The Turkey Trot

Race Date: Thanksgiving Morning, Every year

Race Location: Dubuque, Iowa

Race distance: 2.5 or 5 miles

Race Website: http://www.holyfamilydbq.org/wchs/turkey-trot

The crowd of about 1500 people. (Yes the guys in the front are wearing speedos)

This year was the 42nd year that this race has gone on in Dubuque. This was my second time running this race. Last year, 2013, the directors changed the route that was ran, cutting their costs quite a bit. The turkey trot is a great race in Dubuque, being one of the oldest races, however this new route is rough. For those who know Dubuque, Iowa, you know that it is a very hilly location and finding a flat area of ground can be quite a search. With that being said, this route is a rough route. The race is a 2.5 mile loop that is done either once for the 2.5 mile race or twice, for the 5 mile race. The route starts fairly okay, being downhill for almost all of the first mile, then flattens out. The last mile is uphill. Now when I say uphill, I don't mean gradual or short hills, I mean a long incline that gets steeper with every step. It is rough. I did the 5 mile last year and decided that it was enough for me, 2.5 miles was all I was doing. Overall though, there are a lot of people that are there doing the race, and having a bunch of other runners dealing with the same thing as you can sometimes act as a reinforcing agent or even a motivating piece. For me, I saw all the people around me start walking, so I just ran around them and kept my pace. 

Speaking of walking, the one thing that the directors could do a better job of is telling people that are going to walk or know they are going to be slower to move to the end of the starting line. As someone who wanted to go and could not squeeze into the front portion of the race, I had to stand near the back. This took me nearly a minute and a half to reach the chip pad. Also the first mile was me trying to weave back and forth between people. On this note, I would also like to add that one thing that is bugging me about this race is the fact that the results are in order of gun time, not chip time. I know, looking at my chip time, that I should have placed nearly 50 spots ahead of where they said I ranked, changing the outlook a little more. However, the race is getting bigger and bigger, which is going to change things some. I understand that results go off by who crossed the finish line first and so forth, but allow us to look at who finished the fastest. 

if you look up in the left tupper corner and see a person wearing a yellow top with a blue head wrap, that would be me. 

Pros: 

• Classic Race
• Lots of participants
• Not a bad price either

Cons:

• Hellish hills 
• Very packed first mile
• Chip time to Gun time can be a big difference.