Sparks Turkey Trot

Today being the last day of November, I can officially say that I only ran twice this month. Both of those runs were Turkey Trots - Donner Lake a couple weeks ago and Sparks on Thanksgiving Day. Nice to have some time off, but it's time to get back on the horse.

So I've done the Sparks race for the last three years now - and have the super-soft sweatshirts to prove it. The course has been the same - past the marina, out onto city streets, then back onto the bike path near the water. Playing with Garmin mapping in Google Earth:



Apparently they had a bigger turnout than past year - here's a look back from the start:



And forward. I guess this balloon launch is supposed to look like a turkey? Kinda? Anyone?



Even boom-box-towing-guy showed up. I have no idea why he's wearing an Egyptian headdress, though...



I didn't get many pics from the course, just had a nice time running. Didn't force it too hard, and ended up finishing in 48:something. Managed to get through the chute, grab a water, and make my way back to the line in time to catch our friend Alex finishing. He's running the Santa Barbara marathon this weekend, so wasn't going too hard either.



So, that was November. Tomorrow starts a new month...

Donner Lake Turkey Trot

Despite not having run for TWO WEEKS (low motivation) and having had a dinner party at our house last night (high interesting-beer quotient), I made it with most of Team Library Dork to the Donner Lake Turkey Trot this morning. Met Slowrunner and HiAltDawg (to use their nicknames for once) in Verdi, and trooped up to Truckee.

Despite living in Reno, the only time I've ever been to Donner Lake was earlier this year, for the Frog Creek Trail Run - and then, I only drove by it. This was to be my real intro to Donner, and fortunately, it was a really nice day.

Cold, though. Had to find sunny spots to stand in waiting for the start, and during the Mashed Potato Mile, the kids' race that preceded the main run:



Those kids took off even faster than I would for a mile run...

Managed to find Gretchen at the start, so another TLD honorary member present. Unfortunately Snowleopard was unable to make it...

We got all lined up - here's Chris angling for position. and Dave coming back...



And off. The first half of the race was on the north side of the lake, heading east. This made for some nice pictures:







At this point, long-term readers of this space are saying "Damn, Turi really needs a camera with image stabilization." Yeah, yeah, accepting donations...

We turned at the state park:



And ran through the parking lots until we came to some sketchy shady uphills:



Got a little slipperier just around the corner from this, actually. Then it mellowed out, though, and was rolling until the finish. I scored the last cocoa Clif Shot and snapped a pic of HiAltDawg finishing:



I ended up finishing in 56:something. Chris got edged and finished second (not that he was stewing about it :) ) and Gretchen was first first female. Fifth year straight, did I hear? Dear god.

Hung out for awards and raffle (in which everyone bt me won something AGAIN, for frick's sake.)

We adjourned to the 50/50 brewery, where we celebrated with a sampler:



I followed Gretchen's lead in having a porter, but brought a growler of Collective Evil home. Which is my excuse for any the typos in this post...