It’s sunny and 60 degrees at the start line at Delaware Avenue and Shoreham Parkway in North Buffalo.
What a fabulous start to Thanksgiving where some 20,000 plus folks are out before nine in the morning for the 117th running of Buffalo’s Turkey Trot, the oldest annual consecutive-year footrace in North America. Take that Boston Marathon!
It does not seem like there are too many folks here from last night’s Chippewa Street activities.
I see lots of shorts and shirtless folks, a little unusual for late November. Also lots of folks waiting for all of their group to show up so that they can run together, or at least try to for awhile until they get separated. What a great way to share the Buffalo experience with family and friends. This is better than Twitter!
If you want to check to see if your significant other really turkey trotted, please click here.
Buffalo Sabres hockey is back
It looks like the infamous Hansen brothers, from what some consider the greatest hockey movie ever made, Slapshot. But the jerseys are not the Charlestown Chiefs, but our beloved Buffalo Sabres!! The eyeglasses with scotch tape certainly look authentic. And its nice that they have their coach along to bail them out when they get arrested.
Raiders of the Lost Ark wins best costume prize
For the first time this year there was a contest for best costume. Raiders of the Lost Ark won for best group costume. During the race I could actually hear music playing from their Ark. A lady from Saint Catherines, Ontario, dressed as a turkey won for best individual costume.
Rickshaw Santa driven by three bananas and …
I am not sure who the rest of this group is dressed as, but I thought they were pretty creative, and probably pretty tired at race end. They went south on Delaware Ave, through the beautiful S curves of Delaware Park, past cool residential neighborhoods, millionaire’s row, midtown, the party district (a lot different than just a few hours earlier), turned left on Church Street, and then Franklin Street, and hitting the finish line at the Convention Center. Post race parties were inside the Convention Center, and a family-friendly event at Statler City.
Air Force Reservist Gina Pizziconi-Cuppins sang the national anthem
Gina had such a wonderful voice! Directly to her left is Tom Donnelly, the race director for the Turkey Trot, who did an outstanding job organizing the race throughout the year. What a monumental task, great job there Tom! The number of entries made a new record this year, and they were capped at 14,000. I am sure they could have easily gone to 20,000 if they wanted to. Work has already begun on next year’s race.
Lots of shopping cart costumes this year
Nice job here with the turkey getting a free ride, and the servers doing all of the work. Buffalo was well protected with a lot of the members of the Justice League of America and the Avengers in force. It looked like Keanu Reeves was back in Buffalo to shoot another movie when I saw Bill and Ted in their Excellent Adventure outfits. Santa was quite popular, in shopping cart as well as in wheelchair.
We would love to hear from you!
Please share with us your favorite costume(s) from this year’s Turkey Trot!