Racing Day In The Rivertowns

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Hundreds of runners charge up Dow's Lane at the start of the Peter K. Oley Turkey Trot, 2023 edition

November 19, 2023

By Barrett Seaman—

Blessed with a crisp, clear Autumn day, the annual pre-Thanksgiving Turkey Trot races in Tarrytown and Irvington drew large fields, with runners ranging in age from the sixes to the seventies. Whole families, father-daughter, mother-son and vice versa teamed up to make both races communal triumphs.

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The Tarrytown Turkey Trot, officially the Trudy Dunbar Memorial 5K, was a morning affair, run on a track that looped around Pierson Park, up the RiverWalk and around the Hudson Harbor condominium complex, returning to the starting line on the parking circle behind the bandstand.. Earlier, 7-9-year-olds got to run in the one-mile Gobbler Trot.

Officials at Tarrytown’s Trudy Dunbar Turkey Trot keep competitors at bay before the start

Organizers reported some 160 runners. The winner clocked in at 17 minutes 17 seconds, or better than 11 miles per hour. He and the golf cart there to guide the field on the right course were so far ahead of the rest that several runners missed a critical turn on the H-bridge and ended up crossing the finish line backwards. Winners in each of the six age brackets were rewarded with a turkey—and just in time!

Later that day (it’s always on a Sunday), more than 200 set out from Irvington’s Dows Lane School, up to Broadway to the northern border of the village and back down the Aqueduct to a finish in Memorial Field. The best time for the 2.5-mile run (officially the Peter K. Oley Turkey Trot) was 14 minutes and change; the first woman to cross the line clocked in at just over 17 minutes.

And this year’s winners? Everyone.

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