While most people spend Thanksgiving Day in a tryptophan-induced haze, engaging in awkward political arguments with drunk relatives, or oohing-and-aaahing at the floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, many CPTC’ers couldn’t let well enough alone. Instead, they laced up their racing flats at ungodly hours and went to run Turkey Trots. An admirable fanaticism, for which we should all give thanks.
Some club members were not content simply to show up, trot, and collect their medals. In other words, the number of PR’s was impressive, at least based on a casual sampling of race results. Resie Caffrey, who had run in Prospect Park only once before, took third place, running a nearly three-minute PR of 32:04. At the same race, Noah Lansner ran a PR of 27:10, and club president John Roberts, the defending Prospect Park Turkey Trot champion, squeaked out a two-second PR of 25:37, taking second place and thoroughly disappointing his sister (“I thought you were supposed to win this,” she said afterward).
Elsewhere, in the rolling hills and farmland of the Berkshires, Mel Stafford took 12th place by running a PR of 38:33. In Rockland Lake, NY, Kate Irvin also PR’d, a 28:53 that also happened to be a course record and moved her to #3 on the CPTC all-time list. That’s not even the impressive part: it’s her fourth consecutive victory since 2005, and each year she’s set the course record. Kate, don’t disappoint us in 2009.
Even some runners who didn’t PR still managed to dominate their local races: in New Hampshire, Will Seidel made his local paper by winning a 5k in 16:57, while Josh Rayman placed 7th overall and 1st in the 30-39 division with a 17:26 5k. In his 5-miler, Brian Gertzen led from wire to wire and finished in 26:02, in the process showing South Jersey’s wanna-be runners who was boss. In Washingtonville, NY, Joy Romulus won her Turkey Trot over a hilly course. Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Aileen Conlon won her 10k Turkey Chase in 36:16. Her partner in crime, Jay Barry, took 8th place (27:30) in a 5-miler on Long Island.
Speaking of Aileen, during his 5k race Joe Kennedy was leading comfortably when he apparently hallucinated, thinking that Aileen was about to pass him (a frequent occurrence during workouts at Columbia’s Baker’s Field). It turns out that the fast-moving girl with a ponytail whom he had glimpsed was Jenn Donovan, who runs for New Balance Boston and recently edged out Aileen at another race earlier in the month. Avenging his teammate, Joe attacked the hills on the final mile and won the race in 16:54.
Although he didn’t end up winning the race, Cary Segall led for much of the way before placing second in a 5-miler in Port Washington, NY — an event he has now run 20 times. It was his best-ever result in a race, and he called the experience of leading an amazing one, but at the same time “anxiety-provoking,” since “you feel like you are out there by yourself.”
By listing all of these impressive performances, though, I don’t want to give the impression that winning is an end in itself. Everyone knows that winning is all about prizes. And CPTC’ers made out like bandits. If you hear that one of your teammates ran well in a Turkey Trot, odds are that they took home some nice loot: apple pie; a quart of maple syrup (talk to Will Seidel), chips-and-salsa and a fuel belt (Kate Cushing’s third-place prize); a souvenir duffel bag (although Margot Sheehan points out that the Prospect Park Track Club ran out of them after handing out 1200); a new pair of shoes; $30 (Alex Bruskin’s good for a round of drinks); and, to the chagrin of Lauren Esposito, who would have preferred a Thanksgiving-themed prize, plain old medals.
There is one honorary member of CPTC, however, who disagrees with Lauren. Kieran Calderwood, the six-year-old son of Stuart and Stacy, has been wearing his finisher’s medal from the Philadelphia Insurance Companies’ Turkey Trot ever since Thanksgiving. Stacy reports that he completed the five miles with Stuart in 57:05, while Stacy herself took second place in 33:19. Kieran was certainly the only six-year-old in the 14-and-under division, although Stuart and Stacy plan to have him run only in the occasional NYRR kids fun run. If you want to hear more about his race, Kieran has produced his own written account, including three illustrations.
In a similar tableaux of father-and-son running, Bill Wells ran a Turkey Trot in Miami with his girlfriend, brother, and father. He described his surprise when he came to the second-mile marker: “Who do I see standing there but my dad, only a few feet past the starting line, waiting for me to come around so he can cheer me on. I laugh and say as I run by, ‘Why aren’t you running??’ ‘I was waiting for you!’ he says. I finished the race in 9th place, followed by brother, then girlfriend, and finally dad in 1,834th place. Next time I’ll make sure my dad knows that when the gun goes off, that means you are supposed to START RUNNING.”
Coach Devon might have been able to reinforce this valuable lesson had she been down in Miami, but she was busy running in Prospect Park, a Thanksgiving ritual that is now part of Lansner family tradition. Her account of her race has surreal touches: a mysterious man in an orange T-shirt (“orange man”), along with a man running behind her who was barking like a dog. Still, Devon recovered to run the last mile in under seven minutes, and then dry-heaved at the finish line. What a perfect way to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner.