Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot

This is an annual event run in Elmhurst and it was it’s 30^th year this year. This year approximately 8600 folks ran or walked the annual 5K through the streets of downtown Elmhurst and surrounding neighborhood on Thanksgiving day.
Sign up online and pick up at the Knights of Columbus was a breeze. This is a non-​chip timed event, but they do have clocks at the start, midway and finish so you can approximate your run/​walk time if you don’t have a timer on yourself.
I was really surprised with the turn out of this event. Not just the runners, but spectators and business owners coming out and cheering the runners on. I felt like I was on a major run with people shouting encouragement and holding up funny/​encouraging signs. The BEST was the group of folks in the neighborhood dressed like the Duck Dynasty family tooting their duck call whistles and cheering us along. WOW.
We were fortunate to have Jim Cornelison (from CHI Blackhawks fame) sing the National Anthem prior to the start of the race. Also some WWII planes (replicas or real, I don’t know) flew overhead the same time.
SO VERY COOL.
Elmhurst is a great community and I loved the fact that so many people come out for this. The route is fairly flat except for the hill under the viaduct/​train tracks that you have to run up. They did change the route this year so most of it ran through the downtown area which I liked.
They do offer shuttle buses that will pick up/​drop off at certain locations. But I decided to drive and found parking easily in the blocks close to the start/​finish.
The website doesn’t say this, but I guess it is pet and running stroller friendly. Although some of those poor dogs seemed to just want to lie down in the street and not run with their human. Awwww, well, it was pretty darn cold this Thanksgiving.