Everyone has their Thanksgiving traditions, most of them involve massive amounts of food and televised football. Ours involves eight miles of running. Lee was running the Turkey Trot in Downtown Dallas this year.

I would love to do the run, even the short 5K jog – but my job is to get everybody to City Hall on time and to carry all the extra crap.

A six AM alarm on a holiday is an early alarm. I was more than a little stressed about driving down there (we’ve taken the DART train before and that doesn’t work too well – the trains are all packed full) and finding a place to park. It didn’t help when I walked out to start the car and realized the entire city was socked in tight with a pea-soup thick fog.

Not to worry, after thirty-odd years I’ve learned my way around downtown (the key is to use Good-Latimer Expressway and sneak in from the east) and found a ten dollar parking spot on Wood street across from the Presbyterian Church. We had to step over the sleeping homeless folks in the fog, but the walk wasn’t too far.

As we walked past the closer-in lots I noticed a lot of people putting on turkey costumes. I had not read the notice – the race organizers had a representative from the Guinness Book of Records for the most people dressed as turkeys in one place. They did set the record – 616. There sure seemed to be a lot more turkeys than that wandering around.

Everybody said it seemed a little less crowded this year. I think the thick fog had something to do with that. They announced thirty eight thousand runners (including 616 dressed as turkeys) with another 15 thousand spectators (the folks that had to drive and carry all the crap).

City Hall Plaza is packed with runners until the race starts. Then, suddenly, it is almost empty – a very strange conversion. That doesn’t last long – there is an eight mile race (which Lee runs) and a 5K run/walk. The first 5K runners show up in less than twenty minutes, and it takes longer than that to get everybody going at the start. In other words, the fastest runners are finishing before the slower ones start.

Lee has not had enough time to train properly, but he finished about five minutes before he had estimated – a pretty good time if you ask me. He said the whole course was foggy and there is one leg that goes across the Trinity River on a causeway. He said that the ends of the bridge were lost in the fog but he was crossing as the fastest runners were coming back. All there was were runners going in both directions coming in from and disappearing into the dense fog.

We walked back to the car and slipped out, missing the bad traffic.

What about all the food? We stopped at the Boston Market on Forest Lane on the way home where Candy had pre-ordered everything. A ten minute wait in line and we had Turkey and all the fixins. Ready for all the football games.

The fog was thick at the start of the race on Dallas City Hall Plaza

To set the world record, all the turkeys had to be "cooped up" for ten minutes.

There was live music at the start.

A turkey dancing to the band

A Henry Moore sculpture and an Inflatable Turkey.

Lee dancing before the run

The runners lined up at the start. This picture was taken about a half mile from the actual start.

The starting line. Thirty eight thousand is a lot of runners.

And the turkeys are off. I don't know how anyone could run in those costumes.

Near the end of the eight mile race, there is a steep hill to torture the runners. I always wait there to see my kids run by. Here is Lee a hundred yards from the finish.