TROY – The 18th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot hosted by the Troy Community Concert Band and Lincoln County Music saw around 225 people this year participating on a cold windy day.

“It’s become a family event really for a lot of families where they can run together and then go off to enjoy that Thanksgiving dinner as a family,” said Steve Graham, President Troy Community Concert Band.

Heather, Steve’s wife, started this annual event 18 years ago because she came from Chicago where they have a Thanksgiving Day run and she wanted to try that here.

“I told her you’re crazy, no one is going to want to run on Thanksgiving morning in the freezing cold,” Graham said. “We’ve had hundreds of people over the years with the largest one year being about 400”.

Each year there are awards given out to the top three male runners and top three runners as well as the coveted “Ageless Wonder” award that goes to the oldest preregistered participant. Each year the winner’s name is added to the trophy to be remembered for years to come. This years “Ageless Wonder” went to Robert Kolander who was born in August of 1951.

“We started this award because we wanted to reward people who stay fit and active their whole life because that’s really admirable,” Heather stated.

“Having the kids and grandkids run with me,” Kolander said when asked what keeps him active and running.

When runners crossed the finish line for the 18th year of the event, they received a handout talking about the significance of the number 18.

“The number 18 has a symbolic meaning in many cultures-life in Judaism and luck in Chinese. In most countries it is the age of majority, consent and voting,” Graham stated on the sheet. “In numerology it is powerful because it blends the 1(independence and fresh starts) with the 8(success and accomplishment). So, let’s celebrate arriving at 18(years) and take some minutes to dream big The winners for this year had all three male runners finishing before any of the three females made it across the line. All of the winners finished the 5k in less than 24 minutes.

Each of the winners were asked to explain what their favorite thing about the race is after receiving their turkey trophy.

Male winners- First place-Liam Stephen who is just 14 years old said “just running with all the people in the front and running with friends.”

Second place-Gracin Wehde said, “Getting to compete with friends.”

Third place-Chris Scheck stated, “Being able to get up in the morning and go for a run got me up and got me going and it gives you that sense of accomplishment before you get to go feast.”

Female winners had this to say.

First place-Cera Schenck “I just like to run and compete, and it was fun.”

Second place-Karissa Skibinski said, “Just everybody out here is so energetic, everyone that runs it is so nice, the people and the atmosphere is amazing every

year.”

Third place-Grace Wallis finished off by stating “I did this when I was about 12 in Troy with my dad and so being able to do it again and do well was a really cool experience.”