On the bright, sunny day of November 24th , 2022, the annual GMAA Turkey Trot was
slated to begin at 10 am sharp. The air was thick with anticipation as the volunteers eagerly set
up registration tables, GMAA apparel, food bins for Feeding Chittenden, and the timing and
sound equipment for the annual event. Upon glancing at the RunSignUp list the night before, 300
participants were noted to have preregistered but on a day like the race day, who could resist
signing up? Around 9:00 am, the doors to Gutterson arena opened and in flooded hordes of
trotters quickly making their way to the registration tables. However, with Ruth Blauweikel and
Paul Wagner at the registration tables, there was little to worry about. As quickly as the racers
arrived, food bins immediately started filling up with piles and piles of donated food for Feeding
Chittenden, the local food shelf. It’s possible that Tim Richmond moves quicker when food is
involved than he does otherwise as he motored through stacking, organizing, shifting, and
moving cans, boxes, and bags of food items at record speed.
As time passed, more and more runners/trotters arrived. Many for the kid’s race, which
was put on without setbacks by seasoned Turkey Trot veteran, Anne Treadwell, and many
individual runners who arrived to set PRs, run farther and faster than ever before, and/or to work
for their dinner, which they so anxiously awaited. While the participants were gathering in
Gutterson, an unexpected visit occurred from the local news channels ABC 22 & Fox 44 News
and NCB5. Many of the volunteers were asked if they cared to seize their claim to fame and talk
to the reporters but alas, all of them including previous race director Howard Kalfus, deflected to
this year’s race director to embarrass herself on local news. She is still waiting for the public to
ask for her autograph when she is around town.
At approximately 9:40 am, the runners/trotters were directed to make their way to the
starting line by another seasoned veteran, Gordan MacFarland who graciously took to the
microphone for the 15, 10, 5, and 2-minute countdown to the race start. At the starting line, race
participants stretched back as far as the side doors to the arena, making a large ‘C’ shape down
the bike path. It was later confirmed that 763 registered racers participated in the Turkey Trot
that day, which is about 200 more runners than last year. 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.
To no surprise, fast times were run with Ethan Mastear taking the victory with a time of
16:12 with Trevor Houches right on his heels with a time of 16:13. Following the two leaders
closely was Porter Hurteau with a time of 16:26. Not too far behind was the winner of the non-
binary category, Matt Powers with a time of 17:21. Less than a minute later, Josephine Brekke
came flying up the path with a time of 18:15, which was the winning female time. The second-
place woman, Katie Barker, held her own on the course with a time of 19:46 followed closely
behind by the 3rd place female Loghan Hughes with a time of 20:06. To close 2nd place for the
non-binary category, Ginnie Laurita fought for the prize with a time of 36:00. Thanks to the
Brooks representative who happened to be at SkiRack during the time that raffle donations were
acquired, the winners of the top 3 categories received a free pair of Brooks shoes.
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. We had received donations from Citizen Cider, the YMCA, Queen
City Brewery, Mill River Brewing, Take Good Care Fitness, SkiRack, VT Juice Co., Sangha Studio, and Dunkin’ Donuts just to name a few. In no short time, the greatest raffle in all of the
world became the longest raffle in all of the world as many of the participants had left, with 763
raffle tickets to be called but those who stayed went home happy (one hopes).
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 Howard Kalfus
and the use of a calculator, a total of $6,332 were raised between pre-registration and race-day
registrants and 416 lbs of food were obtained for Feeding Chittenden. We hope that next year is
equally as successful as this year.
-Jess Marini, Race Director
