Turkey Trot

I took this picture last year sometime... my brother's Turkey, Tom. He is (was?) the coolest Turkey I've ever met.

GBRC's annual 5K Turkey Trot was today at Squalicum Creek Park. Last year I volunteered as part of my membership duty so I had a pretty good feel for the event when the opportunity arose to help out again. This year was different because I became a GBRC board member unexpectedly earlier this year and started doing photography and social media posts for the club. I was recruited to be on the board by a nice guy that I met through a Bellingham Trail Runners group run one day. After becoming friends on Facebook, he thought I could put my writing and shutter bug skills to good use for the benefit of the Greater Bellingham Running Club. It made sense to me too and it has been an great experience so far.

Anyway, when I found out that my friend, who is the Race Director for the Turkey Trot, (she is currently President of GBRC too), needed extra help this year due to the way life twists and turns, I jumped right in. I volunteered to do day-of race registration (which there wasn't going to be for those unforeseen reasons) (but was suggested we do by a member on a post on FB also), but long story short, all the people necessary stepped up to make this event happen smoothly regardless. It made me realize again that GBRC truly is a great club that is run by members who volunteer their time for so many good reasons.

I've been a member for almost 4 years now and I had no idea all of the things that the club did until now, most of it I've learned from the monthly board meetings. I see clearly that this is a dedicated group of people who are keeping the club healthy and want to keep making it better. Running has so many incredible health benefits for everyone and having a non-profit club that puts on affordable & fun races is incredibly valuable. 

I feel as if I may be rambling now and feel a bit sleepy so I'm not sure where I was trying to go with this post. I was up earlier than normal in order to get to the park in time for registration. I'm not a morning person.

Oh, it's not just GBRC members that are awesome either, all the people who came out today to run knew that their donation was going 100% to support the Bellingham Food Bank. People gave extra $$  knowing that it was going to help out other people in need. That's what this club and this community is all about. I just love Bellingham.

Volunteering for the Turkey trot last year mostly prepared me for saying yes (kinda last minute) to doing day-of registration this year.  And I was fortunate that my partner came to help today too because there were so many more people who showed up this morning to register (he was way better than me at the whole process but he's not even a runner or a member). It all worked out perfectly and I'm so happy we were able to help as much as we were with this event.  It even sounds like next year we may have to switch things up again because it was so popular! More pie for more runners too.

Just proves again and again that people are inherently good, that we love to help each other out in any way that we can. We are stronger when we work together for a common cause. This is good news, this is the kind of thing I would love to read about on the daily news. Let's keep focusing on the beautiful aspects of human-kindness. Thank You!