It wasn’t as cold as it’s been in years past, but the temperature and overall conditions for the 2015 running of the Turkey Trot 8K at the Sports Barn East were almost perfect.
Another record crowd showed up for what has become a popular Thanksgiving Day tradition. And has always been the case, there were a lot of people out there smiling and happy, demonstrating their joy in having the ability to participate in an event like this.
Joseph Goetz, a 32-year-old energy analyst for TVA, was the overall winner as he covered the course in 27 minutes, 24 seconds.
Jessica Marlier, a 30-year-old teacher who now lives in Vermont, was the women’s winner as she crossed the line in 29 minutes, 59 seconds.
Alan Outlaw, who finished second in the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon on Nov.
14, was the runner-up again as he was just 15 seconds behind Goetz.
John Sillery was third place and the men’s master’s winner in 27:58.
Brendan Minihan and Andrew Clark were fourth and fifth overall with times of 28:02 and 28:15, respectively.
While Marlier was the overall female winner, Kathryn Vradenburgh was the women’s runner up after finishing 33rd in 33:16. Yoli Bell was third in 34:04 while Hope Goodpasture and Jennifer Curtis rounded out the top five with times of 34:30 and 34:56.
Goetz was quick to admit that he’s running less now than he has in a while and that he was not expecting to win when he stepped to the starting line, but his experience and overall talent were more than enough to make him first, even though it was one of the slowest winning times ever for this race.
“I haven’t been running much lately, maybe once or twice a week, but this has become a tradition with me and I’ve been here every year since 1997 except one. I can’t believe that nobody faster showed up,” Goetz said after catching his breath.
“This is my slowest time here in years. I thought I’d just run real easy, but when I realized I was in the lead, I had to keep going. The hill is tougher now and I thought that my legs might die, but they didn’t. We just bounced back and forth the whole way,” he added.
Outlaw is fit as a fiddle and showed very little adverse affect from the marathon 12 days ago.
“We had fun out there and we ran shoulder to shoulder the whole way. Our first mile was something like 5:29, so we were really conservative at the beginning. I just wanted to see if I could run my marathon pace again.
“My family celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday and I ate too much, but I’m elated with my run today,” the sales associate at Fast Break Athletics nodded.
Marlier now teaches at a residential school in Vermont where she works with kids at risk who are elementary and middle-school age. It’s a challenging job to say the least and she’s really enjoying her experience there, but she was happy to be back in Chattanooga for the weekend.
“Let me begin by saying that I’ll never be a Yankee, but I got into town yesterday and just had to do this race today,” she said with a smile.
“I ran a hard marathon at Hartford back in October and have been taking it easy ever since, but I was hoping to break 30 minutes today. I’m just happy to be out here today and I guess my training will get serious again in January when I start getting ready for Boston,” she added.
Another runner who was really happy with Thursday’s results was Tim Ensign. Tim is that 52-year-old who works in communications for IBM who has been running strong for more than 40 years.
His goal on Thursday was to break the state record for 52-year-old males in the 8K distance. He broke the old mark of 28:50 by some 12 seconds as he finished seventh overall.
“I’m pretty happy with it. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I went out hard and tried to hang on. I was hoping to stay as close to Dean Thompson as I could, but he took off and left me. I still had a good run,” he nodded.
Ensign had won this race in 2006 after finishing second to Brian Radle in 1996.
“I beat Joseph Goetz in 2006 and had been giving him a hard time about it as he had never won until today, but he’s amazing as he’s not running much and can still produce fast times,” Ensign concluded.
Barry Abbott is another who had a good run. Last year was his first time to do this race, but he was back on Thursday and has just as much fun as ever.
“I certainly don’t run fast, but it was a good day for me. I have great endurance as I can go all day, but speed is something I don’t have,” the veteran attorney said.
Abbott was wearing bib number 1 for the second straight year. “I guess that’s because numbers were given in alphabetical order,” he laughed after finishing 564th out of 1,007 with a time of 49:01.
This race has been growing and growing ever since it was held the first time in 1991 when the course went out Lee Highway to Shallowford Road to I-75 before making a U-turn and coming back. It’s become a Thanksgiving Day tradition for runners, but for race volunteers as well.
Scott Chase, Bob Berman and Carolyn Varnell are just three examples.
Chase is the popular disc jockey for KZ-106, one of the event sponsors. He’s been present every year.
“I’ve been here every year and I get to see people I don’t see the rest of the year. This race is for a great cause. I’ve been on the board for the kidney foundation in the past, so this is close to my heart,” he added.
Berman is the owner of Southern Coffee, which brews coffee for events like this. He made more this year than ever before.
“I brought five brewers today instead of four and I’ve made close to 50 gallons this morning, which is a record for this event. We started this business in 1976 and do a lot of events like this one. There’s so many that I lose track,” he said with a laugh.
Varnell has been the race director every year, but is saying that this is her final year as the one in charge.
“This has been my baby for a long time, but I’ve giving it up as long as I know that our bases are covered. We’ve made a few changes in recent years, but it’s basically the same course and it’s become a family tradition for a lot of people,” she expressed.
Defending winners Brandon Lord and Hannah Jumper were not present for Thursday’s race.
Marlier was the runner-up last year with a time of 30:59, so she was a minute faster this year.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)