• Palos Park,
    Illinois,
    United States
  • November
  • Other
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Heather

Chicago, Illinois, United States
109 87
2016
"Wonderful Thanksgiving Day Tradition"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Heather 's thoughts:

Thursday, November 24, 2016; 8am start - 15th Annual

Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot with special 15th Year Finishers Medal! The challenging course on the scenic streets of Palos Park is 4 miles and USATF certified. There are 13 hills. In 14 years this race has donated over 120,000 cans of food and $3,000.00. The event is limited to 1,300 and proceeds, which include 2 canned goods from every entrant, go to stock the Worth Food Pantry. Each participant receives a stocked goody bag and a special giveaway item (hooded shirt (purple for women and green for men) and Feetures socks). Start and Finish outside Palos Park Rec Center. No aid stations, but give 3 stars because I don't think it's necessary for a shorter race distance to have one. They can be nice, but not needed. Weather was in the upper 30s, cloudy - my kind of weather.

PROS:
+ Parking is limited at the race start, so you can park at a nearby Metra lot (you don't have to pay for parking), and the race has school busses to take you to the start and back again when you were finished.
+ Packet pickup is at the store (Running for Kicks in Palos Heights) Monday–Wednesday.
+ Packet pickup on race day.
+ Packet pickup also included map for parking and the course.
+ Goody bag included a purple or green hooded shirt and a pair of Features running socks.
+ Tent to hang out in before/after race.
+ 5 year age group awards going 3 deep.
+ Post race bottled water, bagels, and bananas.
+ Family friendly - love seeing so many people being active.
+ Smaller race, maybe about 700 participants.
+ NEW for 2016 - race medals. Not sure if it'll happen again next year or just special for the 15th year.

CONS:
- There was a screw up with the shirts (not sure what happened), but the women's didn't have any L and I think they ran out of women's sizes... I heard that it was possible that the men and women's numbers got mixed up.
- It wasn't obvious during registration that the hooded shirts were gender specific - in the past it's been unisex so was unaware it was gender specific.
- No raffles during the post-race party - I think this was due to the shirt mishap and they likely had to shell out cash to order more. Would have been nice if they announced it, as I was waiting around for them haha.

I really enjoy doing this race every year. I think this was my 5th or 6th year running this race. It raises money and donates food to the hungry and I love starting my holiday (that generally means lots of food) with a 4 miler. I think this was our fastest pace yet, too :)

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