Every year, Graceworks puts on a 5K race in Franklin, Tennessee called the Turkey Trot. Nashville Striders is often times a sponsor for this race. The race begins at D1 sports (Near Coolsprings Galleria). The course begins by running around the mall to the stop light across from Academy Sports & Outdoors. Then, the course continues down Mallory Lane until you get to the road by Target. Here, you run through towards Backyard Burger and make a right. Next, you continue straight until you turn left to run across the bridge at that covers Interstate 65. After crossing 65, the race continues back around by Prairie Life Fitness, and then loops around and goes back over the bridge and then around the other side of the mall and to the finish line. This is a race that I really enjoy participating in every year, and it's something that I look forward to. However, I do have some complaints about the way that this race is managed. As a race that is been going on for several years now, I would expect that the race management would improve year upon year. However, I continue to be disappointed each year. Usually, when you go to pick up your race packet for other races, you walk in and there is a table organized alphabetically by last name, and you tell them your first and last name, and they hand you your T-shirt, race bib, timing chips, etc. for this race, when you arrive to pick up your race packet, you first have to go to a board and find your name and your corresponding number. Next, you have to go to a table and pick up your bib that is in the packs of numbers. Then, once you have your bin, you go to a table to pick up your T-shirt. When you pick up your T-shirt, your size should correspond with the size that is on your bib. This year, however, I arrived at the pick up early, and they were not ready for me. I couldn't return later that evening, so my dad was kind enough to go and pick up my items for me. For someone who does not typically pick up race packet, the process could've been confusing enough. However, I registered as an individual participant, and apparently this was a mistake because something went wrong with my registration because I had registered that way. If you registered as an individual participant for this race, there's a good chance that there was something wrong with your registration, too. They needed you to put the number of people in your party. DUH! 1. Individual Registration=1. This means that there was no number to correspond with my name. This also means that there was no sticker on my bib saying what size shirt I would get. Apparently, this all happened because I didn't identify the number of people in my party for my INDIVIDUAL registration. Since there was no size associated with my name, my dad had to select size for me. Unfortunately, he decided to go with an extra small, and the sleeves were way too short for me. The next morning, at the race, I attempted to exchange my size for a more appropriate one. At this point, they only had extra small and extra-large left. The refreshments after the race were very nice. This year, they offered bananas, kind bars, sports drinks, water, and I think they may have had bagels as well. After the race, they went through a lot of door prize giveaways from raffle tickets that each runner received. There was also a bit of a competition between the local schools. Whatever school had the most raffle tickets torn and put it into their bucket won. Usually, I notice the schools out on the course cheering and making their presence known, so it helped me decide who to vote for. However this year, I don't remember seeing much of that. Finally, there is a kids run that takes place last. Overall, this is a race that I really enjoy participating in every year. I will absolutely be back again. My strongest complaints/opinions about this race are that the race management has room for much improvement.
