Turkey Trot 2008

May blessings rain down on the fine folks who organized the Seattle Turkey Trot! Apparently they held one in 2007, with about 30 participants. Thanks to the wonder of Google, I found their site and got on the mailing list some time in October. As we were scheduled to run 60 minutes, I figured the hustle over to the start at 85th and 32nd, and the walk back from the finish line at Golden Gardens would be enough to cover us for the additional 30 minutes.

We signed up in early November -- which was lucky for us, as the organizers had to shut down registration early as too many people had signed up! See, STT was a very grass-roots sort of race. No bibs, no timing chips, no awards, no permits... And apparently they had reached a number larger than they felt they could responsibly send running down sidewalks.

We walked to the start line -- hustling we got there about minutes before the start. A couple of hundred people, perhaps, many wearing their bright orange STT08 shirts. One woman dressed as a turkey. Another dressed as Pocahontas. Lots of people with strollers or little kids in tow -- many of them having no idea that lining up in the front was a bad idea.

A nice little talk from the organizer -- we had raised over $2000 for the Ballard Food Bank, yay! -- and then we were off. Plenty of chalk markings on the sidewalk, plus super cute direction signs wherever we turned.

We plugged along at a pretty decent clip. The first half of the route was a nice steady downhill. We turned to cross the railway tracks, and then hit the BGT for the run out to Golden Gardens. We even had a gentle tailwind -- perfect run conditions! We took two short walking breaks but otherwise ran steadily. Had to pass a few people on the narrow path right before the finish, but otherwise had plenty of room throughout.

Held hands as we crossed the line, a bit of whooping, then cups of water and we collected our t-shirts. Sure, the walking to and from the course was longer than the course itself, but we had had a nice run and we had raised some money for the food bank. Already looking forward to STT 2009!