The 14th annual Turkey Trot got underway on a brisk but clear Thanksgiving morning, as more than 3,000 runners competed in what’s become known as the Live Like Drew challenge. It was a younger-than-normal crowd: Of the 2,679 who finished the 5k loop, half of the top 10 finishers were in their teens, including 14-year-old Corbin Post, of Windsor, in second place and 15-year-old John Harris, of San Francisco, in third.
First place overall went to Rodrigo Vargas of San Francisco, whose time of 15:23 was only 10 seconds off the course record, set last year by Eric Noel. Top female finisher was Kari Taylor, the 11th to finish at 17:04—a new women’s course record.
Susanne Esquivel, the sponsorship director, said that the 3,400 registered “trotters” represented 31 states, though half of the total were from Healdsburg and immediately surrounding towns. “In the last 10 years, the event has grown over 10 times,” she said.
The high turnout raised $100,000 for Healdsburg nonprofits and scholarships, including Live Like Drew scholarships, Healdsburg High Interact Club, Healdsburg Greyhound Boosters, Children of the Vineyard Workers scholarships and Sunrise Rotary Ideals scholarships. Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary hosted the event, though the co-sponsors and supporters were legion.
These included Healdsburg Running Company, the City of Healdsburg Community Services, Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, and many local businesses and services.
Full results at 5ktrot.com.
One highlight, for those who milled around the Healdsburg Running Company for the event, was the gold-lame garbed presence of DJ David Hagele, Healdsburg’s current mayor.
“I DJ’d the event & it was pretty fun,” he said. “It was a beautiful Healdsburg morning and I saw lots of smiling faces!”
As to is choice of music, he said, “I try to play upbeat music and get everyone sent off hyped up for the run 🙂 I tend to lean towards 80’s and 90’s remixes with a few country & new songs mixed in.”
