Chilly (but fun) start to turkey day

The forecast for Thanksgiving morning looked perfect for a family walk with thousands of our closest friends at the Berbee Derby. Originally Mama was going to run the 10K with Uncle Jacob. But then Mama sprained her ankle three weeks ago and still hasn't recovered.

So I was going to walk the 5K. Mama, Dada and Allie were all going to walk together. Aunt Jocie was going to walk with us. Grandma and Grandpa Swanson and Aunt Jeni were going to watch us. The only problem was that it was too cold!

Ready to go mix some pancakes! I think she looks so grown up when her hair is up!

This race is huge. It had total of close to 5,500 runners in the 5K and 10K. Thats not counting the walkers. We left the house later than we did last year and ended up parking pretty far away. We walked a good distance in getting the the race staging area and then getting back to where the 5K would start! The temp was in the low 40s but it was really windy.

I registered with the Team in Training team which got us a warm place to wait for the race to start. We got there in time for the team photo!

I was surprised Allie kept her hat and her mittens on. She even seemed to like them.

The 10K started at 9. We walked out in time to hear the start so Jacob had to run off to get on the course. Then we started the long trek to the area where the 5K walkers were lining up. I think we walked a 5K to get there. They changed the 5K course this year but I wasn't impressed with the way it was all staged. Its in this research park area thats like a prairie restoration-type set up. Its really pretty but between all the vegetation and the barricades and equipment, there wasn't room for all these thousands of people to walk.

 But we eventually made it and stopped to take a few pictures.

Lots of people dressed up in Thanksgiving-themed costumes.

Unfortunately it took awhile to get to the start of the walk. The 5K walk started at 9:15. The walk didn't finally start until after 9:30. We were out waiting for so long and Allie decided she wanted to walk. Then she decided she didn't want her blanket or to wear her hat or mittens. Then she wanted to get out of the stroller to walk. By the time we were starting she was crying and we stopped almost right after we actually got to the starting line to try and re-bundle her. She was so grouchy and we decided to skip the walk and head over to wait for Jacob to finish. It took so long for the walk to start that 10K runners were already finishing. But Allie was so cold and miserable that Dada and Aunt Jeni took her back to the car and went home.

I stayed with Mom and Jocelyn to wait for Jacob. Paul headed back to their car. I enjoyed seeing the costumed runners and snapped a few pictures.

I was sad I wasn't running, of course. And the longer we were standing there, the colder my feet got. I think we'll skip the Berbee Derby next year, but I'm not doing the Berbee Derby again unless I'm running the 10K. Or at least until Allie is a lot older and more patient with waiting. It just takes too long if you're not in the first race!

There's Jacob booking it to the finish. He hadn't trained much (or at all?) and had to stop to walk a few times. We both ran this race last year and I remember being ticked that there was that big hill at the end. He apparently forgot about it and was ticked all over again. We probably would have been running about the same pace if I had been able to run. He finished well though!

After he was done we started the cold walk to the car. It took awhile to get home. But once we got home we had some tasty hot coffee and a great lunch of ham sandwiches, chips and all sorts of other fixings. We'll have our big family dinner Saturday!

In hindsight, Allie probably shouldn't have come to the race. But I thought it was warmer than that! We may wait a few years before trying the Berbee Derby again. It was a fun time at the race though and a fun day with family. And we still got in plenty of walking even though we didn't walk the 5K!