Thanksgiving mornings start a bit differently in the Gray household.
By 8 a.m., New Times Sales Manager Katy Gray and her family are usually assembled at Pismo Beach, ready to participate in the SLO Food Bank’s annual Turkey Trot along with hundreds of other families. They’ve been doing turkey trots on and off over the course of the past decade. A typical Thanksgiving morning starts off with Gray preparing for the holiday dinner before heading over to the turkey trot with her family and dog, Sadie.
“You get so much more out of it than you expect, because you start your day outside with a nice walk with friends or family and a whole bunch [of the] community. It starts your day feeling grateful from the get-go before even the craziness of Thanksgiving starts,” Gray said. “So that’s kind of nice to just have a little moment of a walk and relaxation and community and friends.”
I know what you may be thinking: Whose brilliant idea was it to run a race on a Thursday morning? Blame the people of Buffalo, New York. Legend has it that the first trot was the brainchild of the YMCA there, where six runners ran a 8 kilometer race on a dirt road in 1896.
The tradition has since gained traction across the nation, spreading from coast to coast. While the prospect of running on Thanksgiving morning is still puzzling to some, Running USA reports that Thanksgiving is the most popular running day in the country.
But the turkey trot isn’t necessarily a serious run. Some participants don turkey costumes or pilgrim outfits, a tradition that started in the early 1980s when some turkey trotters dressed up as Canadian hockey players.
“When you get there, … there’s sometimes a live turkey walking around on a leash, which is weird,” Gray chuckled. “And some people are dressed up with turkey hats.”
Many local organizations use the holiday tradition as a way to raise money for a good cause, such as providing food, clothing, shelter, and gifts to less fortunate families. The SLO Food Bank’s annual Turkey Trot puts the money raised toward providing families in need with holiday proteins, including turkeys, hams, and chickens, as well as hundreds of thousands of pounds of other nutritious foods, such as produce and shelf-stable goods. Δ
Staff Writer Shwetha Sundarrajan can be reached at shwetha@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Holiday Guide 2022.