Year 1: On Thanksgiving morning 2001, Johanna Hynes rallied her siblings, her stepdad, Caryn Ecker, Caryn's stepdad, and, I'm thinking, Marc Malloy for a quick run before dinner. We were in single digits. There were no costumes. There were no prizes. There wasn't even an evite. But on that November morning we ran as friends and family. Johanna called it the Turkey Trot and with that a tradition was born.
Race Winner: Thomas Hynes
Year 2: I actually wasn't here this year. I was living in Lake Tahoe and remember making frantic calls to the East Coast to check on the results. If this thing was going to survive, I remember thinking, it needed to have a second year. Luckily, Johanna and Lizzy were there to make sure it stuck.
Race Winner: One of the Hickey brothers
Year 3: This was a lean year for the Shippan Turkey Trot. Nobody was around, and a cold, mean rain enveloped the peninsula of Shippan. Marc Malloy and I agreed to run in the name of the race. Now, did the two of us actually run, or did we agree over the phone that the 'effort and intention' to run the race was just as good as actually running it? We may never know.
Race Winner: Marc Malloy and Thomas Hynes (co-champions)
Year 4: This was a really big year for the race. This was the year this turkey got some legs. This was the first year Shippan Turkey Trot legends, Jamie Barone and Jeff Piedmont were in attendance. Jamie introduced what scholars believe to be the first costume in the race's history, wearing a bow tie, hockey gloves, an American flag speedo and not much else. He was also tackled into a leaf pile, if I'm not mistaken. This was also the first year of prizes.
Race Winner: Ryan Malloy
Year 5: Going off the previous year's success, the turkeys of year 5 picked up their costume game. Two racers went so far as to pioneer running in the "underwear over the running shorts" look. (I'm pretty sure the underpants I wore were the original pair of 'Hot Cookie' underpants, which would later become a prize for last place.) This was the second year of the Barone, Hynes, Malloy, Piedmont alliance. And there would be no looking back. Year 5 was also the first year of the evite.
Race Winner: That Joe guy
Year 6: Ah, yes. The year it rained. We dipped back down to single digits in attendance this year. But we did run. And that's really all that matters. We kept it going. And while there wasn't much in the way of costumes, Mrs. Barone did provide those rainbow umbrella hats, which I think everyone agreed were a really nice touch.
Race Winner: Again with this Joe guy
Year 7: This was a huge year. More people, more costumes, more prizes, more spectators. MORE FUN! On a personal note, this was the third or fourth year I had a mustache. (No big deal.) This Trot was not free of controversy, however. After the race, Chris Malloy was awarded the 'Hot Cookie' underpants for placing last. It was thought he was being given this for best costume, which clearly Jeff Piedmont would have won. However, there was no best costume prize in Year 7.... and that would have to change.
Race Winner: Nick Bergman
Year 8: Another huge year for the Shippan Turkey Trot. The race took on a whole new life this year when we began raising funds and food for the Shelter for the Homeless in Stamford, CT. Always a fun event, the race became a more meaningful fixture for the community. "This way they can never shut us down," thought organizer, Thomas Hynes. This year we also introduced a trophy named the "Jeff Piedmont Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Costuming." Anyone could win, but it would always have Jeff's name on it.
Race Winner: Jim McCaffrey
Year 9: Historians will remember this as the year the Hynes Girls became a force to be reckoned with. Few Turkeys, if any, have had a better single day performance than Katie Hynes's Year 9 effort. She took home three trophies that day for Best Costume, First Female to Cross and First Hynes to Cross. What a talent! This was also the second year of the group costume trend, and the first year for the 'entrance' trend.
Race Winner: Nick Bergman
Year 10: What do you get when you add social media outreach to an already awesome Thanksgiving-day road race? You get more participants and more money raised for the Shelter for the Homeless than ever before. Oh, and you get a couple of newspapers to show up, too, apparently. This was such a banner year in so many ways. Can you say, 'over-sized checks'? Plus, we added new prizes.... cause 'everyone's a winner at the Shippan Turkey Trot.' (TM)
Race Winner: Jim McCaffrey
Year 11: By year 11, the Shippan Turkey Trot had become so popular, impostor 'trots' began to sprout up, aka, the highest form of flattery. This year also marked the arrival of the bouncy castle. One unsung highlight of Year 11 was the couple who moved to Shippan only a few weeks earlier, and came to the Trot to meet their new neighbors. He dressed as Buddy the Elf, but she wore a Mrs PacMan costume... made from their moving boxes! I mean, come on!
Race Winner: Jim McCaffrey
Year 12: Another banner year for The Shippan Turkey Trot with over $6,000 raised for the Shelter for the Homeless. More turkeys trotted this year than any previous year. But, that's just the way this Trot trends. Year 12 also saw the revitalization of the Turkey Trot playlist, which future historians will no doubt classify as "hella funky." The PiedCaffTronUcci 'torch lighting' was among the many highlights. This also would be the Trot's last year as an unofficial municipal event, as dreams of litigation and liability danced through the organizer's head most nights.
Race Winner: Jim McCaffrey
Year 13: Man, it was cold in year 13. There's no denying that. But, the turkeys trotted on, with more runners and more money raised than ever before. The Trot enjoyed tremendous sponsorship in Year 13, with Fleet Feet of Stamford joining Chelsea Piers, Brooklyn Brewery, Brennan's, HHG, Stamford Signs, GradeA and Juliska as supporters of this great cause. But, let's be honest, all anyone probably remembers from Year 13 is the whale costume, right?
Race Winner: Can someone tell me who this was? I don't know if I ever got his name, actually.
