Turkey Trot

Ok so when I ran the Bass Pro 5k I thought it was cold....wow- it was like a summer day in the desert compared to the Turkey Trot. Seriously, dude, and holy turkey (ok that was a little cheesy) was it freezing cold yesterday! We met at the Expo Center downtown for this marathon. I thought I was well equipped with 2 shirts, long pants, a sweatshirt with a hood, and a ear/head thing but I could have used mittens. Duh. And a scarf. Julie did try to warn me.

There were so many people there! Hold on- I will go see if there is a total number somewhere to report to you. 4,246 people! It felt like it too. We were packed into the expo center lobby waiting to begin and I actually had to move out to the windows to escape being suffocated by the enormous press of people. There were some characters there too. Aside from the actual Tom the Turkey mascot, I saw people with dogs, people with babies! (I wanted to turn them in for child abuse having them out in the arctic chill), people with Indian feathers on their heads, one huge giant guy dressed in head to toe camo, people in shorts, and people with stuffed animal turkeys on their heads. And even some people with hats made to look like actual frozen turkeys. Those were a little gross.

As usual, Julie and I head all the way to the back to find the slow section. The nice people announcing told the walkers about 50,000 times to keep moving down the street (west), keep moving down. Once we finally reached Kansas (thats where the end of the line was) we found the rest of the walkers. Then we stood there freezing our you know whats off. Actually my you know what stayed firmly in place. Unfortunately, my face took most of the wind. Last evening I kept wondering why my face felt hot and a little itchy. Wind burn sucks. Dont' worry- I slathered night cream about 10 layers thick last night so am good this morning.

Not much to say about the actual marathon. It took us forever to get back up to the starting line. Julie and I did this one together and aside from a very short jog at the start, we walked the whole race. It was just too cold man. Don't judge us- you weren't there. I, like a stupid dummy, had walked through wet grass on the way in that morning and gotten the toes of my shoes wet. That part of the shoe is mostly mesh so it went right through to my toes. I was a little afraid they would just break right off my feet when I took my shoes off but I guess they warmed up from all the walking. Anyhow, we just took a nice little walk through downtown Springfield and enjoyed the Trot. It was fun. However.... I think I might skip the Jingle Bell run.