Hanover Turkey Trot Recap

Thanksgiving is a time to spend eating and watching football and hanging out with family and friends.

Thanksgiving for me has involved running, seeing a movie, and eating. So this year I did just that!

I got up early and heading a little less than 2 miles from my house to participate in the Hanover Turkey Trot with Carrick. We ran. My knee hurt. We walked. We finished. Then we headed to Dunkin Donuts.

After I showered I went and saw Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them for the second time. I LOVE this movie. The movie stands apart from Harry Potter without completely abandoning what we know all ready. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

This is a niffler. He's my favorite.

After the movie I went to my sister's house for a turkey dinner. I've always wondered why they call it dinner when you eat at like 2 pm.

Let's recap the run though.

Distance:
5k

Start Time:
7:30 am

Price:
$25
$15 for 13 and younger

Organization:
Registering for the event was really easy and smooth. You sign up through RaceWire so you're races will save all together if you sign up for an account. You can pick up your bib the Tuesday before the race at the high school if you want to or you can pick it up at the race on Thursday morning. This makes for a smooth process. I choose to pick up the bibs on Tuesday night on my way home. Parking is really easy on Thursday morning as you can park at the start or the finish. The race is early enough that a lot of people are not out driving around, but they do have cops to keep traffic down on the roads as needed. Each mile is clearly marked and whenever there are turns they are marked with orange arrows.

Course:

The course starts on the street outside of Hanover Middle School and ends at Hanover High School. As you can see there is not much elevation change which is nice. The course spends over a mile in a neighborhood. Some of the neighbors will come out and cheer on the runners. It's a good course that I could see myself running on any given day. There are no water stops along the course, but water and hot chocolate at the end of the run.

Swag:

If you register before a certain date you will receive a long-sleeve shirt with the race logo on it. (This year was November 9th.) I signed up a couple days after this deadline so I did not receive a shirt. Sometimes they do have extra shirts, but this year they all sold out. A great perk is that the race is chip timed. The only downside of this is that there is no starting line you cross over to activate the chip. 

Would I recommend this race?

I think doing a run on Thanksgiving is a great way to spend time with family and friends. The runs are early enough to get done with before needing to get out to visit your loved ones. I think everyone will have a different a race they like to do. I do enjoy the Hanover Turkey Trot. It's nice to see how many families come out to do the races together. I would say if you live in Hanover or a surrounding town that does not host a turkey trot, this is a great run to do.

Happy Black Friday?

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I had a pretty low key day and was in bed early to get to work early this morning for Black Friday. (The good thing about getting in early is leaving early!) The day wasn't awful.

I haven't really done too much since the marathon a few weeks ago so I was excited to do the Hingham Turkey Trot yesterday. It was a nice route that started at Hingham High School and went into Wompatuck State Park before heading back to the school. I felt in the zone and was fine just taking my time. It wasn't my fastest 5k, but it wasn't my slowest either. I really enjoyed ending the run on the track and then walking around it before exciting. I would do this race in the future for sure. (I'd show some pictures, but I didn't take any! I just enjoyed my time running.)

I signed up for a run in Salem. On March 21 I will be running the Nutty Irish 5k Cocoa Run. There will be hot chocolate (in flavors) at the end. If you are over 21 you can also add liquor into your cocoa. For pre-registering you receiving texting gloves. You also have the option to get a souvenir mug as well. I'm excited to spend more time around Massachusetts running in the upcoming year.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what you have, the people in your life, and helping others. Or about planning your Black Friday chaos for the next morning. I do not think any sale is worth sitting in the cold for 6 hours and risking your own life. (Sorry Mom!) This year it did seem pretty straight forward. By the time I woke up everyone was home and done with their shopping. So back to Thanksgiving.

For the half with TNT I made a goal to raise at least $1,000 by December 1. On November 1, with the help of 2 friends, I hit $1,025! I was really thankful for everyone who had donated so far. I still have a ways to go with fundraising, but I'm feeling much better about it.

I started my Thanksgiving at 5 am getting ready to run with Sean & Stan. Sean picked me up at 6 & we began our journey to Plymouth. After an experience at Dunkin Donuts, we got on the highway & soon we were in Plymouth. The 3 of us did something called the Second Helping Challenge. We did a 4.77 mile run throughout downtown Plymouth first then moved to the Pinehills for a 5k. It was fun. Even those hills downtown was an experience. We all finished. We all got medals. We even all placed in our age groups! (Sean coming in 3rd!)

After the Turkey Trot. We just have another 5k to do. No big deal.

From Plymouth I headed home to shower & change for "dinner". This year my uncle & his husband came home from NYC so we went out to eat. It was good. We all got turkey. (No surprise there!) Then we went back to my grandmother's house to eat more dessert. Yum! After watching too much Family Feud & Cash Cab we went off to the movies. We saw Lincoln. It was really good. It's long so make sure you don't eat too much turkey & haven't been up since 5 am without a nap first.

Being Black Friday, I'm off to work now! Remember to be nice to the sales people & other shoppers. No deal is worth being treating others poorly.