Photos are here:          https://photos.app.goo.gl/UomosGnRBMYU4Bbv8

Before the Start:  My 76^th race of 2025 was the Gruene Turkey Trot held on Thanksgiving Day in Gruene, Texas, the site of historic Gruene Hall, built in 1878, is a live music venue and Texas’ oldest continually operating dance hall. Gruene is located adjacent to New Braunfels, Texas. This event’s official is Comal Cops for Kids Turkey Trot 5K and Kids Turkey Chase. Prior to the start day, I found out from friends also doing this event, that there were 3,000 registered for this 5K.  Start time was 8:30 a m., so on Race Day, I got a very early start, hoping to maybe get there before the crowd and find some good parking.  Apparently, most of the other participants had the same idea; by the time I got there – with the help of another participant I encountered at a local convenience store, since directionally challenged me initially missed my turn to get to Gruene – the parking areas were already packed, but I got lucky and found an empty parking spot quite close to the start/finish area. I got my race bib and then wandered around the grounds, chatting with running friends I knew and other participants and supporters.  This is also a very dog-friendly event – lots of dogs there – so I handed out dog-treats too; I was very popular with the dogs after that, lol.   Before the start, the Comal County Sheriff’s Color Guard somehow made it through the packed crowd in the start area to present the colors for The National Anthem. I got a photo of them before the start. A young lady beautifully sang The National Anthem, and then we got going.

On the course:  The course was a big loop course that took us up Gruene Road and then through some of the very nice family housing neighborhoods in this area.  We pretty the whole roads for this event. There was a bit of traffic at times, but the drivers were very patient with us. All the participants were pretty patient too, making way for faster participants coming up from behind, and encouraging each other on. From where I was any- given-moment, everyone was pretty polite about it all, helping each other out.   Because of my spinal arthritis, I can’t run nonstop anymore for very long; I was a March of Dimes baby, born with dislocated hips, but had good medical care, so lived a pretty much normal life, but was also told this is a ‘degenerative’ disease so, when I got older it would probably end up “active” and that happened in my 50s; so I did my usual thing of run-8-minutes/walk-2-minutes and got some on-courses photos during my walk breaks,  I was feeling pretty good the whole way, going along pretty well at my two running paces:  slow-and-slower, lol. After passing the Mile 2 marker, I took one more walk break then decided time to get done, and ran nonstop to the finish just over the last ½ mile of the course. I ended up with a time of 42:16, averaging 13:36 per mile and my last mile was a negative split. Overall, I ended up 832^nd male out of 1,240 males; 1,618 finisher of 2,718 total finishers and was 7^th out of 27 in my 70-79 males age group. I was very satisfied with this result and happy about meeting my two primary race goals for every race I do: finish standing up and no ambulance specifically being there for me at the finish. Anything after that is a bonus!

After My Finish:  I got a few photos of some others coming in, staying out of the way of others. I had a very nice finish-line-area chat with Sarah – I think that’s her name, if my old man brain remembers correctly – one of the race volunteers and organizers. She found out I had not requested a shirt – I do so many races over the year, I’m running of drawer space, lol – but I really liked the design of the race shirt of this race – so she told me to go over to the packet pickup area and tell them she had said to give me one of the extra shirts she had; so I did; they only had XL left, but that’s okay; I’ll get it hemmed a bit and it will be find. After that, I once again wandered around the race grounds, chatting with others there and getting some post-race photos, and handing out more treats. There were so many dogs at this event, I finally went back to my vehicle and just took a whole jar of treats with me and – with the permission of their humans – just passed treats out to each dog I encountered. I ended up getting a lot of photos of participants and dogs, lol.  Since I was wandering around here-and-there so much, I missed the awards ceremony – which was okay, I knew I hadn’t placed anyway, but congrats to all my running friends who did place. The Kids Run was done after the main event.  There was a guy in a Turkey costume, and the kids chased him on a short out-and-back for the Kids Run; it was pretty fun to watch.

Epilogue:  This is one of my very favorite events of the year, which I will continue to keep regularly on my race calendar as long as I am able to run/walk. There were all kinds of goodies post-race. No finisher medals – can you imagine the cost of making 3,000 finisher medals; probably would have made the race entry price astronomical, lol – but the race shirts are really nicely designed, and the race bibs are quite well done too.  The course is excellently thought out, with lots of room for everyone, from what I saw where I was at any given time on the course. I don’t know how the course was for the ‘speedsters’ at this event who placed in the overall winners group; I’m assuming at their pace, those folks had plenty of maneuvering room.  Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for us participants. As large as this event is, I’m sure they had many challenges to deal with to get everything just right;  the succeeded too, from what I saw at any given time; the course was great; the race shirts are really nice, and even the race bib is pretty colorful. Thanks to the Comal County Sheriff’s Office for being the title sponsor, and to all the other sponsors too who made this one happen for us. Thanks to Athlete Guild and the volunteers who laid out the very nice course for us; and to all the volunteers doing race-day packet pickup; manning on-course water stations; driving in the 4-wheel vehicles along the course, making sure everyone is okay; our volunteers who prepared post-race Kiolbassa sausage wraps for us – they were excellent; I enjoyed one post-race; the Turkey Guy who got ‘chased’ for the Kid’s Run; all our course-marshals; and, of course, all the law enforcement officers out there for traffic control and for our safety; the official race photographers; my friend Sammy, who was one of the organizers too; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!  Whatever your personal goals may be, may you always be successful and always stay safe and injury-free