Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot

When 7:30 a.m. rolled around on a rainy Thanksgiving morning, I snoozed the alarm and nearly convinced myself that it was too wet to haul my gear around on a holiday morning. After all, wouldn’t most of the runners who had signed up for Kent’s annual Turkey Trot be tempted to do the same thing?  Should I manage to get going, I was sure to get there and photograph all of five people. I just KNEW it.

So, I silenced the snooze once or twice, but something convinced me to get up and take my chances despite every muscle in my body screaming for a few minutes more in a warm bed.

Arriving at Fred Fuller Park shortly before the event, I was pleasantly surprised to find what had to be a group of more than a 100 runners; altogether, this bunch looked like ornaments on a holiday tree – their brightly colored hats, jackets and gloves a stark contrast to the subdued tones of the season and the day. [What follows are a few images of the one-mile Fun Run for the little ones and the 5K adult race, where participants seemed to range in age from about 18 to 80.]

Sidling up to someone official looking, I asked about the turnout, discovering that only a small handful of participants had seemingly succumbed to the warm-bed syndrome.

Impressive.

Furthermore, I was told that the annual 5K Kent Turkey Trot leans a little to the postal side – neither rain nor sleet nor hail stops this hardy bunch. In fact, I was told that the weather was “pretty good” compared to past events, most especially a run in recent years that transpired in a total whiteout.

Finally, my laugh of the morning occurred at the beginning of the 5K race. With so many runners starting off up the same narrow road, those who did not have the advantage of leading the group were slowed by the mass of people ahead of them, making the pack look – if only for a moment – like a brightly plumed array of turkeys slowly trotting up the hill!