Garden City Turkey Trot

Team RUNNUR completed its first Garden City Turkey Trot today.  In its 33rd year, the GC Turkey Trot had the most participants ever with more than 3,000 runners. The five mile race began at St. Paul's School and followed a scenic course through Garden City. Spectators lined the course shouting encouraging words, waving signs and noisemakers, and even playing the Rocky theme song. This is my favorite race I've ran up to date.

I was very excited for this race and put a lot of effort into my running outfit. When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you do good. I wore one of my C9 sports bras (so comfortable) with my new Under Armour pullover. I went old school with a pair of Nike spandex I've had since my days on the Choate cross country team. I also wore an old pair of running sneakers (Nikes), hoping that the lighter-weight shoe would be more efficient than those Lunar Glides I've been wearing. I think I made good choices because I felt comfortable throughout the 5 mile run, although the spandex did ride up around mile 2.

The positive energy at this race was awesome. My legs were getting heavy as I started the fifth mile, but then these little girls yelled out, "You can do it!" and "Girl Power!" Realizing I was the only girl in this pack of runners, I didn't want to disappoint them and dug deep to push forward. Then a man told us we were only 200 yards from the finish line and I dug even deeper to give it my all. I came in at 37:23.2. I was 350th out of the 3,168 runners who completed the course. I would have preferred to come in under 36 minutes, but now I know my goal for next year.

I am also really psyched that I ran into a friend from college at the race. He's not a native Long Islander and I didn't expect to see him there. This was the best way to start Thanksgiving and I plan on trotting every year from now on.


Team RUNNUR before the race began.