Thanksgiving morning in Kansas City means more than prepping for good food – it means all throughout the area, people are waking up early to participate in one of many “turkey trots.”
This year we opted to tackle the Thanksgiving Day 5K, hosted by SportKC. As our BodyPump instructor says, we had to “burn before bird.” This year’s race drew over 3,000 participants across the T-Mobile and Aspiria campus in Overland Park, making it one of the largest holiday runs in the region.
Race Morning
We started the day bright and early at 6am, braving 27-degree weather to pick up our race packets. Organizers asked runners to arrive well ahead of the 9am start to avoid last-minute delays, so after grabbing our bibs we huddled in the car until about 30 minutes before the race.
The cold was intense. The first mile was especially tough as our bodies adjusted. We haven’t run a race this cold since January’s Battle of the Bean in near zero degrees. But once we warmed up, we settled into the rhythm and tackled the surprisingly hilly course winding through the campus trails.
Results
- My race: I finished in 27:04, with a pace of 8:43/mi, placing 24th out of 111 in my age group and 465th overall out of 3,089 runners.
- William’s race: He finished in 29:39, with a pace of 9:33/mi, placing 39th in his age group of 123 and 718th overall. This was William’s fastest 5K pace of the year, which is especially impressive given the cold conditions.
This was our 23rd athletic event of 2025. I’ll admit I was underprepared and pushed too hard early on, which made the last mile a grind. But that’s part of the learning curve – every race teaches us something new about pacing, preparation, and resilience…and layering for all weather.
Wrapping Up the Kansas City Classics
This year’s Thanksgiving Day 5K marked our fifth Kansas City Classics race of 2025, officially completing the series and earning us the extra-special finishers medal for logging over 30K combined distance.
The Kansas City Classics is a six-race series, and to finish you need to complete at least five. This was our first year participating. Here’s the lineup of races we tackled (select one to read the recap for that race):
- Groundhog Run 5K
- Hospital Hill Run
- Tiblow Trot 5K
- Kansas City Zoo Run
- Thanksgiving Day 5K (this run)
Each race brought its own challenges – whether it was the underground course of the Groundhog Run, the notorious inclines of Hospital Hill, or the community spirit and surprising hills of the Tiblow Trot. Together, they added up to a year of growth, grit, and shared milestones.
We’ve got one more race to close out the year: the Westport Santa Dash 5K in Kansas City. This one will be extra special – we’ll be joined by William’s cousin Katrina, my family visiting from Iowa, and my nephew, who will run his very first “professional” race in the Little Elves Run.
Current fundraising focus
Support us in our runs by donating to our fundraiser for KC Pet Project.
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