Since last April when our Piedmont Recreation Department Walking on Wednesdays group started, we have said we will walk Piedmont's streets, rain or shine, on Wednesday mornings. This morning we finally got our chance to step up and prove it. We had gone over seven months with consistently sunny days and beautiful weather, but today a little rain finally fell on our
parade.
Everyone was thankful for the first significant rain of the season. Smoke from the tragic fires in Butte County created unhealthy air quality last Wednesday, and we decided to be cautious and not walk. It was the first Wednesday we had missed in over seven months. Last night before our walk today there was still some concern that the forecasted rains might not come in, and might not eliminate the unhealthy air before our planned 10:30 AM start. Fortunately, there was rain during the night, and the EPA's "Air Now" website reported healthy air for the 94611 zip code this morning. Even more rain and clean air were forecast for the rest of the morning, so our
walk was on. It was a beautiful, rainy day for a Walking on Wednesdays walk.
Holiday travel plans and preparations for Thanksgiving celebrations reduced the number of today's participants, but seven hearty walkers and one fearless K-9 best friend were at our usual Exedra starting point at 10:30. We realized that the starting point of Piedmont's celebrated Thanksgiving Turkey Trot road race was right in front of our Exedra meeting spot, and the race was scheduled to be in less than 24 hours. We knew the race's 5K/3.11 mile route, so we decided it would be our walk. We also realized that our pace would probably fall short of that of most of the hundreds of runners who are going to assemble in this very spot tomorrow morning, so we decided it would be smart to get a head start on them.
There was some rain during the walk, but it was not heavy and did not deter us. We faithfully followed the race's entire 5K course map, walking Highland, Wildwood, Crocker, Lafayette, LaSalle, Indian, Hampton, Sea View, Mountain, Craig, Highland, Vista, Hillside, and finally Magnolia to the
finish line in front of Piedmont High School.
We realized that our accomplishment would not be recognized tomorrow morning. There would be no apple pies or other race prizes for us, but we took pride in the fact that we were the first to cross the Turkey Trot finish line this year. No one can take that away from us. Our times were
just over one hour and thirty minutes, but we finished about 20 hours before the Thursday Turkey Trotters. It was a fun day and good to be walking again after missing last week.
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