Nine years ago the wife and I moved into our house in Clearwater, FL. The first thing we noticed was blocked off streets. We soon discovered that they had an annual tradition called the “Turkey Trot” which was made up of several races. They have a 5k fun run (not timed), Wingding 5k, Gobbler 1 mile and Turkey Trot 10k. For those crazy enough they have a challenge which consists of the 5k, 1 mile, and the 10k race as well. My wife and I went 9 years ago to watch the blocked off street by the house and cheered the runners on. We commented on how nice it would be for us to participate, but every year another excuse seems to have kept us from participating except for this year. We finally had run out of excuses and registered. The wife then mentioned it to her mom and she showed some interest so she registered and went as well.

When we arrived that morning there was a nip in the air, and I was like why am I up on Thanksgiving morning freezing my butt off (well it was cold for me being a Florida boy of 25 years now). Then the more I moved around the warmer I got and had forgotten about being cold. The time drew near for our wave to start which started at 7:30 and it took us about 60 minutes to complete. I’m sure we could have finished faster but everybody was busy talking, laughing, sharing stories and swapping season’s greetings. The crowd was a mixture of people who were neighbors but many who had never met before.

During our walk they had mile markers setup so we could monitor our progress and know how much further until we had to get to our finish line. Along the route which took us through some streets I had never been through on our walks in the past we ran across several families. Families that were sitting out in the driveways, smiling and cheering as a sea of people invaded their neighborhood and clogged their streets.

Sadly enough before we knew it the finish line was in sight and we were crossing it. One thing was definitely for sure, fun was had by all and we have started a new family tradition. One thing that truly made me sad was the fact that it took us 9 years to finally commit to this fun filled event.

Has anyone else ever participated in the Turkey Trot?