NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

November 27th 2008 marked the 101st Annual Turkey Trot put on by the New Orleans Track Club in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jaime and I talked my niece and nephew into running the race with us this year. Neither teen is a runner, but they are both active in other things and, not to mention, have youth on their side! When we told them about the race, we thought it was a 5K, but when we printed out the entry forms we realized it was a 5 MILE race. Nobody backed out, however, and we all set out that morning to run off the calories we were sure to ingest later on.
When we arrived at the Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park, we are among over 2000 other runners, many of whom looked very serious about the sport. Jaime, as always, headed up to the front of the starting pack to get an advantage from the beginning. The rest of us hung back on the sideline and waited for the race to begin. The four of us hung together for the first half mile before we all spread out at our own paces. Julian and I stuck together through the race. He was worried at first about completing a 5 mile race, but after the 3-mile mark, he realized he could run the whole thing and make good time. He kept asking me if we could pick up the pace, but I had not been running much and wanted to be sure I didn’t die out there. We were averaging about a 10 minute mile at that point. We did pick it up in the last couple of miles. Julian finally got tired of me and took off at the last half mile, sprinting to the finish line. Julian finished the 5 mile event in 48:37 putting him in 2nd place in his 10-and-under age group. My nephew Jacin finished about 30 seconds before him, and I finished at 49 even. Jacquelyn sprinted to end to finish in just under an hour. She walked the middle mile but ran the rest of the race. Jaime was way ahead of us, finishing in 38 something.
The top award went to a 35 year old man who finished in 25:02. Amazing time! The most inspiring part of the race was seeing a man in his late 70s run the race for the 50th time. Great job to him. After the race, we all got a Starbucks treat and headed back for the Thanksgiving dinner that my sister and brother-in-law were cooking up for us back home. By the way, we miss Nevis and all our friends there and hope to come back for a visit at some point. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!