Trotting with turkeys and laughing in the snow

Wow! What a fun day it has been here at McMurdo. I woke up this morning with a few hundred others ready to run the Antarctic Turkey Trot only to find out it had been cancelled. There was a fresh coat of five inches on the ground and the sun was shining brightly from a blue sky. After talking with a few others at breakfast we realized that a little snow and some "unsafe" icy conditions weren't going to keep us from our morning jog. The thought of not working up an appetite for the big meal just wasn't right. My friend and I showed up at 10 to find that almost everyone signed up thought the cancellation was bunk also. We took off in the bright sun and headed out toward the sea ice runway. Everyone was hooping and hollaring, and it really got crazy when the kitchen staff came out in full work clothes to run a few miles on their breakfast break. I cannot rememeber another time when I was more glad something fun was cancelled. The conditions turned out to be just fine, and the fresh coat of snow on the mountains and on town were perfect. Some people sported huge whigs, some men wore tights with sequin dresses, and a few people ran in their 10 lb. arctic boots. I was laughing my head off and loving every minute of it. After finishing most of the race I decided to strip off the shirt for the last half mile, which proved to be a mistake when I was pelted with snowballs at the finish line. Time just stopped for about an hour this morning to laugh, gobble, pelt others with snowballs, cheer, and laugh my head off. If anyone is wondering, there is no shortage of fun in MacTown!