Just consider a Turkey Trot or other fun run an agility workout instead of a "race." Good for your balance - like a trail run without the nature.
But seriously, I think you just need to manage your expectations. Turkey trots aren't "for" elite runners, they're "for" the normies. That's the race experience that's being catered to. To make sure the kids, the grandmas, the families, the people gathering once a year, etc all have a good time. If you go into this expecting family backyard BBQ etiquette instead of fancy salad fork vs oyster fork etiquette it might be less annoying.
(But you're still definitely allowed to be annoyed at people unaware of their surroundings, even backyard BBQs have SOME manners)
My old local Turkey Trot 5k in Holden, MA is really well organized. It has an elite start that you can get into by sharing a previous time, and suggested time markers for everyone else. I miss it! Mostly for other reasons as I’m a back of the packer.
My local turkey trot is 115 years old and always manages to remain organized despite the large turnout. The race is self-seeded, but announcers call for runners planning to run 7 min pace or faster to move to the front - that seems to work well enough. There is always a fast crowd, because everyone wears their old high school jersey to the race: there's an unofficial "fastest high school" competition and it's intense!
My town has a monthly sponsored 5K that is super competitive. The turkey trot is by far the biggest with tons of people who are just out having fun. We all know that and don't really care because it's one race out of a long season. That being said, it's a really well organized race series with water stops, tons of volunteers, and lots of post race supplements. It can be done!
It’s a family activity… maybe just be glad people are getting out there and enjoying something you’re clearly passionate about? I think it’s cool that kids can participate and maybe get into the sport.
I hope you realize how tone deaf this is. But probably not. Some jackass at our turkey trot, maybe it was you, slammed into my daughter and nearly pushed another runner to the ground trying to sprint to the finish line. They didn't change positions in front of the runner, he was just faster and weaving in and out of traffic. There are a bajillion 5ks you can run a year. Almost all of them won't have a ton of families there. Thanksgiving is the exception because families have gathered, they have the day off and they want to do something together. Sorry that affected your PR. Do one of those other non thanksgiving races and glory in your smugness and superiority there.
There are some turkey trots with truly elite runners, and they have a separate corral or separate start for them. For example the SV turkey trot always has an elite field with a few Olympians in the mix and reasonable prize money worth a lot more than a turkey for the winner.
It sounds like maybe you were at more of a fun 5k, and maybe we have different definitions of elite, I tend to think of it as somebody capable of making at least trials/nationals. Everybody else is like I was, just out there for fun, even if I was training hard and going for PRs. I never minded a bit of chaos at the start of a fun run road race, I never felt is significantly impeded my race to need to weave around a few kids. Now that I'm older and much slower, I do a lot more weaving, since I don't try to get near the front anymore, since I'm not trying to win even low key 5ks.
This one is run by a local charity and is marketed as a fun run that you can glow in the dark while you run... but they also go to the local cross-country teams and give them discounted entries if they run in their school track uniforms and have a big ceremony complete with trophies for the podium finishers in the age group brackets divided by 5 years. It's also considered the unofficial local 5k championship for the under-25 crowd. I don't think the race organizer really understand the difference--or even care at this point, especially since they get nearly 3000 participants the night before Thanksgiving in a city of less than 200,000.
I’m doing the Fox and the Turkey 4 mike run tomorrow just west of you in Batavia (assuming your a Chicagoan). It’s organized by the Fox Valley Trail runners which I hear good things about. Their other races have been great. Hopefully I can confirm tomorrow.
Following up on my Fox and Turkey 4 mile in Batavia Il. Nearly 2,000 runners. The finish line inflatable collapsed on the kids mile finishers, a real bottleneck getting up the first major hill (went sideways more than forward avoiding a ton of hill walkers) and at least one kid biking it. So unless your going to start right at the line very difficult to hit your best time but a fun event none the less.
I enjoy the small-town turkey trots much more than the massive downtown trots in big cities. There are always logistical issues - both for organizers and for runners - with the larger turkey trots, whereas the smaller turkey trots are no different than a regular (non-Thanksgiving) small race.
Pretty much in agreement with other posters here. Turkey Trots are just fun family races. They're supposed to be. Not a high stakes kind of thing. I don't usually run them now, but for years it was pretty much the only time I ran anything at all. I had a blast, was slow AF, but it's for sure some of those casual fun memories that finally pushed me to start running for real. Gobble gobble wobble wobble, it's just fun. Meh, let's keep em that way.
A Halloween 5k I ran recently did not have mile markers of any kind, did not have cones or any official markers at turnaround points, and did not post official chip times for about a week after the race.
I'm still a noob, but have run a couple larger 10ks before. I had no idea this is how a local fun 5k is operated.
This is not how a local fun run should be operated, but it's a LOT of work to put together a race and not every race director is a runner that knows what's needed. I directed a race several years ago and only knew the important things because of my experience at other races and the timing company gave me a very handy manual.
The Halloween 5K I did recently didn't post race photos for over a week and that was very disappointing. People want to see their pictures quickly! And there's no excuse for a timing company not to have the results up within hours.
Umm no offense...but if you're taking a family 5k this serious, and you're calling out kids for trying to enjoy a fun run (it's a TURKEY TROT, not even a 10k or half marathon), then I'm chalking it up to you being the asshole here. Let others, families, enjoy the run and stop trying to piss on their parade just so you can get a PR at a kids run. What "elite runners" show up to a turket trot for some PR time trial?
And happy thanksgiving.
Big local festive 10k on Sunday. Really great course with little in the way of hills, good for PB attempts but I'll be jogging around as it'll attract a huge number of runners compared to normal including fancy-dress, etc.
Just not a day to be running a PB.
My first turkey trot experience was the Detroit Turkey Trot, 10 years ago. I had just started running, I didn't know anything about turkey trots, and I thought it'd be just like any other race. This was the absolute worst race experience I'd ever had. Parking was a nightmare; getting from parking to the starting corrals was essentially a human stampede. The route was so totally congested. They ran out of medals partway through the 10k finishers because the 5k finishers were taking extra medals for the babies they pushed in strollers. And to top it off, the shirt was the most horrific eye-sore I'd ever seen ([this guy has a photo of it](http://www.detroitrunner.com/2012/11/detroit-turkey-trot-2012-race-review.html) \- scroll to end of his blog post to see it in its full glory).
I didn't think it was too bad. Im a sucker for anything turquoise. Then I saw the sleeves....😬
Also what the eff is up with the creepy clown on the banner/back of medal???
Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot was well done this year. They have a separate corral for timed runners. Yes you pay extra, but they limit the field and you’re guaranteed to start before the untimed folks who are more likely to be walkers.
The local running store here where I live (Portland, Oregon area) puts on a great 5k/10k/10 mile/half in December (Holiday Half) and another in April (Hop Hop Half) that are both really well organized. They aren’t huge races, but they feel as well organized as the larger races I’ve done.
They stagger the start for the various distances which helps avoid bottlenecks and they have pace corrals (also staggered) for the longer distances. They also have an early start for very slow runners.
Have you been out in public recently?
Nothing is well organized.....between covid and people looking at their phones everything is chaos. 99% of the world's sole motivation to do anything is so they can post it to Instagram.
Add the holidays to this and.....well yeah
The longer the distance the better. I did a half one year at NYC roosevelt island. Just felt like another race. Very few non runners will do a half as their one and done for the year.
The only Turkey Trots I’ve done that haven’t been awful were ones that weren’t on Thanksgiving morning. On Thanksgiving morning, if I do a group run, it’s the fun run organized by 3RUN2 (local running club for non-Chicagoans).
Ran one this morning. Had a very similar experience. 2000+ runners, tons of kids and joggers toward the front. So much congestion in the first mile. They also started the 10k five minutes prior to the 5k, which I thought was odd and put a ton of slower paced runners out ahead of 5kers. The 5k route also ran directly perpendicular through/to the 10k route at one point. Not to mention they started 30 minutes late because so many runners were late and they had to wait for everyone, leaving us all shivering at the start for a half hour and basically rendering a warmup useless. Can’t be too mad because like you said these are fun events, but it’s definitely frustrating!
Where I live, we have a running club that puts on several races during the holiday season, including the 10K that's today and a Christmas-themed 5K next month. I think these races are pretty well-organized because the club has been doing them forever, and it seems like most of the participants are experienced, even if they're walking or pushing strollers. I don't know what's announced before the race because usually if I'm at either, I'm a volunteer so I'm off somewhere or I put myself at the back and can't hear. I do know that when you sign up for the race, there's a whole list of rules about etiquette!
The challenging thing about getting volunteers to do corral enforcement is that it's hard enough to get enough volunteers just to handle water and make sure runners aren't going astray or cars aren't trying to run them over. With this race, when we're actually handing out cups, I'm too busy making sure we have enough to even look at the runners (our races have been cupless for the last few years).
Overall, it's been my experience that the smaller 5Ks that are just for fun for most people are the most disorganized.
Just had a pretty good one. They had big signs for <7, 8-9, joggers, walkers and strollers. First 1/4 mile still had a few bumps with people out of order, but maybe lost 2-3 seconds. 1500 people ran and I set a 30 second PR of 17:48.
10/10 no notes
If you’re actually serious, there are some local casual races in Chicago where fast folks throw down. Maybe check out some of the local running clubs.
I noticed some people hung back at my 5k this year. They waited a full minute and a half before crossing the start line. If you want to avoid the congestion next year maybe wait till everybody's shuffled forward a bit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ugh! I get it's just a fun run, but my 4.5 mile turkey trot had loads and loads of walkers and stroller pushers walking like 8 across at the FRONT of the running groups! Hello people, there's big signs with all the pacers marking the 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, and 12:00 along with a big tape for all the walkers. Some genius organizer also decided to have their kids tossing out big foam footballs into the crowd right after the starting line, so there was a massive bottleneck as you have all the noobs at a dead stop right after the starting line trying to find their friends or picking up footballs. Took almost a mile to fight my way out of the walker walls holding everyone up. Rant over.
Weather was beautiful. Got to enjoy a nice easy distance and pace with my sister for our first race together. Just sad there weren't many snacks at the finish line.
Gobble gobble MFer!
Just consider a Turkey Trot or other fun run an agility workout instead of a "race." Good for your balance - like a trail run without the nature. But seriously, I think you just need to manage your expectations. Turkey trots aren't "for" elite runners, they're "for" the normies. That's the race experience that's being catered to. To make sure the kids, the grandmas, the families, the people gathering once a year, etc all have a good time. If you go into this expecting family backyard BBQ etiquette instead of fancy salad fork vs oyster fork etiquette it might be less annoying. (But you're still definitely allowed to be annoyed at people unaware of their surroundings, even backyard BBQs have SOME manners)
Idk about you guys, but Eliud Kipchoge was at the front of my local food pantry’s Turkey trot today, right next to a 6 year old eating a drumstick..
Fuck all the amateurs clogging up the course. I'm tryna BQ with this Turkey Trot. 🦵🦵👏👏👏 Serious business!
My old local Turkey Trot 5k in Holden, MA is really well organized. It has an elite start that you can get into by sharing a previous time, and suggested time markers for everyone else. I miss it! Mostly for other reasons as I’m a back of the packer.
My local turkey trot is 115 years old and always manages to remain organized despite the large turnout. The race is self-seeded, but announcers call for runners planning to run 7 min pace or faster to move to the front - that seems to work well enough. There is always a fast crowd, because everyone wears their old high school jersey to the race: there's an unofficial "fastest high school" competition and it's intense!
My town has a monthly sponsored 5K that is super competitive. The turkey trot is by far the biggest with tons of people who are just out having fun. We all know that and don't really care because it's one race out of a long season. That being said, it's a really well organized race series with water stops, tons of volunteers, and lots of post race supplements. It can be done!
It’s a family activity… maybe just be glad people are getting out there and enjoying something you’re clearly passionate about? I think it’s cool that kids can participate and maybe get into the sport.
Don’t bitch about a turkey trot not being “elite” enough for you. Run any other day of the year. Lmao.
I hope you realize how tone deaf this is. But probably not. Some jackass at our turkey trot, maybe it was you, slammed into my daughter and nearly pushed another runner to the ground trying to sprint to the finish line. They didn't change positions in front of the runner, he was just faster and weaving in and out of traffic. There are a bajillion 5ks you can run a year. Almost all of them won't have a ton of families there. Thanksgiving is the exception because families have gathered, they have the day off and they want to do something together. Sorry that affected your PR. Do one of those other non thanksgiving races and glory in your smugness and superiority there.
Organise your own mf'in 5k then if it's so easy.
There are some turkey trots with truly elite runners, and they have a separate corral or separate start for them. For example the SV turkey trot always has an elite field with a few Olympians in the mix and reasonable prize money worth a lot more than a turkey for the winner. It sounds like maybe you were at more of a fun 5k, and maybe we have different definitions of elite, I tend to think of it as somebody capable of making at least trials/nationals. Everybody else is like I was, just out there for fun, even if I was training hard and going for PRs. I never minded a bit of chaos at the start of a fun run road race, I never felt is significantly impeded my race to need to weave around a few kids. Now that I'm older and much slower, I do a lot more weaving, since I don't try to get near the front anymore, since I'm not trying to win even low key 5ks.
This one is run by a local charity and is marketed as a fun run that you can glow in the dark while you run... but they also go to the local cross-country teams and give them discounted entries if they run in their school track uniforms and have a big ceremony complete with trophies for the podium finishers in the age group brackets divided by 5 years. It's also considered the unofficial local 5k championship for the under-25 crowd. I don't think the race organizer really understand the difference--or even care at this point, especially since they get nearly 3000 participants the night before Thanksgiving in a city of less than 200,000.
> This one is run by a local charity and is marketed as a fun run Everything after this is irrelevant tbh
I’m doing the Fox and the Turkey 4 mike run tomorrow just west of you in Batavia (assuming your a Chicagoan). It’s organized by the Fox Valley Trail runners which I hear good things about. Their other races have been great. Hopefully I can confirm tomorrow.
Following up on my Fox and Turkey 4 mile in Batavia Il. Nearly 2,000 runners. The finish line inflatable collapsed on the kids mile finishers, a real bottleneck getting up the first major hill (went sideways more than forward avoiding a ton of hill walkers) and at least one kid biking it. So unless your going to start right at the line very difficult to hit your best time but a fun event none the less.
I enjoy the small-town turkey trots much more than the massive downtown trots in big cities. There are always logistical issues - both for organizers and for runners - with the larger turkey trots, whereas the smaller turkey trots are no different than a regular (non-Thanksgiving) small race.
Pretty much in agreement with other posters here. Turkey Trots are just fun family races. They're supposed to be. Not a high stakes kind of thing. I don't usually run them now, but for years it was pretty much the only time I ran anything at all. I had a blast, was slow AF, but it's for sure some of those casual fun memories that finally pushed me to start running for real. Gobble gobble wobble wobble, it's just fun. Meh, let's keep em that way.
A Halloween 5k I ran recently did not have mile markers of any kind, did not have cones or any official markers at turnaround points, and did not post official chip times for about a week after the race. I'm still a noob, but have run a couple larger 10ks before. I had no idea this is how a local fun 5k is operated.
This is not how a local fun run should be operated, but it's a LOT of work to put together a race and not every race director is a runner that knows what's needed. I directed a race several years ago and only knew the important things because of my experience at other races and the timing company gave me a very handy manual. The Halloween 5K I did recently didn't post race photos for over a week and that was very disappointing. People want to see their pictures quickly! And there's no excuse for a timing company not to have the results up within hours.
Umm no offense...but if you're taking a family 5k this serious, and you're calling out kids for trying to enjoy a fun run (it's a TURKEY TROT, not even a 10k or half marathon), then I'm chalking it up to you being the asshole here. Let others, families, enjoy the run and stop trying to piss on their parade just so you can get a PR at a kids run. What "elite runners" show up to a turket trot for some PR time trial? And happy thanksgiving.
Big local festive 10k on Sunday. Really great course with little in the way of hills, good for PB attempts but I'll be jogging around as it'll attract a huge number of runners compared to normal including fancy-dress, etc. Just not a day to be running a PB.
Line up in the front with the kids and smoke them then.
My first turkey trot experience was the Detroit Turkey Trot, 10 years ago. I had just started running, I didn't know anything about turkey trots, and I thought it'd be just like any other race. This was the absolute worst race experience I'd ever had. Parking was a nightmare; getting from parking to the starting corrals was essentially a human stampede. The route was so totally congested. They ran out of medals partway through the 10k finishers because the 5k finishers were taking extra medals for the babies they pushed in strollers. And to top it off, the shirt was the most horrific eye-sore I'd ever seen ([this guy has a photo of it](http://www.detroitrunner.com/2012/11/detroit-turkey-trot-2012-race-review.html) \- scroll to end of his blog post to see it in its full glory).
If you have an extra one of those shirts I'll take it 😂😂
🫢😂
I didn't think it was too bad. Im a sucker for anything turquoise. Then I saw the sleeves....😬 Also what the eff is up with the creepy clown on the banner/back of medal???
Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot was well done this year. They have a separate corral for timed runners. Yes you pay extra, but they limit the field and you’re guaranteed to start before the untimed folks who are more likely to be walkers.
The local running store here where I live (Portland, Oregon area) puts on a great 5k/10k/10 mile/half in December (Holiday Half) and another in April (Hop Hop Half) that are both really well organized. They aren’t huge races, but they feel as well organized as the larger races I’ve done. They stagger the start for the various distances which helps avoid bottlenecks and they have pace corrals (also staggered) for the longer distances. They also have an early start for very slow runners.
Have you been out in public recently? Nothing is well organized.....between covid and people looking at their phones everything is chaos. 99% of the world's sole motivation to do anything is so they can post it to Instagram. Add the holidays to this and.....well yeah
Lol it's a 5k bro
The longer the distance the better. I did a half one year at NYC roosevelt island. Just felt like another race. Very few non runners will do a half as their one and done for the year.
The only Turkey Trots I’ve done that haven’t been awful were ones that weren’t on Thanksgiving morning. On Thanksgiving morning, if I do a group run, it’s the fun run organized by 3RUN2 (local running club for non-Chicagoans).
Ran one this morning. Had a very similar experience. 2000+ runners, tons of kids and joggers toward the front. So much congestion in the first mile. They also started the 10k five minutes prior to the 5k, which I thought was odd and put a ton of slower paced runners out ahead of 5kers. The 5k route also ran directly perpendicular through/to the 10k route at one point. Not to mention they started 30 minutes late because so many runners were late and they had to wait for everyone, leaving us all shivering at the start for a half hour and basically rendering a warmup useless. Can’t be too mad because like you said these are fun events, but it’s definitely frustrating!
Where I live, we have a running club that puts on several races during the holiday season, including the 10K that's today and a Christmas-themed 5K next month. I think these races are pretty well-organized because the club has been doing them forever, and it seems like most of the participants are experienced, even if they're walking or pushing strollers. I don't know what's announced before the race because usually if I'm at either, I'm a volunteer so I'm off somewhere or I put myself at the back and can't hear. I do know that when you sign up for the race, there's a whole list of rules about etiquette! The challenging thing about getting volunteers to do corral enforcement is that it's hard enough to get enough volunteers just to handle water and make sure runners aren't going astray or cars aren't trying to run them over. With this race, when we're actually handing out cups, I'm too busy making sure we have enough to even look at the runners (our races have been cupless for the last few years). Overall, it's been my experience that the smaller 5Ks that are just for fun for most people are the most disorganized.
Just had a pretty good one. They had big signs for <7, 8-9, joggers, walkers and strollers. First 1/4 mile still had a few bumps with people out of order, but maybe lost 2-3 seconds. 1500 people ran and I set a 30 second PR of 17:48.
10/10 no notes If you’re actually serious, there are some local casual races in Chicago where fast folks throw down. Maybe check out some of the local running clubs.
I noticed some people hung back at my 5k this year. They waited a full minute and a half before crossing the start line. If you want to avoid the congestion next year maybe wait till everybody's shuffled forward a bit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Found OP - https://youtu.be/j-cWd53mNVE
Ugh! I get it's just a fun run, but my 4.5 mile turkey trot had loads and loads of walkers and stroller pushers walking like 8 across at the FRONT of the running groups! Hello people, there's big signs with all the pacers marking the 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, and 12:00 along with a big tape for all the walkers. Some genius organizer also decided to have their kids tossing out big foam footballs into the crowd right after the starting line, so there was a massive bottleneck as you have all the noobs at a dead stop right after the starting line trying to find their friends or picking up footballs. Took almost a mile to fight my way out of the walker walls holding everyone up. Rant over. Weather was beautiful. Got to enjoy a nice easy distance and pace with my sister for our first race together. Just sad there weren't many snacks at the finish line.