There are generally two things that occur on Thanksgiving day. (Well, three if you count someone burning a turkey. No? That only happens to me?) The first thing is that you may get stressed out sometime during the day. Uncle Fred might bring up the uncomfortable topic of politics. Cousin Millie and her husband may fight and make the family gathering uncomfortable. Your brother may decide to bring two of his college roommates to dinner and now you don’t have enough place settings. I think you get the idea. There are any number of things that could go wrong.
Get your trot on
Turkey Trots are generally anywhere between 3.1 to 8 miles and held the day of Thanksgiving. If you like a little competition, don’t mind getting up early, and want to run with others you can find a Turkey Trot near you at RunningInTheUSA.com. That link I just shared has ALL the turkey trots listed across the country and there are a lot of them. And yes, I know what you’re thinking… it’s three days until Thanksgiving. That’s ok though because a lot of races do accept sign-ups the day of the race. That means you could literally hem and haw over the decision to run until the morning of. For those of you that like to take things at your own pace and distance, you can map out your own Turkey Trot with MapMyRun. I’ve been using MapMyRun for a couple of years to plan routes while training for various races. When you’re running the same route over and over again, it can get a little monotonous. With MapMyRun you can mix things up by dragging and dropping pins on a map to plan out your run. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, just type in the exact distance you want to run and MapMyRun will spit out the perfect route. This year I’ll be running the Zeeland Turkey Trot again. I think it will be my third year in a row. Last year, when I ran it, I was 7 months pregnant and felt all 7 months of it. I think I literally waddled through the race. I felt amazing when I was finished though! Even if you’re not doing a timed Turkey Trot, I hope you all find the time to run. Even if it’s just a mile, I promise you’ll feel better both. And, if you do run a race? Think of it this way… you won’t be running alone. You’ll have dozens, if not hundreds around you, all committing to run for their mental or physical health!
