Sort of like a Turkey Trot

You know how Turkey Trots often advertise that you should run their race in preparation for all the food you're going to eat at Thanksgiving dinner? Well, Hank's last cross country meet of the season was like that only I guess you could call it a Goblin Trot since it was the same day as halloween. He even got a big bag of candy at the end!

We arrived at this meet already tired from a busy Saturday so my only expectation was that Hank run and enjoy himself, and I think he did. The meet was pretty far away so there weren't as many people from our usual group of running clubs there.

It was, however, a junior olympics qualifier so there  were tons of kids from those teams there. It was pretty weird because both groups ran the same course at the same time, and yet they weren't racing against each other. So the JO kids were only competing against other JO kids, and our PVYA kids were only competing against other PVYA kids. Clear as mud, right?

Hanging out with his teammates before the start

It was an interesting little course that went around their soccer fields, down between the soccer and baseball fields, around the baseball field, through the back of the parking lot and then finished on the track. There were lots of awkward slopes, too, like running on the side of a hill.

In spite of all the oddities of the day, Hank did a really good job with a 9:44 finish. And he had a great time hanging out with his friends before the race.

Near the finish

We left straightaway from there to rush to Charles Town so we could meet up with his football coach to get his end of season award and then we hurried home so the kids could change into their costumes and go to our friend's neighborhood for their halloween parade and cook out and then trick or treat!