Thanksgiving & SV Turkey Trot 10K

This long weekend feels especially long and it's been pretty amazing to have a stay-cation with Kevin and the cats. We'll be traveling to Ohio for Christmas, so we decided to stick around San Jose for Thanksgiving because it's such a hectic travel time. Our Thursday started out with the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K, of which the start line is in walking distance of our house. Seriously, race logistics are so much easier when you can walk there.

We left the house around 7:25 am for the 7:50 am race and did an easy warm up run to the start area. When we got to Santa Clara Street there were tons of people; this is one of the biggest Turkey Trots in the country and it gets pretty crazy. This was my third year running it, but I always forget just how many people there are. That said, I've seen improvement in how the race organizers handle the number of people over the past years and it was super smooth this time around.

Start line on Santa Clara Street.

We headed to the start corrals, which are 'suggestions' based on your estimated pace. They have signs that say '6-7 minute miles' and so on. Kevin runs the 10K in the 7s, so he stayed there and I went back to the 8-9s area. I should note that I loved my outfit choice - yellow stripey and diamond rogas pattern mixing, plus the ProCompression retro socks. They all matched so well! 

Obligatory Thanksgiving photo.

Unfortunately, I felt like crap once we started running and my allergies weren't cooperating with the whole breathing thing. It's ok though, I'd just raced in Berkeley on Sunday and a fun Turkey Trot was a fine start to Thanksgiving even if I didn't run well. I walked a little and finished in 1:00:35.

The course runs a similar route to the RnR San Jose Half Marathon, going down Santa Clara a bit, cutting across a numbered street to Japantown, running down Jackson and turning on 2nd Street to go back toward the Alameda. It follows the Alameda for a while and zig zags through residential streets before coming back into downtown for the finish. I don't find it to be exciting, but I also run these streets a lot so I'm used to it. 

I've found the crowd at this event to be nuts in the past, but this year I didn't feel cramped and wasn't dodging people as much. There were only a couple of water stops, but for a 10K I find that to be more than enough. The finish line wasn't over crowded (in the past it backed up so much it took a few minutes of walking to cross it!) and they were moving people through quickly after crossing. They had food and water in the park, but I only grabbed water and then headed back to the finish to cheer for a while. In addition to the 10K that started at 7:50 am, there was a 5K at 8:30 and both races used the same finish line.

One of the most interesting things to me about this event is how long it continues. I love seeing everyone out being active, and you can watch people in the 10K and 5K for a couple of hours. The event brings out everyone from elite runners to mid-packers to new runners to walkers, and it feels like a big parade. We walked along the 5K course back to our house to cheer people on, and they just kept coming and coming.

 Vertebrae! This group walks each year in the correct formation.

The tail end.

The shirts are the purple tech shirts everyone is wearing in the photos, and they are really nice. I think it's odd that the male shirts are purple, but as a lady I love the color. 

Later that evening, we headed to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. She made a beautiful turkey, and each of us brought sides to share. We have a group that all migrated here for work and are away from family, so it's fun to get together for the holiday. 

 Thanksgiving cheers!

 Sarah's turkey.

 Kev carving.

Manzoni port with dessert. We love this winery.

The rest of the weekend involved watching football (with a nice Ohio State win over Michigan), the last long run before CIM, and a wine tasting trip to Carmel for Kevin's birthday today. Happy Birthday Kev!