Group photo before the race at Turtle Bay Resort. (Left to Right) Matthew Rigodanzo, Maurice Javier, Antonina Javier, Christina Javier, Malou Javier, Jacob Atterson
Earlier, while my parents were picking me up, I noticed my dad’s orange Oakley 5K t-shirt spread across the back seat of my jeep. He told me he had just washed it, didn’t want to put it in the dryer because it might have gotten damaged.
Thanksgiving morning my dad, mom, boyfriend, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and I participated in a turkey trot 5K held at the Turtle Bay Resort. Aside from my boyfriend, and myself, this was everyone’s first 5k.
We all had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to make it to the resort by 6 a.m. Although we were all a little tired, everyone was excited, even my mom who is typically grumpy and unwilling was smiling.
We decided to run in pairs: the two boyfriends together, the sisters, and then the parents. The race started at 7:30 a.m. After a while my sister and I split up. Unfortunately I was too slow for her. But after 32 minutes of running (3 minutes behind her) I made it to the finish line, and my dad followed at 45 minutes.
The finish times didn’t really matter. In fact, my mom didn’t even finish at all. Somewhere before the halfway mark, she strayed off the route. What mattered was that rarely as a family do we interact with each other, and when we do, it’s typically unpleasant for at least one family member. But when we met at the finish line, we were all happy to be together. While we sat and rested, each of us enthusiastically shared our personal experiences on the route. My boyfriend fell on the portion that had sand. I couldn’t even run on the sand and had to walk. My sister’s boyfriend had to keep following other runners because he lost his contacts the other day. A golf cart picked up my mom when they noticed she was in the wrong area. My dad jogged for a bit but decided to eventually walk. In the end, everyone was happy to have participated and was proud of what they accomplished.
Our togetherness was short lived. After the race we went to the North Shore fruit stands and shrimp trucks, and everything went back to normal. My mom was distracted as she played on her phone, my sister and her boyfriend, still in the honeymoon stage, only cared for each other. Dad was in a thoughtful self-reflective trance, and my boyfriend was enjoying the moment.
I was a little sad when it was all over. When everyone was about to leave, I separately asked each person what their favorite part of their vacation was. They all said the 5k. Each had their own reason, but in the end we all loved a memory that included each member of my immediate family, which for me is a first.