From Brighton Beach we took the Q train to Prospect Park, getting to the entrance on Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Road about 10 minutes after the start of this year's 5M Turkey Trot, presented by the Prospect Park Track Club and its presenting sponsor Jack Rabbit, to benefit the Bishop Ford Track Teams.
We enjoyed watching last year's Turkey Trot so much we wanted to see today's race despite our slight envy of the fleet-footed, since we had a P+A matrixectomy at Lorimer Foot Care on Tuesday afternoon and our walking is still somewhat inconvenienced.
However, we're grateful for the vicarious pleasure of watching hundreds of people running the route, somewhat modified due to construction: starting at Wellhouse Drive and East Drive, they ran a two-mile counter-clockwise loop via Center Drive and around Prospect Lake, followed by a full loop of Prospect Park.
The number of participants this year seemed endless.
Santa Claus was walking in the opposite direction, encouraging the runners. Ho ho ho.
Washington Irving got a good view of the race.
The walkers, along with some kids on bicycles and in strollers, were still starting out a long time after the first runners began.
There was also one guy on a unicycle with a dog on a leash, but we were too slow to get his picture. Anyway, the 5K Turkey Trot is the kind of race where some people are starting out
as, it seems, others are already finishing. And that's what makes it fun, because it's for everyone from really serious runners to the, um, less swift (those didn't have foot surgery within the last 48 hours anyway).
By the time we hobbled over to the water/Gatorade station, it was pretty empty.
After the finish line, race participants made their way
to the Oriental Pavilion for bagels, hot chocolate and more refreshment.
We saw some of the top-three finishers with their prizes of truly enormous pies. Others stretched, changed their shirts and shoes, and celebrated finishing the Turkey Trot.
Last year on Thanksgiving we also went to the opening of the Wollman Skating Rink, but this year the rink is being demolished and the new spectacular Lakeside facility is being built.
We're thankful we got to enjoy some time in Prospect Park this morning before Thanksgiving dinner.
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