USU students run for a 12- pound turkey
Runners at the annual Turkey Trot Fun Run had one thing on their mind Saturday: 12 pounds of free poultry.
Twenty runners and walkers gathered at the HPER Building Saturday morning in 40-degree weather to compete in the outdoor November tradition.
Entrants participated in one of four events, a one-mile run, a one-mile walk, a two-mile run or a four-mile run. A turkey was awarded to the fastest male and female in each event.
Ryan Jenks won the two-mile run with a time of 12:18.
“I like running and I wanted to see if I could win a turkey,” said Jenks, a junior majoring in exercise science. He said he was very satisfied with his time, since he had only been training for about a week.
The competition came as part of daily training for exercise science graduate student Trever Ball, who placed first in the four-mile event with a time of 18:03. Ball, who ran for USU’s cross country and track teams during his undergraduate schooling, said the course was more like three and a half miles than four, but enjoyed his run just the same.
Although the skies were spitting rain and sleet for the last part of the race, Ball said the weather was “the best you can ask for in November.”
Scott Wamsley is the assistant director of campus recreation and oversees the intramurals and club sports. He coordinated the event and said it’s a tradition that has taken place for about 10 years. When Wamsley was a student at USU, he was the intramurals organizer, but when asked if he competed in the Turkey Trot, he said, “Oh heavens no, I’ll run to the turkey on Thanksgiving.”
Some of the participants brought canned food to be donated to needy families and Wamsley said he hopes to double the number of participants for next year’s event so more food can be donated.
Kathryn and Brice Bitter completed the one-mile walk with times of 14:01 and 14:02. Kathryn said she signed up because she knew no one else had signed up for that category and was guaranteed a turkey.
“It was way exciting,” Kathryn said.
Her husband Brice jokingly said he’s been training for the event by walking to and from class for the past two years.
Both were awarded turkeys at the award ceremony held after the event. They said they’ll eat one for Thanksgiving and might give the other one away.
Exercise science major Mike Seeley and USU graduate Heather Warren ran the race together. Seeley listened to the band Story of the Year on his iPod in preparation for a concert he was going to that night. Warren said her purpose for running was just to compete.
“Competition – that’s the whole reason I do it,” she said.
It was the first time either of them had competed in the Turkey Trot, though both run about four miles regularly. They plan on running a marathon together in February.
-mof@cc.usu.edu