OCEANSIDEOCEANSIDE — Bedecked in a colorful array of orange, brown and gold cloth leaves attached to her workout clothes, leafy fairy wings sewn onto the back of her shirt and a matching leafy tiara atop her head, Amy Brooker looked every bit an autumn princess at Thursday’s 16th annual Oceanside Turkey Trot.
The event included a 5K run/walk and a 5-mile race as well as a 1-mile walk and 1/5-mile walk for kids, and drew about 8,000 walkers and runners from across the county, as well as a handful of participants from Mexico and some from as far away as Switzerland, England and Australia.
A breast cancer survivor in her fourth year of remission, Brooker said this was the first time in five Oceanside Turkey Trots that she donned a special outfit to mark the occasion.
“I figured everyone was going to be a turkey, a pilgrim or a piece of pie, so I wanted to stand out,” said Brooker, 40, of Vista. “It was so much fun wearing the costume. Oh, and also, my middle name is Autumn.”
The Turkey Trot benefits more than 90 local charities and Oceanside schools, and organizers say that this year’s funds are estimated to exceed $40,000.
The popular event was cancelled last year because of concerns about COVID-19 transmission, and race director Kathy Kinane said she was thrilled to see all the faces of the participants, young and old, enjoying the morning sunshine and warm winds along the coastline.
“This concept was designed around our foundation’s goal of getting people to move their feet before they eat,” Kinane said. “We have a Miles of Smiles program, and we use the Turkey Trot as a way to incentivize people to get out and work out with their families and friends. We have huge teams of families that participate in this event, which is really the dream. I’d say this year we nailed it.”
Many at the event wore Thanksgiving-themed outfits, several sporting full-on inflatable turkey costumes. Kids wore decorative hats that looked like turkey legs, and several adults wore shirts that said “Run. Eat Turkey. Nap.” Other participants were less traditional, with one person donning a full banana costume and another dressed as a Stormtrooper from “Star Wars.”
Dozens of ers of Larry and Pam Bice wore red T-shirts and participated in the event to honor the memory of their son, Austin Taylor Bice, who drowned while studying abroad in Madrid in February 2011. He was 22.
As bright sunlight bounced off the Pacific Ocean at the Oceanside Pier, surfers caught frothy waves, and flocks of pelicans and gulls filled the skies, the thousands of walkers and runners filled the boardwalk, all of them proudly displaying their finishers’ medals dangling from ribbon necklaces.
Brooker took some time near the pier to stop and be thankful for her latest 5K run/walk finish.
Diagnosed with breast cancer just one week after her first Oceanside Turkey Trot in 2016, Brooker went through chemotherapy and surgery over the following year. She was pronounced cancer free by Thanksgiving 2017. Since then, she has worked hard to build up her stamina and said she was able to intersperse some of her walking with a little bit of running at the latest Turkey Trot.
“It is so nice to have strength and energy to do something like this,” Brooker said.
Other active morning events around San Diego County on Thursday included Father Joe’s Villages 20th annual Thanksgiving Day 5K in Balboa Park, a 5K at Tidelands Park in Coronado hosted by the Coronado unit of the Rady’s Children’s Hospital Auxiliary and a 5K run/walk/stroll in Fallbrook hosted by the Fallbrook Village Rotary Club.
For many participants, walking or running to burn calories on a day in which they might indulge more than they normally would is a good balance to perceived future Thanksgiving overeating.
But Jesus Villarreal, an 18-year-old Vista High alum, was not necessarily of that mindset. He was using the race as a way to gauge his fitness.
“I feel like I don’t eat as much compared to a lot of other runners, but yeah, I’m probably going to eat a lot today,” he said, laughing.
Villarreal just finished his first year running cross country for San Diego Mesa College. Villarreal was part of the Mesa team that placed first in the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno five days earlier. He finished 17th in that four-mile race.
He was the first Oceanside resident to finish the 5K, placing second overall with a time of 15 minutes, 10 seconds, just one second behind winner Trevor Boaz. Boaz held a 50-meter lead over the early part of the course, but Villarreal hung tight to make it close at the end.
The first woman finisher was Alexia Thiros, who finished in 17:02. The winner of the event’s five-mile race was Christopher Wernke, who finished in 26:23.
