Thanksgiving Turkey Trots
By Herb Wills for DyeStat Florida - Each year the Foot Locker South is held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Most people can’t remember when this wasn’t a fact of the calendar, and the rest of us don’t talk about it, much like I don’t talk about my first saddle dinosaur.
Since 2007 Nike Cross Southeast has shared that date with Foot Locker South. Still, you won’t see every high school distance runner in Florida heading for North Carolina in November for one of those two post-season meets. Many stay home for an even older tradition--the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.
Not every Thanksgiving Day distance race is called a Turkey Trot, but the name is common enough that it has become generic for any race held on the fourth Thursday of November. One writer, for instance, referred to the Atlanta Marathon as the longest Turkey Trot in the nation, even though that race was never named “Turkey Trot” and wasn’t always held in November. So they’re all Turkey Trots, whether they’re actually called that (like the Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot in Clearwater) or not (like the Shut Up And Run 5K in St. Augustine).
Because high school runners are still in top shape from the recent cross country season, they can be quite competitive in their local Turkey Trots. Plant senior Quasan Markowski won the Goody Goody Turkey Gobble 5K in Tampa with a 16:06, well ahead of the 16:45 posted by the runner-up, Robinson High senior Dannys Marrero.
Since running 16:19.30 for twelfth in the 4A boys race at the State Cross Country Meet, Markowski has also run a 4:20.90 1600 on the track and finished fourteenth in 16:41.45 at the FACA Senior All-Star Cross Country Classic. The post season is clearly not the off season for Markowski.
In Jacksonville, Sandalwood junior Terrance Sessoms won the 6K race at the Thanksgiving Day Subaru Distance Classic. Sessoms winning time of 19:36 was almost exactly the same pace as the 16:20.51 he ran to finish 14th in the 4A boys race at the State Cross Country Meet, where he was Sandalwood’s sole entry.
Estero junior Arye Beck won the 36th annual Cape Coral Turkey Trot 5K in 16:39. Across the Caloosahatchee River on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus, Fort Myers junior Sam Hordinski won the Gobbler 5K with a 16:49.
Eighth-grader Rahyah Andressohn ran second on the Mater Academy girls’ team at the State Cross Country Meet. On Thanksgiving Day, she won the women’s division of the Miami Turkey Day 10K, placing nineteenth overall in 42:36. Two other eighth-graders took the first two women’s spots in the Turkey Day 5K--the Miami Elite’s Valerie Lastra (27th, 19:28) was the first female finisher and Ammons Middle School’s Jordan Shapiro (30th, 19:41) was the second.
Some Turkey Trots are more competitive than others. At the 37th annual Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot the 10K is the featured event, but that didn’t keep the horses out of the 5K. Ireland’s Carl Dunne made the shorter race an international affair; the Saint Leo University cross country runner won in 15:39. The top prep runner was Indian Rock Christian sophomore Cooper LaBrant, seventh overall in 16:16.
Similarly, Ricardo Estremera of Puerto Rico blazed a winning 14:53 in the 40th annual Tallahassee Turkey Trot, while the top high school runner, Leon senior Adam Wallenfelsz, followed home seventh in 17:33. Emma Reed of Great Britain won the women's title in 18:33, leaving two high school runners to battle for the second spot--Johnson City TN Science Hill senior Lydia Lee and Maclay junior Caroline Willis. Lee prevailed at the finish line, 19:18 to 19:25. You don’t have to travel to North Carolina to get into an interstate race.
You probably don’t have to travel to run a Turkey Trot, either. Chances are there is one in your town or in the next town over. Turkey Trots in Florida ranged from the ubiquitous 5K up to the half-marathon in Jacksonville. There were, unfortunately, no Turkey Trot 100-meter races or Thanksgiving Day discus throws. But we can all be thankful that track and field season is coming soon.
Northwest Florida Correspondent Herb Wills
Herb Wills' running career goes back to the 1971 boys' age-group mile at the Florida Relays. Since losing that race he has won the 1976 Florida High School class 4A cross-country championship, 1979 AAU USA junior titles in cross-country and the 10,000 meters, and the 1989 TAC USA 30K national championship. As a distance runner at Florida State University from 1978 to 1982, he was NCAA All-American three times in track and once in cross country, and won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1981 World University Games. Graduating Florida State with a degree in mathematics, in the following years Wills ran in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and placed tenth in the Boston Marathon in 1989. After more than a few years of duty as a hurdle setter and lane judge at track meets, Wills discovered that the public address announcer not only got to sit down at meets but was also sheltered from the rain. Since that revelation you can hear him with a microphone in his hand at several track and cross-country events in the Tallahassee area. Writing is another activity you can do while sitting down, and Wills has written about running for Racing South magazine and Tallahassee's local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat.
You can read more running related tidbits in his blog at http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
Herb Wills NorthWest Florida Reports 2015 ARTICLES / 2014 ARTICLES
