Captain Safety is an event EMT, which means he’s one of the guys with the band-aids and moleskin on a race. He’s often worked BBSC events at Lake Mead. This year, I decided to join him for the Turkey Trot.
This Turkey Trot offers distances from a half marathon down to a 1-mile fun walk, all on the same route, Railroad Tunnels Trail in Lake Mead NRA, near Boulder City, NV.
I hadn’t done this race previously because I’ve hiked this particular trail pretty often. I wasn’t sure how I’d like having to pay for the privilege.
I had previously done the JusRun Turkey Rock, so I was looking forward to comparing the two races.
The BBSC Turkey Trot 5K Logistics
Packet Pickup was at the Trek store in Henderson, and was incredibly fast. It wasn’t even a packet, just a bib and cotton t-shirt, easy peasy. Thumbs up for environmental friendliness. Also appreciated not having a bunch of random crap that would just get thrown away.
Due to the popularity of this race in particular, parking was off-site at Veterans’ Memorial Park, with shuttles. After learning from the Superhero 5k that getting to the parking lot doesn’t mean getting the first shuttle, I went out around 6:30 AM to be at the starting line by 8:15.
Everything went off without a hitch – parking was well-signed on the road and in the park. The shuttles were easy to find, and they had at least 3 of them running. So you weren’t waiting too long to get your seat. This left the parking lot at the trailhead fully open for race staging, finish line, porta potties, etc.
The Race Itself
The starting line was at a different location than the finish line, so you had to find it first. While there were no signs to the start, there were enough people heading there, so it was easy to find.
The route was Railroad Tunnels Trail, going through three of the tunnels before turning around. The course is flat and gravel, with great views of Lake Mead. I was fine in road running shoes.
The problem is that you have 900 runners on a path that’s 8-10 feet wide, with steep drop-offs on one side and rugged terrain on the other. Add on that this was an out-and-back race with two other distances that were coming back by the time the 5k got started, and it was going to be some chaos getting out of the start.
It felt like this trail had a higher number of folks who weren’t familiar with race etiquette, where I had to navigate around walkers on the left side of the trail or groups of 3 or more spreading out the full width of the trail.
After the first half-mile, when the mile folks were out and the rest of us had some time to self-sort, it got better.
One thing to note – with all those runners and a dirt/gravel trail, the tunnels themselves got a little dusty. If you have highly sensitive allergies or asthma, bring your inhaler with you just in case.
Post-Race and Swag
Immediate post-race recovery was sparse ok. There were lots of rehydration options, including water, non-alcoholic beer, and Zoa energy drinks. No bananas but a variety of packaged snacks, including granola bars and Doritos.
In general, the mood was good at the finish line. There were no exhibitors or booths, just people chilling.
Then it was a short walk uphill to the shuttle back to the parking lot. The shuttles came pretty quickly, less than 15 minutes apart. Even though the line looked long, you didn’t have to wait too much to get back to your vehicle.
BBSC Turkey Trot 5K: Worth It
If you need an excuse to run Railroad Tunnels Trail, this is a good one. The pre- and post-race atmosphere was good, the race itself well-organized. The swag looks great, and the course is nice and flat. Do register early, as prices for all BBSC races increase as you get closer to the event date.
