A bunch of turkey-loving runners gobbled up some miles in Prospect Park before sitting down to Thanskgiving dinner.
The annual Turkey Trot, organized by the Prospect Park Track Club, is a five-mile run through Brooklyn’s backyard. It lets runners work off some calories to make room for a good old-fashioned holiday stuffing, one athlete said.
“It’s a healthy start to a day known for feasting,” said Midwood resident Natania Contijo, who ran last year and brought her daughter Bayla along for the trek this time around.
More than 2,000 runners turned out for the run, which started at 9 am. Top finishers took home pies, but Contijo said that getting to spend time with her daughter before the bustle of a big family meal was the real reward.
“You might get 20 people around the table for dinner, but you do a lot more bonding on a five-mile run,” she said.
Josie Wold came up from Kensington for the trot. Her 8-year-old son is not yet old enough to participate, but she wanted to set a good example for him.
“I’m trying to be a good role model,” she said. “I want to keep our family healthy.”
Wold added that both she and her son suffer from asthma and that she wants him to know the respiratory ailment does not have to slow him down.
“It’s a challenge,” Wold said. “But I want to show him that I can do it anyway.”
