From Walkers to Trotters: A Thanksgiving Eve Tradition

It was a cool, sunny Thanksgiving Eve morning and members of our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group were in front of the Exedra, where we always are at 10:30 AM on Wednesdays. The group was smaller than usual for his holiday week walk with about 30 people and one K-9 best friend on hand.

The group was there to work up appetites for our Thanksgiving dinners, but for another reason too. They knew about 2,400 runner/walkers were going to be on this very spot the next morning for the annual Piedmont Turkey Trot, and they were there to get a head start on them. The group would walk the Turkey Trot course on this day before Thanksgiving and be the first across the race’s finish line.

I was away, so Matt G conducted the walk. Matt and Harriette L had staffed our table at the Piedmont Adult Recreation EXPO on November 16^th and Matt started off the morning by reading a few of the comments people had sent him about what they liked about the activity. Then, Matt shared a “A Turkey Trot Story.”

According to Matt, “Like all Walking on Wednesday stories, this one starts with Frank C. Havens. Frank was somewhat of an athlete, and every Wednesday he liked to go jogging around town with his publicist, a young man by the name of Dick Carter. They’d run up and down the streets while Dick made up heroic stories about Frank, and they had a good laugh together.

Over time, their friends started running with them all over town, up La Salle and Seaview, down Mountain, and the group became known as the Wednesday Runners. This went on for many years, but eventually they all got too old to run, so they became the Wednesday Walkers.

Now, there was an interim period, in between the Wednesday Runners and the Wednesday Walkers, when they were the Wednesday Trotters. And one year during that period, due to some kind of mix-up related to Leap Year, Thanksgiving fell on a Wednesday. All November of that year they called themselves the Turkey Trotters. Now, Frank C. Havens – that guy was always trying to make a buck – thought, ‘Just about everybody in Piedmont has the day off on Thanksgiving. I bet I could get them to pay to run with us and be Turkey Trotters.’

Sure enough, it was wildly successful, and the Turkey Trot has continued to this day. Frank made a boatload of money off the deal and was able to buy the naming rights to the local elementary school. As for Dick Carter and the Wednesday walkers, well, they all lived happily ever after.”

Matt let everyone know that this tale is a work of fiction. He said names, characters, places, and incidents either were products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

After Matt finished his storytelling, he was ready to take the group on the Piedmont Turkey Trot 5K course. According to Google, in 2024, approximately 1.1 million people participated in Thanksgiving Turkey Trot races across the United States, with 936 races held nationwide. This broke previous records for participation and the number of races, making it the biggest running day of the year. Participation was up by 21% compared to the previous year. These events also raised more than $3.6 million for charities. 

The Piedmont Turkey Trot is conducted by a non-profit that supports local charities and organizations, the PHS Cross Country and Track and Field teams, and the PHS Athletic Boosters. This was the 24^th year for the Piedmont Turkey Trot. It started in 2001 with 300 runners. Participation was as high as 3,100 one year, but that size was considered unsafe, and the number of runners was capped.

Last year's Piedmont Turkey Trot’s three overall winners and times were Jack Stein (15:40), Xander Schulte-Sasse (16:17), and Robert Schutz (16:31). Eighty-year old Len Goldman did it in 27:21. Our Wednesday walkers did not think they would challenge either Jack’s or Len’s times, but they would do the entire Turkey Trot 5K route, which is 3.1 miles.

The walkers took off from the Exedra, just up from the race start/finish line on Magnolia Avenue. It was not a fast-paced trot, but they walked/strolled the entire route. They went up Highland Avenue, left on Wildwood Avenue, rights on Crocker and Lafayette Avenues, east on La Salle Avenue all the way to Hampton Road, and then right on Sea View Avenue. The walkers continued on, each at their own pace, up the long “Heartbreak Hill” climb of Sea View. The group then floated down Mountain Avenue to Craig, Highland, Vista, and Magnolia Avenues to complete the course. There was great exercise, good conservations with friends, and much to be thankful for. The group expects to do it again next Thanksgiving Eve.