You might be surprised to know that after all these years of running, I had never run a turkey trot until last week.

There weren't any Thanksgiving day races anywhere near where I grew up, so I was always on my own for turkey day running.

This year though, I spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws. One of the first things I looked up after we figured out our holiday plans was if there was a nearby turkey trot.

I was so excited when I found the Give 'Em the Bird 5K, which was only about 15 minutes from my mother-in-law's house, and she agreed to do the run with me!



We got really lucky with the weather. Massachusetts in November is not exactly known for its warmth. But we woke up to a fairly sunny day and temperatures in the low-40s. Perfect running weather really.

The race started on a bike path behind an old mill that has been converted into some breweries and loft space.



The bike path wasn't super wide, so the early part of the race, things were a little crammy.

At one point, we crossed a bridge, and there were so many people on it that we were bouncing up and down and it felt like we were running on a more firm trampoline.

The course eventually turned off the bike path on to a neighborhood road and things opened up really nicely then.

I had found a pretty comfortable pace and everything was feeling good.

We took a turn just before the halfway point on the course and started a long, but not too steep climb, out of the neighborhood. The hill took it out of me a little bit, but not as much as I expected it too.

We made the last turn of the course on to another bike path. It was nice and flat, and with only a mile to go, I felt like I could try to push the pace a little bit.



I pushed harder for the last mile and was really happy with how strong I felt as I held a slightly faster than normal pace.

I crossed the finish line in 28:16, and was really excited when I checked my Garmin and realized I had run negative splits.

Mile 1: 9:22
Mile 2: 9:10
Mile 3: 8:49
Last .1: 0:56

This race was super well run, and it was such a fun way to start Thanksgiving Day!