No sleeping in for Bethel Park Turkey Trot participants

Not everyone sleeps in on holidays.

Well before the sun rose Thanksgiving morning, volunteers started gathering around the Clifton Road entrance to the Montour Trail in Bethel Park, ready to help prepare for hundreds of fellow early risers.

At 7:30, they were off and running. Or walking. Or watching and cheering.

The Bethel Park Recreation Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K took place in optimal conditions for late November, in sunshine that helped mitigate a relatively low temperature while keeping it comfortable for the competitors.

And there were plenty of them, with more than 300 people registering for the event. For observers who haven’t run seriously since, say, the Carter administration, a natural question would be:

Why?

“I always do a Turkey Trot, every year,” Bethel Park resident Mary Hietpas said after crossing the finish line. “I’m going to eat a lot of turkey today, so no guilt during dinner.”

Katie Barry and her father, Jake, also like to start Thanksgiving on the move.

“Our family has been running in Turkey Trots the past few years, and this is our first Bethel Park one,” she said, with their previous participation in Pittsburgh’s event. “We just like to get up early, since we’re spending time together, and make a whole day out of it.”

Other relatives who decided to run together included sisters Julianna and Alexandra Jones, with their parents, Melissa and Kevin.

“We did this race last year as a family, and so we just made it a family tradition again, to run it a second year,” Julianna, an industrial engineer living in South Carolina, said. “We’re a cross country family from high school, so we’re sticking with our running roots right before we eat some turkey.”

She and her sister, who happens to be the reigning Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA after her crowning in April, competed for the Elizabeth Forward Warriors.

“It’s fun to carry on that tradition in college and still be active on Thanksgiving morning,” Alexandra, a business information technology major at Virginia Tech, said.

Another traveler to Bethel Park prior to the Turkey Trot was Greg Vater.

“I’m actually in town from Houston, so it’s a good way to start the day with my dad and then spend the rest of the day with my family,” he said. “This was my first time doing the race, and I thought it was really well-organized and a good track.”

He joined his father, Tom, who had invited fellow City of Bridges Running Club member Mark Medrano to give the Montour Trail a try.

“These guys run way more than me,” Greg said. “I only run when I’m in town and hanging out with them.”

His dad enjoyed the Thanksgiving event.

“It’s a fast race, and it just starts the day off right,” he said. “Now I can go home and eat a lot more turkey.”

The Turkey Trot benefits primarily youth-oriented recreational activities in Bethel Park, and it serves as a showcase for the trail.

“It’s such a nice course, flat, straight out, turn around, come right back. Boom. Done,” Friends of the Montour Trail in Bethel Park member Bill Volbers said.

The volunteer Friends group maintains the spur that branches off from the main trail in Peters Township and follows the former Montour Railroad right of way from the municipal line to Irishtown Road.

For Bethel Park resident Austin Perhach, the trail and Turkey Trot provided him with the opportunity to take his running to the next level.

“I started my fitness journey in June, because I wanted to be a good role model for my kids,” he said. “And then I decided to do a 5K because, why not?”

Having just completed his first one, Perhach expressed enthusiasm to keep right on going:

“Hell, yeah.”