Another Successful Wild Turkey Run!
On an unseasonably warm Thanksgiving morning in Salem, nearly 2000 runners, volunteers and spectators took to the streets of Salem to start their holiday participating in the 12th Annual Wild Turkey 5-Mile Run!
On behalf of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem, thank you to our participants for joining us in our 12th annual Run. Your generosity and support of this annual event benefits our youth programs, and for that we are truly thankful.
This year’s Wild Turkey Run was the largest in its’ 12 year history and remains the largest race on the North Shore. We have added over 1900 additional runners since our inception in 2004! With this continued climb, this event has firmly taken its place beside other traditions such as High School Football, turkey and pumpkin pie.
Some interesting statistics from this year’s Wild Turkey 5-Mile Run: For the 9th year in a row, women runners outnumbered men, 61% to 39%. Runner ages ranged from 8 years old to 75 years old! A winning time of 25:59 was turned in by the first place finisher, Caleb Evanter from Dorchester. The female winner was Kylynn McKinley from Marblehead, who won for the second straight year in a time of 31:20. Competitors joined us from across the country, representing the states of Alabama, West Virginia, California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington.
This great event could not be possible without the support of our community sponsors. Major sponsors include: New England Running Company, Brooks Sports Co., Ernst & Young, Butterworth & O’Toole Inc., Dunkin Donuts, Herrick Lutts Realty Partners and Perry & Perry Attorneys at Law. Additional race sponsors and donors include: DeIulis Brothers Construction, Café Graziani, McDonough Family, North Shore Road Race Guide, Cape Cod Potato Chips, Clarke Brothers Fuel, Boston Herald, Salem Moose Family Center, Kaloutas Painting, EBSCO, A&A Services, John J. Walsh Insurance, East Boston Savings Bank, www.salemroadraces.com, Serafini, Darling & Correnti, Dr. Pat Curtin, Cataldo Ambulance and StephenOGrady.com.
Special gratitude to the many volunteers who donated their Thanksgiving morning to help at the race: Tom O’Shea, Beth O’Grady, Beth Zois, Laura Knight, Amy Walsh, Natalie and Erik Thelen, Grace Duran, Mario Fagone, Patty Carter, Ed Zielinski, Natalie and Eric Thelen, Meghan Murtagh, Don Gallucci, Lauren Gable, Ben Hartley, Tom St. Pierre, Lisa Cammarata, Leighton O’Connor, Jason Cararro, Sandy Dalton, TR Ramsdell, Alison, Kerry and Natalie Phelan, Dave Gilbert, James Forina, Sandy George, Paul Cranney, John Landry, and the great cheering group from the Willows neighborhood.
Special thanks to the Salem Police who did a great job of controlling the traffic during the race to keep the runners safe, and to the many Salem residents along the route who cheered our runners on!
For those of you inspired to sign up for the 2016 New England Running Company –Brooks Road Race series, see salemroadraces.com or email dougbollen12@yahoo.com soon so you can join us for the first race of 2016 on New Year’s Day: The Frosty Four.
Again, thank you everyone for making this a great Thanksgiving event!
Doug Bollen
Wild Turkey Race Director
Chief of Operations
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem
