Buffalo man runs Springfield's 29th annual Turkey Trot again. He has not missed a year
For the 29th time Thursday, Tim Robie completed Springfield's Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K. He has not missed a single year.
"It is just the greatest way in the world to start your Thanksgiving Day," said Robie, 74, of Buffalo. "We have always been home on Thanksgiving so I've been able to sign up. This is my 29th year. It is my way of starting Thanksgiving and then I stop at Walgreens and buy the Black Friday newspaper."
He added: "That is my tradition: Run the race and then buy the newspaper."
Robie was one of the 5,332 participants in this year's 29th Annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K Run/Walk, a 20% increase over 2022. Registration included 456 participants with dogs.
At the start, temperatures were in the mid-30s.
The runners took off from the corner of St. Louis Street and John Q. Hammons Parkway. They were listening to "The Distance" by Cake.
Willa Thieme, a student at Springfield's Sequota Elementary, participated for the first time alongside a grandmother, grandfather and aunt.
Her hat, ordered off Amazon, looked like a full cooked turkey with all the trimmings.
Asked why she wanted to join in this year, the 10-year-old said it sounded like fun. "Because it's Thanksgiving and I am thankful and grateful."
The event is put on by the Springfield-Greene County Park Board. It raises money for the Developmental Center of the Ozarks and the park board's Youth Recreation Scholarship Fund. Donations were also collected for the Ozarks Food Harvest.
Shortly before 8 a.m., Marisa DeClue, executive director at CPO, told runners their registration fees will help "around 1,000 kids this year who have development disabilities."
"You all are helping to remove those barriers so that they can be included in our community," she said.
"I am going to start doing something"
For his first four decades, Robie was not a runner.
"My dad had died at 54 years old of heart disease and I realized I wasn't getting any younger when I turned 40 so I thought 'OK, I am going to start doing something.' I was in a fitness center on a Stairmaster machine and a lady was behind me waiting and she said 'You look like you could be a runner.'" he recalled. "That got me to thinking about it. That was 1990 and I have been running and walking ever since."
The biggest challenge, early on, was to be patient and "build up slowly" with both speed and distance.
"You run a while and then take a short walk break and then run some more until eventually I remember feeling good that I could run my first mile without a walk break," he said. "And then my first three miles without a walk break, you feel really good because that is a 5K distance."
Robie signed up Springfield's first Turkey Trot in 1995. He was 46 years old and finished the 3.1 miles in a little more than 21 minutes, coming in No. 32.
He has showed up each year, ran or shine, and was excited about this year's fall weather.
"I like it to be 40 or 50 degrees to start. That is perfect for me. But you just take whatever it is," he said. "In that very first year, in 1995, it was like 18 degrees. It was freezing and all we had to take shelter in was a large canvas tent set up there at Developmental Center of the Ozarks behind Evangel. That was cover."
Robie keeps a record book of every race he's finished. There are more than 400 entries.
He has made friends in the running community and enjoys seeing familiar faces, families running together and all of the costumes − even though he does not dress up.
"Once or twice when my grandson ran with me, I wore the foam hat they give you," he said.
Robie, who retired in 2003 after working 30 years at Associated Wholesale Grocers, did not consider skipping the 5K during the pandemic when Springfield's Turkey Trot went virtual.
In 2020, he volunteered with the Dallas County Area YMCA Turkey Day 5K Fun Run and then completed his own 5K. The next year, he ran that 5K in Buffalo.
Both years, he submitted his official time online to Springfield's Turkey Trot to keep the streak alive.
Final Turkey Trot for Bob Belote
This year's event was a time to look forward and back. Next year will be the 30th year and planning for how to mark that milestone will soon begin.
It was the final Turkey Trot that Bob Belote will oversee in his role as director of parks and recreation. He will retire in mid-January.
Belote said there was no way organizers of the first race in 1995 could have imagined its size and popularity.
"It is the largest fundraiser of the year for the scholarship fund," he said. "By being here today, you're helping kids in our community play sports, go to summer camp, learn to ice skate, shoot archery − all kinds of activities to keep our kids active and healthy."
The award winners include:
Overall Female: Claire McCune, 25, at 16:35. McCune also won Overall Female in 2018, at 17:47.
Overall Male: Landon Duchsherer, 17, at 15:56
Masters (40-59 yrs.) Female: Rosie Laughlin, 58, at 20:43. Laughlin also won Masters Female in 2019 at 21:31 and in 2017 at 21:01.
Masters (40-59 yrs.) Male: John Steele, 42, at 17:43
Grand Masters (60+) Female: Liz Kyger, age 64, at 23:17. Kyger also won Grand Masters Female in 2022 at 23:07, and Masters Female in 2016 at 21:05 and 2014 at 21:07.
Grand Masters (60+) Male: Kevin Duchsherer, age 61, at 22:02. Kevin Duchscherer is Landon Duchsherer’s father. They are the first father-son pair to win their respective titles.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Buffalo man runs Springfield's 29th annual Turkey for 29th time
