Life

LIGHTNING PHOTOS: 1st Turkey Trot is a big hit

Runners enjoyed the first Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day in downtown Hendersonville.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 28, 2013

More than 400 runners turned out for the first Hendersonville Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day under blue skies with the thermometer at 20 degrees.

Juan Ruiz, a 50-year-old who wore a Santa cap, finished first and Jonathan Walter, 25, finished second in the race, though the race was officially untimed and the city kept no records on place finishers.

"It was great," Walter said of the course, which went out Fourth Avenue, circled Oakdale Cemetery and came back on Fifth Avenue."I'm not from around here so I didn't know where I was going. I just followed the Santa hat."

The city reached its registration cutoff at 427 within two weeks. Organizers wanted to limit the total number of runners "so you're not caught off guard, dealing with 840 people," said Hendersonville firefighter Jacob Dinkins, one of the organizers along with Amy Knight, a paralegal with the city.

Prizes went to the largest family group, furthest traveled (Colorado), oldest participant and best costume.

The city didn't give a prize for the most pregnant runner but if it had the winner would have been Jenny Holloway. She ran along with husband, Lew, the city's downtown director, their 4-year-old dog Hazel and, aboard a stroller, their daughter Josie, who turns 2 in a month. Jenny is expecting to deliver Josie's little brother in about a month, too.

Runners said they warmed up as the sun came up and they got moving on the uphill slope toward the historic graveyard.

"I'm glad Hendersonville decided to have this," said runner Brett Bailey, 42, who finished the 3.1-mile course ahead of his 14-year-old son, MIchael, a freshman at Hendersonville High School. "I was going to run the one at Biltmore until I saw they had this one."