FINALLY! Ellie and I have FINALLY completed the oldest consecutively held footrace in the world. That's right folks, the 127th annual Buffalo YMCA Turkey Trot. It did not disappoint.

In an exceedingly rare event, Ellie and I were actually home in Buffalo for Thanksgiving this year. Usually we are working our way back and forth over the New York State thruway so we have never had the opportunity to race in in Buffalo, but this year was the year. The 8 kilometer race started off at a very pleasant 9am, which meant we only had to leave our house into the brisk 32 degree air at about 8:30. This was a much welcomed change than some of the other races we've done. The choice in clothing was a difficult one as throughout the race it warmed up into the mid 40s, though we had planned to walk the ~4 miles ish back to Delaware Park which we left our car at. Ambitious, but hey, we needed the steps in preparation for the feast we were about to consume. We opted to go layers, which I shortly after race started to strip off as I promptly over-heated... can't win them all!

This race was overall super fun. There was no water stations or aid stations along the way, however as we crossed under the 198 overpass on Delaware Ave, people were tossing donuts off the bridge down to the runners. As we proceeded downtown, we could was these donuts down with plenty of beer options, shots, and many other festive libations that the Buffalo community had out for the over 14000 runners. I'm not saying that this is a close second to the festive feel that the Boilermaker has, but . . . i'm not saying it isn't! 

We crested the hill at North Street and descended down the rest of Delaware avenue, around Niagara square and eventually weaved our way to the finish line in what Ellie and I were pretty happy with -- a 49:11 finish time at 9:54 minute/mile pace. While we didn't train specifically for this race, we have been working on consistently working out and building a base level of fitness, and it certainly seems to have paid off!

Ellie finished 3,238 out of 9,534, and though we tied, I finished in 3,242 place. Ellie was 176/668 in her division and 1066/4771 for women, and I was 285/555 and 2,175/4823. Overall a solid place and we are pretty happy with the run overall.

It was a super fun race, and if we are ever home again for thanksgiving morning, we would certainly race it again. Also, shout out to our buddy Alex, who crushed it coming in at 31st overall, in a time of 27:07 with a pace of 5:27 per mile... #goals