still had about an hour before the race started. I cleaned out my closet last weekend and had two huge piles in the back of my car. We put our time to good use by going through the piles of clothes and Jessica scored a few new to her things. Haha.

After the trunk show ended we headed out to warm up. We ran the course as our warm up. It was a beautiful day! The weather was a tad bit on the warm side, which doesn’t make for excellent race conditions, but it definitely could’ve been worse. I think it was probably in the mid-to-upper sixties at the start. The race started at 8:00 a.m.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into this race. Turkey 10 was just 5 days ago, so I wasn’t really sure how my legs were going to react to a 5K race effort. It was been a while since I have raced a 5K or done any sort of fast VO2 max repeats. My goal was to stay within the 5:55 – 6:05 range.

This is a decent sized race for Mobile (just over 1,000 participants) and the start was super crowded. We lined up on the start line and I ended up right next to Mr. Turkey (aka Micaiah Rockwell)! He and his wife own the local Fleet Feet Sports. I didn’t make that connection last year.

This is us post-race. He ran a 19:20 in that thing! I definitely don’t want to race him if he isn’t wearing the turkey suit.

I was able to settle into a good rhythm fairly early on and I ran the first mile in exactly 6:00, which was right were I wanted to be. I felt pretty good at this point, but I was doubting my ability to hold it for 2 more miles. I was running with a pack of folks through the first mile, which was nice. I was probably in about 15th place or so overall.

During the second mile, I started to slowly pick off a few runners in front of me. I came through the second mile in 5:56. I was shocked! I felt like I was struggling, but I was actually still running fairly strong. Right as we came through the second mile, I got passed by Carmen Carlos.

She is an All-SEC track and cross country runner at Vanderbilt. I tried to stay with her for the next quarter mile, but I couldn’t hang. Our pace dipped down to 5:45 and that was too much for me. She left me in her dust and blazed on ahead. I honestly don’t think that she was even working very hard … just out for a little stroll.

My third mile ended up being 6:09 (it felt slower). I ended up as second place female and fifth overall with a time of 18:48.

The race benefits Camp Rap-A-Hope, which is a local organization that provides year-long programs and a week-long summer camp to children between the ages of 7 and 17 who have cancer. This is a wonderful organization and I am so glad that they had such a good turnout to support their cause! The kids make the medals, which is really special. I love unique awards like that. I also scored a lemon pie from Pollman’s Bake Shop!

After the race we got cleaned up and headed to my grandmother’s (lemon pie in tow) for a wonderful Thanksgiving afternoon with the family.

All-in-all we had a wonderful, low-key day full of my favorite things …

Coffee. Running. Time with Friends. Time with Family. Sweet Potatoes. Lemon Pie. Resting. Puppy Snuggles. Gratitude. Grace.

I saw a quote today that said, “Life is full of give and take. Give thanks and take nothing for granted.” There is no better expression of my feelings towards Thanksgiving. It can be a bittersweet holiday for me and I’ll admit that sometimes it is more bitter than sweet. Thanksgiving stirs a subtle reminder of a horrific event in my life and at the same time provokes an overwhelming reminder that every single day is truly a blessing. We are all here for a reason. Savor every moment. Shine your light.

P.S. The much-anticipated revival of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life airs on Netflix tomorrow! Who is excited?!

Did anyone else race today? If not, how did you spend your day? I’d love to hear about it!