United Way holds a Turkey Trot 5K each year the weekend before thanksgiving, with an opportunity to win a frozen turkey if you finish 1st in your age division. Although I never won a frozen turkey, I really enjoy this race. The only swag to get is a long sleeve tee. There is plenty of food and beverages both before and after the course, but there is no bag of swag like at most races.
The course is comprised of large sidewalks or the road. The race is held at river walk, a 2.5mile loop for walking, running, or biking. To make the course a full 5K, they guide you along a road and back into the loop. The road and course is well marked with people waving flags and directing you at each turn as well as someone at each mile to tell you the current time. There is one aid station around the halfway point with water, I normally don't use aid stations in a 5K but this one did look smaller. The course is pretty flat with a long down hill just passed the halfway point and again at the very end. The only up hill is around the 2 mile mark and it is a long gradual incline which makes it easy to keep your pace.
This year was much warmer than in the past, around 49 degrees, which allowed me to keep a fairly consistent pace of 8min 20seconds for almost the entire race. It is a good race for those new to running or looking for a race that will not take too much out of you. This was their first year doing chip timing so there was some time to wait to hear the results. I also was told that the course may change next year as the river walk loop is being expanded.
Since I last did this race, I joined a run club (primarily for the speed drills) and have going to jiu jitsu classes more. I hit a PR recently in one mile run but my 5K time and pace hadn't dropped that significantly. This year I managed a sub 26min 5K and got first in my age group, which means....free turkey!!

Shoes: Asics Tri-noosa
Headphones: Aftershockz
Shirt: Nike
Shorts: Asics
Socks: Asics
Sleeves: 2XU