This year's race day had it all: tradition, records broken, first-timers, old-timers, gobble-bobbles and an errant turkey.
By BOB PUTNAM
Published November 28, 2003
[Times photos: Scott Keeler ]
Before the start of the 5K Wingding race Thursday, participants stretch out and loosen up as they line up for the start. A record 12,608 participated in the 5K Wingding 1-mile Gobbler and 10K Turkey Trot.
Times Turkey Trot 10K winner Elias Gonzalez of the University of Tampa is followed by Alan Tripp, 21, who entered from a side street. Gonzalez finished with a time of 31 minutes, 35 seconds and never saw Tripp.
CLEARWATER - Tina and Bradley Hendricks still remember the Thanksgiving morning seven years ago when they woke to the constant yapping of their Rottweiler.
Still groggy-eyed, they peeked through the blinds and were startled to find thousands of runners strolling past their new three-bedroom home on Magnolia Avenue and Keene Road.
That was the Hendrickses' first introduction to the Times Turkey Trot.
Since then, the race has become as much a part of their Thanksgiving Day fabric as turkey and football. The Hendrickses sit out front with their two children, Nicole, 5, and Jimmy, 1, and invite their family and friends over for breakfast.
"It's become our routine," Tina Hendricks said. "Now we get up at 4:45 to get ready and watch the race."
But the family does more than watch. They make the Trot an event. A musician, Van Bertie, plays Caribbean music in their side yard. The family also sets up more than 600 cups of lemonade for the runners.
Before long, the lemonade was gone.
With the Trot celebrating its silver anniversary, a record 12,608 participated in the 5K (3.2-mile) Wingding, 1-mile Gobbler and 10K (6.2-mile) Turkey Trot. The previous record was set last year, when 11,675 participated.
"Just by looking at the number of people who registered in advance I knew we were going to have a big turnout," Turkey Trot race committee chairman Skip Rogers said. "I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the anniversary. It's the 25th year and people want to be a part of that."
To commemorate the event's 25th anniversary, organizers gave away what they called "gobble-bobbles" to the top 100 male and female runners in the 5K and 10K races.
The first runner to receive one was Ken Magee. The Seminole High School senior, who was a conference, district and region champion in cross country, won the men's 5K race. The winner in the women's 5K was Helen Hofstede, a runner at Florida State.
In the Trot's signature event, the 10K, first-time participant Elias Gonzalez held off a challenge from Tony Teats to win the men's division.
The most bizarre moment of the race came when Alan Tripp, dressed in a turkey costume, emerged from a side street and ran with the leaders at the 5-mile mark on Lake Road.
"I asked the cops if I could race, and they said it was okay," said Tripp, 21. "I was just trying to have some fun."
Gonzalez, a University of Tampa student, never saw Tripp in his costume.
"You mean to tell me there was a turkey behind me," he said. "That's news to me."
Teats noticed it. Tripp raced side-by-side with him and briefly pulled ahead before fading back.
"It was bad enough I was in second place," Teats said. "Then I have to put energy into beating a turkey."
On the women's side, Mary Level-Menton won her eighth title in nine tries.
The 5K again was the most popular race, with a record 7,038 entrants, compared with 3,483 for the mile and 2,087 for the 10K. Competition was fast at the front, but a large portion of the field was more than content to linger behind, some for an hour or longer, taking their time exercising before returning home for holiday meals.
Allyn Ramker was among those at the back of the pack. The former athletic director at Boca Ciega High School and Seminole High School has run in every one and finished well after the winners received their gobble-bobbles.
Afterward, Ramker had to do some more running. He planned to visit his parents in Iowa and booked a flight for 12:15 p.m. Thursday.
"Everyone was wondering if I was going to break my streak," said Ramker, 52. "But I had to run. It just gave me extra incentive to go faster to make my flight."
