All I need is a track in the background

November 28, 2002
http://www.turkeytrot.com

Just one thing could raise us up out of bed before 5 AM on a holiday morning... the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot!

A year ago today was our first run-walk event completed as a family. We ran in the pouring rain Portland Zoo Turkey Trot. This year's Thanksgiving was spent in Orange County, California, so our mom was sure to get us all out to Orange County's Dana Point Turkey Trot. I'm not sure how Dad got out of participating, but even Mary joined us after a long night of dancing and only three hours of sleep. This impressive race is the second largest Turkey Trot in the country, and was held at Dana Point.

My mother and younger sisters, Mary, Catherine and Jenny did a separately organized 10K walk, while Judy and I did the 10K run. There were also separate races for 5K walkers and strollers, masters runners, sub-masters runners, and kids. We arrived early to drop my sisters off at a different starting point and get registered. The first suprise was that we had to take a test. Runners under the registration tent were filling in bubbles on a ScanTron sheet, so we joined them. We must not have scored high enough because they gave us our bibs and t-shirts but did not hand over any chips. In our packets, we found pudding and a pudding-brand book cover... not something you'd find in a typical race packet.

The weather was cool enough that we wore our matching Portland Marathon 2002 Finisher shirts. We weren't the only ones! We saw several other runners and one supporter wearing them. Runners who saw ours asked us about our experience. Runners were also sporting shirts of many local races, previous Turkey Trots, A Snail's Pace running club, and one from our favorite beer drinking club with a running problem. Along the course we also saw nine jingling reindeer running together pulling along a Santa Claus and tossing candy canes to spectators.

Judy and I began the race near the 10 minute mile pace signs. I think there must have been a lot of fast people slow in arriving, because we kept getting passed up. It was a very crowded beginning as would be expected by such a popular race. It also stayed pretty packed for the first three miles, because the roads were incredibly narrow. They were so narrow that there were points where runner congestion caused us all to stop! One woman who was running in front of us for awhile had her shoe laces untied. Eventually the laces tripped her and she fell rather hard onto the ground. Ouch! One woman who could race worry-free of shoelaces was a runner Judy spotted who was running barefoot! Runners did have to watch where they were going, as I counted six fallen bells on the ground and a few candy canes.

I was thinking I had run the shortest three miles ever when I discovered that the out-and-back we were running was a total of three miles (not six), and upon finishing that, we'd run past the finish line to do a few more winding out-and-backs. I should have been more diligent in finding the course map ahead of time. The first half of the run was through Doheny State Park where we had a gorgeous view of the beaches and ocean. Then we ran over a bridge to an island which was surrounded by the Dana Point Marina. Running amongst a sea of docked boats was a new experience I'd be happy to repeat. We ended the last out-and-back point running around some beautiful tall trees and alongside some taller cliffs.

Judy and I ran together the whole way, and we even ran into our mom and sisters along the route! Mom got a picture of us running as did the Brightroom photographers who were just ahead of the finish line. Towards the end, Mary and Jenny found us again and started running with us until Judy decided it was time to pick up the pace to the finish line. I followed Judy in to finish right behind her. We walked through real live finish chutes and they wanted to have our tags off our bibs! This is my second race that was timed without chips, and both were in California. I wonder if California even knows about the ease of ChampionChips.

There were cups of water, bananas and oranges to be had if you looked hard enough. The last sprint to the finish line encouraged my previously excellent feeling legs to feel painful again, but not too terribly bad. Judy and I stretched next to the Arrowhead water truck. As we were leaning against it, an older man walked by and made us giggle by saying "I don't think you'll be able to push it over." We walked through the parking lots full of sponsor tents, and tried some new Cran-anything by OceanSpray and Domino's pepperoni pizza.

A local (to this race) company called Crank Sports offered us their new products, eGel (energy gel) and eFuel (energy drink concentrate). We grabbed a spoon and the man kept squeezing different flavored gels onto it. I do love my GU, but these were not bad at all. We even got a free eGel packet which was about the size of a GU and a half. We also wandered by the different club tents. We saw A Snail's Pace, South Coast Road Runners Club, and a few others. We stopped by the Orange County Triathlon Club twice (the second time with money) and found some amazing deals on shebeest clothing. I learned that shebeest is a local company based out of Santa Ana. Unfortunately all the sizes were medium, so I didn't get another jersey, but Judy found a nice long sleeved purple one for $10! I spent $6 on a pair of cute triathlete socks.

Good race, gorgeous course, gooey freebies and guilt-free Thanksgiving day dining!

Results (posted same-day with our names and locations!)

Place SexP DivP Name             S A  Location    Time    Pace  Bib 
2184  842  170  Judy Zerzan      F 31 Portland OR 1:06:33 10:42 5708 
2185  843  119  Julia Weatherby  F 26 Austin TX   1:06:34 10:42 5707