Photo by Becky Polaski Runners in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot held each year by the Schlimm family started off down Earth Road at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Over 150 people participated in this year’s event.

By Becky Polaski

Staff Writer

For the past five years members of the Schlimm family have gathered at the home of Andy and Pam Schlimm on the corner of Earth and Light roads in St. Marys to take part in a 5k (3.1 mile) turkey trot on Thanksgiving day to raise money for the Prostate Urologic Program at UPMC. All of the money raised at the event is donated in memory of John Schlimm and William Harvey.

The turkey trot was first held five years ago with only a handful of individuals participating. Over the years it has continued to grow and this year over 150 people showed up to walk or run in the annual event. Several even brought their dogs to accompany them along the route.

The route for the turkey trot takes participants down Earth Road and along the Million Dollar Highway. Participants then turn at the light and make their way to the St. Marys Area High School, where they make their way through the various levels of the parking lot before exiting the school complex and returning to the Schlimm residence. The group received permission from the St. Marys City Police Department to place signs in one of the lanes of the highway to provide participants with a safe place to walk or run. Agape Assembly of God, which is also located on Earth Road, also allowed participants to utilize their parking lot for the event.

Due to the number of participants in the past several years, the event was split in two with the walkers starting at 9 a.m. and the runners beginning at 10 a.m.

The top male and female finishers in each event receive a pat on the back and bragging rights until the next event.

“Each year this has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” event coordinator Nikki Kashner said.

She added that this year also marked the first time the group has had nice weather for the turkey trot.

“The first year we had about six feet of snow I think,” she said. “This is as nice as it gets on a November day in St. Marys.”

According to records that the Schlimm’s have kept from each year’s event, prior to this year it took the first male runner just over 20 minutes to complete the turkey trot route and was slightly longer for the best female runner.

This year, recent St. Marys Area High School graduate Colt Mack, who currently competes on the track team at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, set a new best time for the event by finishing in 17:31.

Mack noted that he had never previously participated in the turkey trot and was encouraged to do so by his former track coach Stan Foster.

The top female runner was Alexis Schlimm, the youngest daughter of Andy and Pam Schlimm and a younger sister of Kashner, with a time of 24:56. Schlimm has participated in the event for the past five years and noted that she also occasionally runs the route during the summer.  

Schlimm added that the hardest part of the route is exiting St. Marys Area High School.

“The dip in between the high school and the gate is definitely the hardest,” Schlimm said. “(Coming up Earth Road) you have people to cheer you on and you’re almost done, but when you’re exiting the high school you know you still have to do the hill after that.”

One of the participants who walked in the event wore a pedometer as she traveled the route and noted that when she finished it had taken her 6,205 steps to complete the turkey trot.

With the increase in participants each year, a goal is also set for the amount of money the group hopes to raise for prostate cancer research. Kashner noted that this year’s goal was $1,000, a number that was easily surpassed given the large number of participants in the event.

Kashner added that she is happy with how the event has grown over the years.

“It is a fun event,” Kashner said. “You get your exercise in before you eat your turkey.”