Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5K - Gobbler Turkey Costume

There are two Ann Arbor Turkey Trots in Ann Arbor. This one is hosted at Hudson Mills Metropark and is a lovely, slightly hilly course. It's mostly paved trail but there is a bit of gravelly road. My 10K PR came on this course, but today I was sticking with the 5K.

The weather was sunny and awfully windy.

Equipment:
Gobbler costume
Tutu
A billion safety pins

This costume was the hardest thing I've ever had to run in. There is a small mesh panel so you can see, but the costume does not sit easily, so the mesh panel is always migrating downwards until all you can see is the ground.

It took 40 minutes to finagle with getting the costume on, and I still wasn't happy with it by the time I needed to head to the starting line. I put on the tutu, safety pinned that to my running tights, and then pinned up the turkey drumsticks so I could run more easily.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

I tried pinning the costume in all sorts of ways to help see better, but it wasn't happening, so I was stuck with holding it up. The sunny day was beautiful, but it was reflecting off the mesh that was letting me see out of the costume, so I could barely see at times, eep!

Because the mesh panel that let me see out kept wanting to slide down, I had to run with one hand at all times holding the top of the costume up. This is not easy! I kept having to switch arms because my tiny t-rex arms were getting so fatigued. My arms were still sore later in the day from keeping the costume up. But it had to be done!

One of the highlights of the run was coming up along a man pushing his kiddo in the stroller. The little man in the stroller was telling his dad that he was done with running (we were maybe a mile in.) When I passed them, the dad said "Look, a turkey1 Do you want to run with the turkey?" There was a long pause and then an "okay." Kid approved! That made the whole costume worth it.

There were a lot of "go turkey!"s at the finish line which really helped me - I was bushed! Some people really got a kick out of the costume, but I would not suggest this one for racing. Way too difficult to see out of.