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turkey trot

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According to Runner’s World, Thanksgiving day is the most popular day to run in the United States. I’m not surprised, since it is a holiday that tends to center around food, and the start of the holiday season (read: Season of Unlimited Feasting) for many. Personally, I think it’s nice to have an active activity that the whole family can enjoy.

This years shirt is definitely on trend, as current running styles favor neon for visibility
This years shirt is definitely on trend, as current running styles favor neon for visibility

My first turkey trot was in Austin, back in the late 1990s. I didn’t so much “run” as “walk and shuffle” it, but that’s part of the beauty of the turkey trot–most of them are relatively short distances, and welcome participants of all abilities. The largest events have multiple distances from as short as a mile to a 10k or longer.

Historically, my family has celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas (and usually Dad’s birthday) over Thanksgiving weekend. For me, this meant going back to my home town, leaving all my healthy eating and exercise habits at home, and laughing with my brothers while consuming mass quantities of carbs and diet coke.  Three years ago one of my brothers and his wife happened to have a membership to a tricked-out Lifetime Fitness and took me as a guest. That was the first “turkey trot” of my current running career.

Detroit Turkey Trot 2014 gear
Detroit Turkey Trot 2014 gear

Last year, I decided to convince my family to run the Detroit Turkey Trot. It was an epic failure in that regard, as every single one had an excuse not to run. I decided that even though it meant getting up before the sun and running in weather colder than what I’ve run in since moving to California in 2008, I was going to get in a run. (I may have had delusions of participating in the Runner’s World runstreak. We’ll pretend that didn’t happen.) I drove down to Cobo Hall to register, grab some selfies with The Parade Company giant heads, and hatch a race-day plan.

The Big Heads are made of paper mache; according to The Parade Company, Detroit has the largest collection in the world
The Big Heads are made of paper mache; according to The Parade Company, Detroit has the largest collection in the world

The Detroit Turkey Trot is one of the largest turkey trots in the country. Events include a 10k Turkey Trot, 5k Stuffin’ Strut, the Drumstick Double (run the 10k then the 5k), and the Mashed Potato Mile. The 10k route largely follows the Thanksgiving Day Parade route, lined with spectators (some of whom camp out in RVs all night to save their spots!) and through the gorgeous architectural reminders that Detroit was once one of the greatest cities in North America.

One of my favorite downtown Detroit buildings. Nobody builds like this anymore.
One of my favorite downtown Detroit buildings. Nobody builds like this anymore.

About two miles from the end of the course there is a Christmas cookies and candy canes aid station, and when the weather gets cold enough there are volunteers designated at each water station to throw rock salt and gravel to prevent ice from forming! There are shirts for all participants and medals for the 5k, 10k, and Drumstick Double, as well as what might be the world’s most efficient post-race food stations. (Yes, better than Disney.)

This is the first time we'd seen each other since...like 1996.
This is the first time we’d seen each other since…like 1996.

This year, I convinced Dad to join me. (His fiancee, worried he’d repeated his “I haven’t trained, but I think I’ll go kill this race” stunt from the Detroit International Half Marathon this October, made me promise not to let him get hurt.) My master plan was to have a good time, get a little exercise, and hit some unique portals in Ingress (my latest semi-fitness-related obsession, but more on that later.) So I set my Garmin for 1 minute intervals, with the intent to stroll a minute and jog at an easy pace for a minute.

Sporting my BibRave orange at the Detroit Turkey Trot.
Sporting my BibRave orange at the Detroit Turkey Trot.

The weather was warmer than last year (no ice danger at the aid stations!), and though there were a few sprinkles in the beginning, it turned out to be a gorgeous day for a run. There were a bunch of cute costumes, from turkeys to Santa suits. At the end of the run, we had some snacks and drove home to the Thanksgiving feast in Dad’s new condo. After a shower and a quick nap (being on “west coast time,” I had stayed up WAY too late), I felt great and was ready to celebrate with my family.

Speaking of family, my less-curmudgeonly brother went for a run. He’s about to turn 40, so he’s freaking out about “not getting fat” (and not being 30!). Though he refused my invitation to the Turkey Trot, he ran 6.3 miles–just because he always has to one-up me.

IMG_2846
The 2014 finisher medal! Different colors of ribbons indicate which race you ran

If you’re interested in running a turkey trot in 2017–hey, it’s not to early to think about it!–a quick google search for “turkey trot” and the name of your town or the nearest large-ish town will likely get you a handful of results. BibRave.com, a race review website, has participant-written reviews of many turkey trots.

You probably can't register today for a 2016 turkey trot...but soon!
You probably can’t register today for a 2016 turkey trot…but soon!

Naturally a ton of my friends and fellow run-bloggers also ran this year. Here are just a few of their turkey trot reviews, for your reading pleasure. Running With Ollie chose the Cox Running Club Thanksgiving Day 5k in Fort Worth. My friend Andrew ran trails with Brazen Racing at the Nitro Turkey and Quarry Turkey (check out the bling!). Running on Happy ran the Cleveland Turkey Trot and had a different experience this year compared to last year. My First 5k and More did the Troy (NY) Turkey Trot 10k AND the 5k (check out the holiday presents, oh my!). Marcia’s Healthy Slice pointed out that races like the Mount Prospect Jaycees Turkey Trot are often at bargain prices. Chocolate Runs Judy did a turkey trot in Cohoes (NY)(see? they are everywhere!). Lauren Runs tackled the Suntree Turkey Trot. Weight Off My Shoulders did a race with a cute name, the Gobble Gobble Gobble Four Miler in Somerville (MA). The Tiny Terror ran her second turkey trot in Florence (SC). Finally, not every turkey trot is a shorter distance–Runspirations by Melissa did a full half marathon! (I love the medal for that race–what a great reminder of blessings all year.)

Mashed Potato Mile-rs get the same bling, different ribbon
Mashed Potato Mile-rs get the same bling, different ribbon

Did you run a turkey trot this year? A gobble wobble? How about a stuffin’ strut, mashed potato mile, or other holiday event?

I’d love to have Thanksgiving all year. Well, maybe not the endless food parade, since it is definitely indulgent (and generates a lot of dishes, too!). The parts I like the best do revolve around food, but only because my family likes to eat, and pretty much all of us like to cook.

My favorite Thanksgiving moments all involve laughing, and much of that laughing takes place around the table or in the kitchen. When the Three Stooges assemble (that’s me and the brothers), hilarity ensues. In 2011, I brought home my first iPhone. I’m pretty sure I took more pictures of the dog than I did of the family, but here are the highlights.

This is my first selfie. You can tell, because I hadn't learned that you never look down at the phone. (If Mom were alive, she'd kill me for posting this picture.)
This is my first selfie. You can tell, because I hadn’t learned that you never look down at the phone. (If Mom were alive, she’d kill me for posting this picture.)

Why yes, I do have a weirder neck than the turkey that graced the table that year. Centering? Filters? Editing? Retakes? Yikes. Onward and upward (you’re supposed to look up at the camera!).

Traditionally, it has been Dad's job to cook and carve the turkey.
Traditionally, it has been Dad’s job to cook and carve the turkey.

Thanksgiving dinner at our house must always include certain items: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce (the kind that comes in a can) and bread. (Why yes, I did grow up in the Midwest!) Over the years, traditions evolved around past events. Required commentary included asking Mom ten times whether she remembered to take the rolls out of the oven, mocking the cranberry sauce shaped like a can (the one year I mashed it up, one of my brothers yelled at me), asking Bruce to go put the leftover turkey in the workshop, and reminding everyone to feed green bean innards and corn kernals to the pet cockatiel (still thriving at age 23).

We used to haul out all the china, but after Mom got sick, we decided to use the everyday dishes. Why? One word: dishwasher.
We used to haul out all the china, but after Mom got sick, we decided to use the everyday dishes. Why? One word: dishwasher.

There appears to be some kind of prohibition on leaving any empty space on the table. Part of the required commentary is advising others on how to rearrange the food so it will all fit for at least 10 minutes, at which point we all give up and stick some of it on another piece of furniture (preferably one that is too high for the dog to reach).

What? You don't recognize the world-famous band, Cruise Italy?
What? You don’t recognize the world-famous band, Cruise Italy? (This is literally the only photo I took that year. What’s up with that?)

There is also a required program of entertainment. I was shocked when we ended up deviating from it this year, but the typical day goes like this: get up early to stick the turkey in the oven. Drink lots of coffee, while claiming that not eating breakfast will make it easier to stuff ourselves at dinner. Hang out and catch up. Start drinking beer. Give in and eat lunch, then start picking on random snacky things while watching the Lions lose a football game. Start drinking wine. Eat dinner. At some point the brothers disappear to the basement, where they play Intellivision for hours, and you can tell which games they are playing by the sounds emanating from the basement–not the ones from the games, the sounds from the brothers. Eat dinner. Pause. Round two. Then we have Christmas.

Note the matching wrapping paper. (The kids do all the wrapping at home, where Mom and Dad have all the wrapping paper and bows and tags.)
Note the matching wrapping paper. (The kids do all the wrapping at home, where Mom and Dad have all the wrapping paper and bows and tags.)

So it goes, from year to year. Some years we have Christmas on Saturday morning. Once the three kids moved to three different locations, and I hit the west coast, it just got too expensive (airfare!) and impractical (a day off work to fly each way) to do two separate holidays. Thanksgiving was the first time I met the then-to-be-sisters-in-law. It’s sort of the acid test: if you can’t hang with the siblings, you’re not going to cut it in this fam.

Thanksgiving without Mom isn’t the same. If you’ve lost a parent, you know what  mean.

In 2014 I decided to try something new: go run the Detroit Turkey Trot, even though no one else in my family would have anything to do with it. (One brother is just not getting up that early on Thanksgiving, the other insists he’s not paying anyone and he can go run 10k whenever he wants; the sisters-in-law don’t run; that leaves Dad, and someone has to cook the turkey.) It was the

Registration for the Detroit Turkey Trot comes with the opportunity to selfie with the giant heads from The Parade Company.
Registration for the Detroit Turkey Trot comes with the opportunity to selfie with the giant heads from The Parade Company. (See the improved technique?)

I took a billion pictures, you know, “for the blog,” and notice how I reviewed the 2014 Turkey Trot on the blog? (Don’t go looking for that review…)

This is the first time we'd seen each other since...like 1996.
This is the first time we’d seen each other since…like 1996.

Funny thing about Thanksgiving: the more ways we have to take pictures, the fewer pictures I have! I’m sure I could dig hundreds of pictures of Thanksgivings past out of the basement in Dad’s new condo. I bet there are several table shots from two houses ago, the year that my brother and my cousin broke the decorative wood off of the front of the china cabinet. Yet I have none with my friend Michelle (who I see every year), and fewer than a half dozen from each year on my phone. Hm.

It's White Castle stuffing. No, I am not making this up.
It’s White Castle stuffing. No, I am not making this up.

The last Thanksgiving in the house was special for many reasons. (I wish I’d known it was going to be the very last one.) At several points there were seven of us in the kitchen cooking. It was also the year that me, the vegetarian, accidentally won a turkey during the #CompleteYourFeast twitter contest. Oops! I’ve got to say that I’ve never had customer service like we got from Diestel Turkeys, and I wasn’t even a proper customer! After I won, a few quick emails back and forth got the home address connected with the turkey, a 15 pound Organic Heirloom Turkey (which I’m told was uber delicious). Tuesday I got a call from Heidi–yes, Heidi Diestel!–to let me know that the turkey’s plane was delayed, and I should call immediately if the turkey wasn’t the proper temperature when it arrived (they’d express another one). The next day, she called again to make sure the turkey had arrived in good shape. (I was napping, so she talked to Dad, who was very impressed that I’m somehow important enough to get a call from a Diestel!)

Overview of most of what was in the box--it barely fit into one shot, much less one meal!
Overview of most of what was in the box–it barely fit into one shot, much less one meal!

The twitter chat contest also included a box of produce from Melissa’s Produce. (Honestly, when I stumbled into the #CompleteYourFeast twitter party, I was hoping I’d be lucky enough to win one of the runner-up prizes, like a cookbook.) There were apples, dutch yellow potatoes (the BEST), small onions in every color, fennel, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, steamed and ready to eat beets, two packages of quinoa, fancy salt and seasonings, and even an dessert sauce! Dad had already bought some produce, and we had no idea what might show up in the box, so it turned into quite the feast. Fennel was a new one for me, so I made one of the recipes I found on the Melissa’s website; same with the quinoa.

A portion of the resulting feast.
A portion of the resulting feast.

There’s an old funny story that ends with, “here comes Bain with a second load!” and that might as well have been our motto last year. It was the first Thanksgiving meal we shared with Dad’s new fiancée (she passed with flying colors, and baked enough pie for dinner and breakfast–very important!).

Bain's first load
Bain’s first load

We all ate ourselves silly. The post-dinner interval lasted much longer than usual, as we all wanted to eat pie, but none of us could figure out how on earth we’d manage to put more food in. Per our tradition, we spent “Black Friday” sleeping in and then hanging around at home while eating everything we had for dinner the night before.

This year was the first year the brothers and I have eaten the family Thanksgiving dinner in anyplace other than our childhood home on Moonlight Drive (we moved there in 1979). We’ve had a few “moveable feast” Thanksgivings, where we had Thanksgiving the second weekend in December, for example, or the week before the actual holiday, but never in a foreign location. It turned out just fine.

Sporting my BibRave orange at the Detroit Turkey Trot.
Sporting my BibRave orange at the Detroit Turkey Trot.

First, I convinced Dad to join me at the Detroit Turkey Trot. (Note the evolution of my selfie technique.) Ellen wasn’t so sure this was a good idea, since he’d decided to tackle the Detroit International Half Marathon on four training runs no longer than six miles, but I promised I wouldn’t let him injure himself. We did 1 minute intervals, walking and running (“jogging,” said my brother, “with a soft J”). In between viewing the amazing architecture of the Detroit that once was one of the richest cities in America, I played Ingress, we watched multiple groups of costumed runners (the ghostbusters, turkeys, turkey dinner, and all sorts of other things).

This year there were two turkeys, all the things my family usually had (but not the White Castle stuffing–Bruce was on strike), the fluffy marshmallow and oranges thing, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, green beans, two kinds of stuffing (including some vegetarian stuff not cooked in the bird for me), and another dozen dishes that didn’t fit on the table.

Most of the dinner, and all of the company--the host and hostess avoided getting into ANY of the pictures!
Most of the dinner, and all of the company–the host and hostess avoided getting into ANY of the pictures!

We shared dinner with Ellen’s daughter and her family, using all of the counter space, all of the chairs, and most of the dishes. The brothers never did hook up the Intellivision, but that might have been because the football games were so exciting. We were all in shock that the Lions won, and then the Chicago/Green Bay game kept us up well past when we wanted to go to bed. Thais is still doing her American residency, so she had to work on Friday, meaning there was less wine drinking and laughing until all hours. We only made it through one pie.

Phoenix, exhausted from exuberantly greeting every guest and attempting to mooch from every plate
Phoenix, exhausted from exuberantly greeting every guest and attempting to mooch from every plate

It was a good year to start some new traditions. (I wonder if the Intellivision will come out again next year.) I could do this every weekend! Well maybe not every weekend, that would put a serious dent in my running calendar. How about once a month?

What do you like best about Thanksgiving? Does your family have any traditions you love (or hate)?