Thanksgiving Day in Pictures, part 1-THE ROAD RACE

In our state there is a HUUUGGGE (really, no lie) road race that occurs every year on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. It is a five mile race through the center of one of our towns. 15,000 people register, a couple thousand more run without registering, and thousands come to watch. There are many serious runners there that come from around the world and then there are the less serious runners who come from within the US or our area of New England. And lastly there are...the weirdos. The people who come to run (or walk...stroll...) a 5 mile race in absolutely ludicrous costumes. There were Christmas trees, Turkic, santas, gorillas, super heroes, food items, and far far far too many men in hula skirts/loin clothes/bras/speedoes/you name it, and lots and lots of spandex. It is quite the spread of people.

It has been a long time since my family has attended the road race, but this year we thought it would be nice to get out butts out into the cold and participate in one of the biggest events our (kind of boring)state has. My dad's law office happens to be on one of the streets the race occurs on so we went there, took all the fancy chairs out of his conference room, and hauled them across the street onto the median where we sat to watch the race. Simenesh was very excited to go and support a famous Ethiopian runner (and I wish I could spell her name)- she even climbed up into a tree and waved a flag- and the rest of us were excited to just have fun watching people make their way down the main streets of the town wearing all sorts of funnery. I was mostly along for the great photography opportunity! And my, I had fun. I will put some of the pictures here, but for the full effect go and check out my flickr page!

 my family (minus mom and baby) plus grandfather and some random dude is a furry hat?

 I tried so hard to capture the vast amount of homosapiens packed onto that street. Thousands upon thousands. Truly amazing for a small CT town.

 I liked these girls. They ran in a line, in RAINBOW ORDER.

 Ever see the discovery channel show Cash Cab? It is one of my favorites! These 3 made a "cash cab" and did the whole race with it on their shoulders. Points to them.

 Vintage Pucky the Whaler

 I adore big, drooly dogs.

 Mardi Gras anyone?

 A wrestler/luchador?

 Chilean coal miners. They got me really excited. I yelled in Spanish a lot and cried out Viva la Chile. I love Chileans. Though these guys weren't legit they get major creativity points.

 These guys were in the lead (there was one crazy African man out way in front of them. I'd assume he won.)

 The less pro runners.

 They odd guys cracked me up. As the were running they were calling to their friend "LaLa" who had fallen behind. "COME ON LALA!!" And the crazy yellow teletubby ran like the wind and caught up!

 Bananas

 There were so many waldos. The first one made me really happy. The ones that followed just made me feel like I was being lied to.

 Yes, that is what you think it is. A Tree. WITH LEGS COMING OUT OF IT! This guy (?) did the whole race like this. Craziness!

 Thanksgiving dinner on foot.

 This man is road race legend. "Safety Man". He shows up every year and acts like he is in charge of directing the runners safely to the finish line.

 I hate egg nog, but this kid gets points for making such a detailed carton!

 Um...firstly, it is thing 1 and thing 2, not 4 and 2 and if there are really 4 of you what happened to 1 and 3?

 Sadly there were a lot of this guys...

 Miners! They did nothing but walk, yell things in "Spanish" in a horrid gringo way, and drink beer. Ugh. But their costumes were amazing!

Spidey put on a bit of weight and the holidays haven't even really begun!?


See, lots of fun, right? Even more fun up on my flickr! More pictures to come of family, food, and whatnot! Stay tuned!


***check out my previous post on continuing in a spirit of thankfulness. I would still love for some of you guys to join in with me!