Since childhood, my Thanksgiving tradition included watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade while stuffing my face with pumpkin muffins.  Then last Thanksgiving, my friends convinced me to run the 5K in the Turkey Trot, which began a whole new Thanksgiving tradition.

For 30 years, thousands of runners include the St. Petersburg Times Turkey Trot as part of their Thanksgiving tradition.  Many participants show their love for this annual race by wearing some outlandish running attire.  Some wear Native American headdress while others choose to stick with the theme of the event by strapping a turkey to their heads.

However, this runner simply paired her new SPIbelt with a Turkey Trot shirt to display her affection for this annual tradition.

Among the thousands of participants, I arranged to meet a fellow running blogger, Becelisa, and her friends.  We chatted briefly before the race with just enough time to capture the Kodak moment.  I enjoyed the opportunity to meet her in person.

Then, on our way to the start of the race, Lori noticed a gentleman with a turkey decoy on his head and felt compelled to ask him if he was a hunter.  To her dismay, he just likes the look of decoys on his head while he runs.

At the start line, Lori and I found Tiffany and her hubby, Greg, who was kind enough to snap another picture before the race began.

At the sound of the foghorn, the 10K began and in true Run DMT fashion, I took pictures while I ran.  Unfortunately, the Clearwater “hills” are undetectable in my photos.

Even while I snapped photos, I kept my pace at 8:30, but the turkey decoy ran faster.

Spectators cheered for us while local musicians played music to keep us moving.

Then, about mile 3, I got a cramp in my side, which I attribute to picture taking.  Tiffany passed me after the second water station.

While walking off my cramp, I noticed the Hare Krshna guy again from a couple miles back.  I wondered what his pace was to make it over to his new spot so quickly.  I also wondered why are there is only one vowel in Krshna?

With Hare Krshna on my side, I decided to get serious about this race, but not after a few more pics.  Can you spot the “hill”?  As much as I love to take snapshots of the backs of other runners’ heads, someday I will learn to run backwards to take pictures of their faces.

As I approached the end of the course, I felt compelled to take a picture of the pipers, who then hollered at encouraged me to run.  With a piper’s prod, I sprinted to the finish line at a 7 minue mile pace.  My time was 56:12, which is not my best time, but that’s what I get for trying to be a paparazzi runner.

At every race,  I learn something new which helps improve my performance at my next challenge.  I learned two things:

1.  Don’t take so many bloody pictures.

2.  Wear layers that can pulled off and tossed to the side.  (I was so flipping hot, but I didn’t want to strip and loose my cute turkey shirt!  This was definitely a good lesson to learn before the Disney marathon.)