The holidays have officially kicked off and with it, GMAA’s 48th annual Turkey Trot,
which took place on the chilly Thanksgiving of November 28th , 2024, with the esteemed goal of
raising a large amount of donations for Feeding Champlain Valley. The hope is always to raise
more money and food donations than the previous year as the race is a donation-based event and
the number of participants in this prestigious race is generally well over 300 participants.
Standing outside in the chilly rain and sleet, it was clear that anticipation was high
amongst runners, trotters, volunteers, spectators, and race directors alike. Many inquiries were
circling around amongst the masses. Questions such as, is it going to snow? Where is the starting
line? Who is Turkey Steve? If I pass out from exertion on the course, will I be carried back or
will my lifeless body be rolled into the woods by the course monitors until the end of the race or
until the end of time? Luckily, no casualties occurred during or after the race, but that
information might be at the discretion of the course monitors.
The air was thick with anticipation as the volunteers eagerly set up registration tables,
GMAA apparel, food bins for Feeding Champlain Valley, and the timing and sound equipment
for the annual event. Upon glancing at the RunSignUp list the night before, 610 participants were
seen to have preregistered, which was almost 100 more registrants than the previous year!! But it
didn’t end there. Around 9:00 am, the doors to Gutterson arena opened and in flooded hordes of
trotters quickly making their way to the registration tables as Jan, Nik Ponzio, Scott Perrapato,
and Brad Sleeper quickly set off to mark the course. Only Brad made it back to the starting line,
leaving the other three gentlemen to monitor the course and keep the runners on track.
Fortunately, our volunteers were ready with pens, registration forms, and raffle tickets for the
world’s greatest raffle. The table was well controlled by the able bodies of Tim Richmond, Okan
Canaran, Hannah Karki, and two other college freshmen from UVM. Papers, pens, and raffle
tickets began to fly as money, checks, and registration papers went back and forth rapidly up
until 9:58 am, 2 minutes before the race began. It was estimated that around 55 participants
registered race day.
As the time came closer to race start, Alex Frank took his rightful place as course monitor
at the top of the bike path and Steve Andrews quickly set the cones around a quarter mile loop
for the kid’s race. Now, for those of you reading this who have asked yourselves, ‘who is Turkey
Steve?’ read no further. At 9:38 am, (7 minutes before the start of the kid’s race), who should
arrive, but Steve Merrill dressed head-to-toe in Ron Cleveland’s turkey costume for everyone to
enjoy, especially the children. At 9:45 am, Steve Merrill became none other than Turkey Steve,
as dubbed by the race director, and Turkey Steve became the lead turkey for the kid’s race,
running with them around the 400m course and home to victory.
As time passed, more and more runners/trotters arrived and were greeted by the soothing
sounds of 80s hair metal reverberating through the air from Gordon MacFarland’s world
renowned sound system and signaling the location of the starting line. With Liz monitoring the
sound system and Alex McHenry controlling the clock, the pre-race line up was starting off
smooth. However, no one can expect a perfect race and shortly after the start of the race, poor
Gordon and Liz’s sound system malfunctioned from the rain, leaving the sounds of silence to be
palpable to everyone waiting for the trotters at the finish line. Thankfully, Alex came to the
rescue and ran his own jean-clad turkey trot from the finish line to Gutterson and back with
GMAA’s working sound system.
At approximately 9:50 am, the runners/trotters were directed to make their way to the
starting line however, panic arose as race participants stretched back as far as the side doors to
the arena, making a large ‘C’ shape down the bike path less than 5 minutes before the race
started. Would they make it?! At the start of the race, we recounted how grateful we were to have
everyone out there, runners, trotters, spectators, and volunteers alike to participate in the Turkey
Trot this year, especially with UVM’s Gutterson arena, bike path, and amenities at our disposal.
At 10 am, the racers were off with the real trotters trailing behind.
To no surprise, fast times were run with the 1 st place male finisher taking the victory with
a time of 15:52 (unofficially) for the men, which was 5 seconds faster than last year’s winner
(unofficially) and following not too far behind was the 2 nd place male finisher who was none
other than GMAA’s Jurdan Mossburg with a time of 17:10. The third place male finisher arrived
shortly after him with a time of 17:12. The 1 st place female finished with a time of 19:29
followed by the 2 nd and 3 rd place females with times of 19:53 and 20:02, respectively. Due to the
unofficial, casual, and fun nature of the race, runners are unable to be unidentified as race bibs
are not provided. To make up for not having gender prize winners, the raffle was twice as big as
last year with donations provided by local vendors such as GMAA’s sponsor, SkiRack, Green
Mountain Massage, Take Good Care Fitness, Mill River Brewing, Ben & Jerry’s, Sangha
Studios, and more. However, this race director is always looking to improve upon how to best
celebrate the Turkey Trotters and their commitment to racing hard.
Following the conclusion of the race, the world’s greatest raffle was held with t-shirts,
pint glasses, running socks, fleece blankets, gift certificates, and more were lying in wait to be
won back in Gutterson arena. Due to the learning experience that was a very lengthy raffle two
years ago, prizes were set out by Tim, Okan, Alex, myself, and Paul Wagner with the winning
raffle ticket numbers written on a sheet of paper so that runners could check to see if they were
lucky enough to claim a prize. This significantly shortened the post-race prize-winning event as
compared to last year.
At the end of the event, when all of the participants had taken their leave in lieu of turkey
dinners and family time, the monetary donations were counted up and the food was prepared to
be shipped off to be weighed. With the careful eyes and mathematical prowess of Tim Richmond
and the use of a calculator, we had an estimated total of $6,000 that was raised between pre-
registration and race-day registrants and 435 lbs of food were obtained for Feeding Champlain
Valley. We hope that next year is equally as or more successful with our donations and
participants next year. I also want to commemorate our volunteers as the race would not have run
as smoothly without them!
Jess Marini
Turkey Trot 2024 Race Director
