Turkey Trot-ing in the Olympic Village

Did you know that Thanksgiving is the #1 day of the year for races?

Seems like everywhere I turned, there was another Turkey Trot, Wobble, Waddle, etc popping up in every corner of the earth, even virtual online races.  I think that's pretty darn cool!

Since I had participated in the Hobble Gobble last weekend, me & the rest of the Peak Sport Solutions crew loaded up the van and traveled to the Olympic Village of Lake Placid, NY to time the Adirondack Medical Center's 3rd Annual Turkey Trot.

Lake Placid High School & the Olympic Center overlooking the Speed Skating Oval

The race was scheduled to begin at 8:30am with registration from 7am - 8am, which meant we needed to be in the car on the way at 4:30am.  McDonald's was the only place open in town and you better believe coffee was purchased for the ride!

Nope, the sun wasn't even up yet.

The start and finish of the Turkey Trot was at the entrance to the Olympic 400m speed skating oval.  We had gotten a lovely early season snow storm the day before so there was roughly 5 inches of heavy, wet, melting snow where the race chute was supposed to be set up.  Shovels were gathered, ice melt was applied and show went on!

We had 61 preregistered runners but in the end 195 folks trotted with us Thanksgiving morning so the registration table was crazy right up to race time.  The run helped benefit a local food pantry so every registrant who brought in canned goods got a discount on their registration and lots and lots of food was donated.

Beat the Turkey!!

The Turkey Runner was a really good sport

The first 3 male and female finishers won a nice prize bag but the main goal of the race was to beat the "Turkey" runner.  The Turkey came in at 20 minutes flat on a slightly short very hilly 5k course but he got beat by 6 runners who each got frozen turkeys to take home.

Overall it was a really fun run put on by a great group of people.  It was Peak Sport Solutions' first event timing gig in Lake Placid which was an incredible experience.  I mean, it's the Olympic Village, who wouldn't want to time a race there?

Adirondack Mountains in the distance

The Olympic Center as the sun was coming up, such a cool building!

The race was followed by a quick stop at Starbucks on the way home.  I was very, very thankful they were open, I live in a very rural area where Starbucks is 2 hours away on each side and I was in need of a serious caffeine fix.

We headed home, unloaded the van and enjoyed the company of our family for the rest of the day.

Now I'm ready to bring on the Christmas cheer!! :)