Annual Turkey Trot carves into its 20th quirky year

Turkey trotters Caroline DeFilippo and Alisa Harrison showed up last year dressed for the occasion. Contributed photos

From left: Scott Harrison, Kevin Mooney in turkey outfit, and Ted Eigel in turnout gear at the 2024 Turkey Trot.

By JEFF MORRIS 

Looking for a way to burn off those extra calories you’re planning to accumulate on Thanksgiving? The Bedford Turkey Trot may be the perfect solution.

The 2025 Turkey Trot is the 20th year for this challenging community run, billed as “20 Years on the Hill.” It is said to be a way to celebrate the holiday season and showcase Bedford Village and the Bedford business district.

“It’s the hardest 5K in New York,” said co-founder Rob Cavenagh — though he noted it is actually a bit longer, at 5.6327K. “And it’s a fun community event. Every year something funny or quirky happens. And every year we try and improve the experience for the runners.” 

The race attracts nearly 500 runners annually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year it will take place Nov. 29, starting at 9 a.m. 

The Turkey Trot was conceived at a dinner party, where Cavenagh and co-founder Jennifer Schwartz say they simultaneously had the brilliant idea to have a community race, knowing many people had visitors during Thanksgiving. Schwartz and Cavenagh ran the race (double-meaning intended) from 2005 to 2017, when she turned her co-organizer position over to Ted Eigel.

The course layout was Cavenagh’s idea. Starting and ending at Bedford Village Memorial Park, it runs past local horse farms and through the Village Green. The halfway point is just past the top of Indian Hill Road — “Not for the faint of heart,” Cavenagh said. “Believe it or not, Indian Hill is much steeper going down.” He says runners from far and wide gather to brave both the hill and the cold weather for an exciting Saturday morning.

The original course began at Bedford Village Elementary School, with runners shuttled there from the park by bus; that continued through 2019. Because of COVID-19, there was a “virtual” race in 2020, with only about 25 participants. Beginning in 2021, the course was modified, and the race made a bit longer, by starting and ending it at the park.

In 2007, Tim Coffey proposed to Heather Burke on Indian Hill in the middle of the Turkey Trot.

“The first year we did it, in 2005, we kind of threw it together,” Cavenagh said. “Fashion designer Joseph Abboud was the celebrity starter; he had just built his design studio in the middle of Bedford Village, and when we asked him he said ‘sure!’”

Cavenagh said they’ve been really lucky, never having any bad weather, and never having any serious injuries. “We’ve had a couple of people getting bumps and scrapes,” he said. “We had one person fall at the start — I think they tripped and ran into the ambulance. Couldn’t have gotten any closer to the EMTs.”

There was even a couple who got engaged in the middle of the race. “It was on Indian Hill,” said Cavenagh. “They met at the top, and he went down on one knee, and she said yes.”

The difficulty with climbing Indian Hill has become part of the focus, Cavenagh said. “You’ve got to get up and over that hill. People like to yell at me because I designed the course. I think it’s funny. I take pride in the fact that they don’t like the course because it’s tough.”

Now, he says, people live for how hard it is. “It’s kind of like a rite of passage, that they’ve been able to get out there and do it,” says Cavenagh. 

The first year, he recalled, it snowed two days before the race; the town was out putting salt down. “I think Jen and I were out there with brooms at 3 in the morning, sweeping it to make sure it was fine.”

Cavenagh said there’s a group of people who used to go out and check the course ahead of time. “After 2020, we decided to get a bunch of volunteers who were going to be there anyway,” he said. “So we started at 6:30, ran it backwards, and called it the Frozen Giblets race.”

That the race has been embraced by the town became evident two years ago, observed Cavenagh, when someone complained about it on Facebook. “Thank you for closing off the public road and inconveniencing taxpayers for a private event,” began the post. It was immediately met by indignant responses, one of which said, “Are you new to town? How disrespectful of you to post such a comment. All of us taxpayers who ran the race enjoyed it as we have for years!” Cavenagh pointed out that the race has been held annually on the Saturday morning following Thanksgiving since 2005, with the full cooperation and participation of the town. “Without their approval and support of the town of Bedford, Bedford Police Department, the Highway Department, Bedford Fire Department and most of all the Bedford Recreation & Parks Department, this race would literally and figuratively not happen,” said Cavenagh. “It is very much a public event.”

Cavenagh said he’s been evaluating 18 years of race results, and found there are some families who, between family members, have done it 45 to 46 times. There is a woman (not local) who has done it 16 years in a row, he said, and a number of people who have done it 13 or 14 times.

The link to register is https://bit.ly/3JRHMAR. There is no day-of-race registration. Cavenagh said this year, because they are expecting a higher-than-usual turnout, there will be two check-in options before the race where registered racers can get their numbers and their T-shirt: on Friday, Nov. 28, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the lobby of the Bedford Playhouse; and on race day from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m., at Bedford Village Memorial Park.

On Saturday, the 5K Walk will start at 9 a.m., and the 5K Run will start at 9:10 a.m.

Participants and others are advised that parking is available on-site at the park, but are asked to please consider carpooling, as there is only so much parking and they expect a huge turnout.

The race has multiple sponsors. Cavenagh notes Mount Kisco Sports has been a sponsor since the first year in 2005.

“Rob Bernstein does the (thousands of) T-shirts and all the volunteer swag that we give out,” he said. 

Other sponsors include the Bedford Village Chowder & Marching Club, the town of Bedford, Danziger & Markhoff LLP, Bradsell Contracting, We Care Nanny Agency, oHHo Botanicals, and the Bedford Playhouse.