Tag: turkeytrot

Race Recap: Fast Five Turkey Trot

On By The Running GriffinLeave a comment

Yesterday morning it was off to Marlborough, Massachusetts for a little post-Thanksgiving run at the Fast Five Turkey Trot. Organized by the Highland City Striders, this race features a ten miler and a five miler option that both kick off at the same time and split off partway through the five mile course.

The race registration fee is each runner needs to bring fifteen (15) non-perishable food items to the starting line for their race entry; I couldn’t love this any more! With more than 200 runners hitting the starting line of the race, the race organizers stuffed three vehicles full of food to be donated to the local food banks at the Hudson Food Pantry and Marlborough Community Cupboard! 1.5 tons of food donated thanks to all the runners yesterday; awesome!

Mrs. Running Griffin and I decided to run the five miler together and stuck with each other during the run. This was more of a fun run sort of thing for us so never a bad thing to go out for a run with your significant other and have a nice workout!

The course was beautiful for the five miler and featured almost all residential roads with some fall foliage still gracing some of the trees but the transition between fall to winter fully in flight. There were even a few flurries in the final mile of the race that added to the winter feel. If you like hills, well, this course is a good one for you to check out in future years as there was a good amount of climbing throughout the five mile course. Not just rolling hills, either, but instead some rollers mixed with larger, more significant inclines along the way. It certainly felt like you were climbing more than descending but we both really enjoyed the route.

We finished the race with a time of 53:50, good for 10:46/miles.

Post-run we made our way to one of our favorite coffee shops Lost Shoe Brewing & Roasting Company and enjoyed some nice warm coffee to warm us up post-run and grabbed a bag of beans and their non-alcoholic hop water to head home with, as well!

Race Recap: Wrentham Turkeywacker 5K

On By The Running GriffinLeave a comment

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey trot, right?

The past several Thanksgivings we have headed off to Disney World in Orlando, Florida but this year decided to stay closer to home so finding a 5K the morning of Thanksgiving was a must. This was going to be a full family-affair so all four of us woke up on Thanksgiving morning and made our way to Wrentham, Massachusetts for the Turkeywacker 5K.

The race kicks off at 8:30 AM which allowed the teenagers a bit longer to sleep in before we made our way up Route 495 to Wrentham. Perhaps best known for the shopping outlets there, Wrentham is just next to the perhaps more well-known Foxboro, home of the New England Patriots!

The Turkeywacker is a trail run and certainly running on trails adds a different complexity to a race than running on asphalt. Though we had a touch of rain the days leading up to the run, the course was in very good condition with only a few spots having a couple wet patches. As you can expect with a Thanksgiving Day turkey trot, there was a sea of families at the race as parents, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents and more toed the starting line before heading off to crush copious amounts of stuffing and pie.

I felt pretty good out on the course but knew pretty early into the race that the trail run terrain coupled with more than 800 runners hitting the 5K trail course was not going to result in any sort of PR for me out on the course. But that’s not what the run was about. The run was about spending time with Mrs. Running Griffin and our two daughters and having a good time out doing something healthy together and reflecting on all that we have to be thankful for.

I finished up the Turkeywacker 5K with a time of 28:31, good for 9:10/miles. All four of us had very respectable runs and celebrated hitting up one of our favorite coffee shops on the way home to warm up.

Happy Thanksgiving!