I realize this stretches the scope a bit, but this is certainly more on topic here than over there. And I also realize this is a bit belated, but my day job has gotten rather busy, leaving me less time than desired to blog.

On Sunday, 2020 November 29, I participated in the inaugural Stomping Grounds DIY Turkey Trot, as best I could. The event was probably intended as a run/jog, at least for the 5K (~3.1 mile) course. The 5K course was:

From 1225 West 34th Street
East on West 34th Street
Left on Alba Road
Right on Wakefield Drive
Left on Sue Barnett Drive
Left on Lamonte Lane
Left on Apollo Street 
[Curves south to east, and name changes to West 41st Street]
Right on Golf Drive
Left on West 34th Street
Finish

I did it as a walk, as I am in no shape physically to try to run that far. I misread the course map, and as late in the week as I participated, some of the course markers may have gone missing. So, as a result, I deviated from the course slightly (specifically, as the image rendering of the GPX file will show, I turned left on West 42nd Street instead of Lamonte Lane, cutting back over via Alba Road once I realized my mistake). Given this was a non-competitive event, I’m not worried too much about a disqualification. Stuff happens, and I still put in the full distance (don’t place too much stock in the 8.06 km figure, that counts some obvious GPS technical glitches; realistically it’s more like 5.5-6 km).

I did this to do something different, and as an excuse to get the heck out of the house for a while. My main regret was that the balloon display was obviously just a bit worse for wear after the weather of the preceding 6 days. Nevertheless I took a selfie in front of (what was left of) it.

I’m not much of a competitive runner; it was a big deal for me to finish a mile in around 10½ minutes as a middle school kid, and an even bigger deal to finish the mile in 14 minutes, 12 seconds, in the only competitive mile I attempted in fifth grade. I haven’t really done a lot of running since. If I had been going for time, even walking, I probably could have finished closer to 1 hour even instead of just over 1½ hours. That said, the DIY format of this event made it such so that I didn’t have to feel any pressure of competition or get weird looks from people blowing past me. I hope the pandemic is behind us by next November, but I’d like to see the event return as a DIY event next year even if we have gone back to “normal”.