I normally do a local turkey trot not too far from my house on Thanksgiving Day... probably for the past seven years or so. Unfortunately, this year they had trouble getting the permits from the city, and had to cancel. This left me in a predicament. I really wanted to trot, but wanted something longer than a 5k, which is the majority of races on Thanksgiving morning. If I had to wake up at 6am, I wanted to run longer and make it worth my time, energy, and money. I decided on the RAM Racing North Shore Turkey Trot because they had a 10k, and it was in the same area as the North Shore Classic Half Marathon in June, so I knew what the parking situation was (this is a cause of anxiety for me when doing a new race in a new to me location). Despite nearly an hour drive, it was worth the early wake up. This was a very organized event with plenty of volunteers and police officers on course. The weather at the start was sunny and 33 feels like 24 degrees with 10mph winds.

PROS:
+ The option to mail your packet for $15. I knew I wouldn't be able to get to packet pickup on Tuesday or Wednesday up in Deerfield (it ended up moving from Fleet Feet Deerfield to a different location due to renovations at FF I think). Anyway, thankful for packet mailing or I wouldn't have been able to run.
+ Goodie bag was a blue long sleeve tech shirt, gender specific.
+ 5k 7:30am start, 10k 8:10am start.
+ Plenty of parking in the area (and free!).
+ Lots of portapotties near the start and on course – actually didn't even have to wait in any lines before the start!
+ I believe the corrals were A–F for the 5k and G–I for the 10k, but could be wrong. They started pretty quickly after one another.
+ Though the course was open to traffic, it wasn't too busy and most drivers were respectful and drove slow. Cones divided some of the streets, and there were a lot of officers and volunteers out on course to make sure runners went in the correct direction and kept cars stopped until they had proper breaks to get through.
+ Plenty of aid stations with portapotties. Nuun first, water second.
+ The course is challenging in there are some hills, but it's not too bad.
+ Since we were running on streets and there weren't a ton of runners, there wasn't any issue with congestion (in the back of the pack, at least).
+ Pretty scenery along the way.
+ Mile markers and clocks.
+ Finish line: bottled water, Nuun in cups, individual Apple Pie (2 mini pies in a package), Clif Bar (the protein kind, but they were Chocolate Almond Coconut, or something like that, and I don't like coconut, so I passed), and mini candy canes.
+ Podium and backdrop for photos.

CONS:
- I guess the only con for this one would be there isn't any weekend packet pickup, which would be easier for anyone that isn't super local to grab their packets. I wouldn't have been able to make packet pickup on a weekday by 6pm because of work.

Other than that, it's a great race and if my local race doesn't come back, I'll be doing this one again.