Runners pose with the inflatable turkey before the race begins. Photo by Steve Hibbard.
About 500 people participated in the Turkey Trot 5K Run and 1 Mile Fun Run for Parkinson's Disease
on Thanksgiving Day at Burke Lake Park, raising $5,500 for the cause. The money will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The chip-timed event was organized by Juliet Neal, a running coach with West Springfield Running who has a family member diagnosed with the disease.
"I'm very surprised at the huge turnout," said Neal of West Springfield, who used social media and the Springfield chapter of Moms Run This Town, a local running group with 1,000 members, to help get the word out about the race. What she likes about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, she said, was that "100 percent of the donations goes to research; there are no administrative fees. And the Fox Foundation does a lot for families, too."
The first-place male in the 5K race was Dylan Morgan of Fairfax Station with a time of 16:27; the first-place female was Katie Fabish of Springfield with a time of 19:29. The first place winner of the one-mile fun run was Cristiano Garcia, age 5, of Springfield.