As fall starts to turn to winter, it’s obvious that the overwhelming majority of my outdoor races will be virtual. As I’ve said in the past, I’m OK with doing them to support those and organizations that have supported me.
After the BTN Big10K race in July 2014, I was looking for other 5Ks to do in the fall. One of them that I found and did was the Naperville Noon Lions Turkey Trot. At the time, I viewed it as just another 5K. In fact, it turned out to be an EXTREMELY imiportant event.
in 2014, I did not have a guide pool. It was essentially reaching out to friends and trying to see whom was crazy enough to run with me… So, when I decided to do the Turkey Trot, I still needed 1 guide. The Lions Club found someone for me, and I thought I was all set. Then about 2-3 weeks prior, I was told that they had broken their ankle.
They did help to find another guide, Terri. At that time, I did not know how crucial that connection would be. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that she was my first Triathlon guide, and helped to guide umpteen times for me during the first few years. And without her help, I wouldn’t have been able to do races during the early days when Art Black (of Oswego Cyclery) generously let us use his tandem.
While I had done the Turkey Trot a couple of times after the 2014 race, it was just too hard to get up that early on Thanksgiving. So I am happy to be able to do it virtually in 2020! I hope that you will join me this November! Your support will help people (like me) with visual disabilities.
You can register online here! Or if you’re not a runner but still want to support the Lions, this coming weekend is the Candy Day weekend! Look for Lions throughout Naperville Fri-Sun!
