Turkey Chase 5K Cooperstown
Cooperstown, NY
- 5K
- Road (Paved), Trail (Unpaved)
- Official race website
The annual Turkey Chase 5K in Cooperstown, NY on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving benefits Ainsley’s Angels. There are plenty of Thanksgiving Turkey Trots but very few pre-Turkey Day race events. This will be a fun day in Cooperstown, NY, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and other really … MORE
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Easy, Flat Low-Kee Kee Race
This was nice easy, flat 2.5 mile out and back on the Erie Canal path in a small town in NY state. Race had adequate pre-race communication and solid covid … MORE
This was nice easy, flat 2.5 mile out and back on the Erie Canal path in a small town in NY state. Race had adequate pre-race communication and solid covid protocols with small waves staggered 15 mins apart. At registration you choose your time. I chose the latest time slot because I like sleep. Race was easy to get to and a little under an hour drive from Rochester. I was worried about finding the race since the instructions said it was in a park not on Google map but they gave very good directions and it was no problem. Only issue is it was about 1 hour in the opposite direction of tomorrow’s race but beggars can’t be choosers when trying to do double race weekends in 2020. Packet pick up was easy. You got the bib and a nice, non-tech but good quality t-shirt. I did think the brown shirt color clashed a little with the brown of the racing turkey logo but overall a solid t-shirt. Start was simple you lined up with your group about 1/8 mile away from the finish line and packet pick up area. This was not chipped time and they were doing some manual timing system with an iPad which I didn’t trust. They then blew a horn at your wave time and you went. Course was as simple and pretty much as flat as possible on a crushed gravel portion of the erie canal trail. Perfect course for a double race weekend as the gravel was softer than pavement so easy on the joints. The only challenge on the course was a tree had fallen over on the trail and you had to maneuver around it. At the turnaround point there was a water stop. You then just turned around and came back but veered to the left to go through the finish line. The course was nice and peaceful and pleasant enough but not very exciting especially since I usually run along a different section of the canal path behind my house in Rochester. At the finish line you get your medal which is very nice for such a small, low-key race with lots of sparkles and the running turkey and is a decent size. There was also food which included wraps with your choice of turkey or veggie (yay!), a bag of smartfood popcorn and a homemade cookie. Being a slower runner in the last wave they were out of the more popular cookie flavors but luckily I love oatmeal raisin! They also had chicken broth and a hard cider if you consume those things. This was a very fast course with the exception of the fallen tree and I was excited I had PR’ed. However when I looked to see the posted results I saw a DNF next to my name. I knew I didn’t trust the timing system! To give the racing company credit, I did message them a screenshot of my Garmin and they quickly replied and fixed my time so I decided not to take an extra sneaker away from the overall review but did take an an extra sneaker away from production. Overall this was a nice, enjoyable, low key race that wasn’t too far to travel to. I wouldn’t necessarily make plans around this race but I’d consider it if it happens again next year and fit in my schedule.