PARKVILLE TURKEY TROT - 9 a.m.
It's pretty chilly here in KC today, making it a bit rough getting out for the Turkey Trot. For the past (I think) 5 years, the Parkville Turkey Trot has been a part of each Thanksgiving for me, my family, and a variety of friends/coworkers along the way. This year, as far as family goes, my parents and I were the only ones out for the fun! We were happy to also have Ashley, a friend of ours from church, join us too! I picked Ashley up and we headed to Parkville to get our race packets. It wasn't very crowded when we arrived, which surprised me. Most years, it's packed pretty early. I think the cold weather made for a later start for some folks. At any rate, we picked up our packets (and cool new shirt design, celebrating their 20 year of trotting!), and quickly made our way back to the car to stay warm!
It wasn't long before we spotted my parents pulling in the parking lot, so we flagged them over and they joined us in the warm car. We basically chatted and people-watched, killing time till the start. 
I think we ended up waiting in the car until about 10 till 9, and then Ashley and I headed over to the run start. Ashley had not run more than 1 mile, until today, that is. I think she was excited?! We asked a gal to take our picture while we waited for the race to start.
After a few announcements and the national anthem, we were off! It didn't take long to warm up, and -as usual- it was pretty congested getting started. We just took it easy and jogged along. Ashley was doing great! We do a short 1 mile loop and then back out for the 2.1 mile finish. The walkers start after the runners, so on that second loop, we were looking for my parents. I was shocked at how far up in the walker's pack they actually were - very exciting, as my mother has been doing a lot more walking and has actually started training to walk a Half Marathon Spring '08! We yelled for them and kept on jogging. At this point, we had just about a mile to go. We crossed a little bridge and were into the final stretch. I was excited for Ashley to finish her first 5k! Sure enough, we spotted the 3 mile mark, and I said...just .1 to go! She said, "oh, it's 3.1?" And, just like that, we were through the finish chute and getting our timing chips cut off. I think our time was around 32 minutes - not bad for her first race!
We quickly went over to my car and grabbed water. I wanted to get back out there and cheer my parents on. I couldn't believe how quickly I saw them...they were in the final stretch to the finish.
My mom started to jog that final stretch, and kept it up right through the finish chute. They finished the 2 mile walk in just over 29 minutes (yes, the clock says 39, but they start 10 minutes after the runners, or gun time)! Wahoo for them! Here's a picture of all of us after the run.
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