OCEAN CITY – There were just shy of a thousand registered runners who finished the annual Fast and the Furriest 5K Turkey Trot on the Ocean City Boardwalk Thanksgiving morning. More than a thousand people were registered ranging from 7 to 79 years old – as evidenced by the massive stream of racers heading south from the Music Pier and back again – not to mention the roughly 80 youngsters who did the one-mile race.
Of the entire flock of runners, one was trying his best to be aerodynamic, using his beak to cut through the chilly wind.
Dave Kranich, 49, of Washington, D.C., was the 100th finisher in the race that benefits the Humane Society of Ocean City. He was fully outfitted as a turkey, a decision that may or may not have improved his standing (are turkeys that aerodynamic?) but apparently motivated his nephew to keep a healthy distance ahead of him.
“You know, when you’re going into the wind, it’s a little easier to run because my beak stays up,” he said. “A beak in the face coming north was a little tough this morning. I had to readjust the beak constantly.”
Kranich said he is a recreational runner whose family has been coming to the resort all of their lives. The costume makes an annual appearance on the holiday, but not necessarily in a race.
“The turkey outfit is almost always on at Thanksgiving,” he said, laughing. “This is my first 5K Turkey Trot in Ocean City. My first 5K Turkey Trot ever.”
“It’s a beautiful morning and it’s great to be here at the shore,” he said. “It was neat to be able to do this.” Afterwards, he said, he was going to relax, spend time with family and watching football and he would “take care of my beak.”
Kranich was running with his nephew, Brennan Kwiatkowski, 17, of Doylestown, Pa.
“He was much quicker. He ran without the outfit today to preserve his stellar time,” Kranich said.
Kwiatkowski, a senior at Central Bucks West High School who runs winter track and plays lacrosse in the spring, wasn’t necessarily jealous of his uncle’s costume, but it did help motivate him in a way.
“I definitely was trying to stay away from him,” Kwiatkowski said, smiling. “I’ve got to keep my distance from the turkey. He’s unpredictable. You never know what he’s going to do.”
He finished in 62nd place overall with a time of 22:20, about a minute and a half ahead of his uncle.
Kwiatkowski was unsure if the costume would be his one day. “I’m not too sure about it being passed down,” he said. After the race, he was ready to “go home, eat a lot of food and recover from the race.”
5K winners of the non-costume variety
The first three runners across the finish line at the Fast and the Furriest 5K Turkey Trot were all Ocean City High School graduates and former Red Raiders runners.
Jesse Schmeizer, 21, was first in a time of 16 minutes and 42 seconds, followed by Korey Greene, 22, in 17:29, and Stephen Hoffman, 31, in 17:44.
Jessica Rosetti, 40, of Ocean City, led the women with a time of 19:47, followed by Kelly Leighton, 36, of Camp Hill, Pa., in 19:55, and Julia Guenther, 30, in 19:59.
“I always usually start Thanksgiving with a run and I don’t believe they had this run last year because of the virus,” Rosetti said. “Now that this is my hometown, I’m happy to be running a 5K where I live. We moved from Atco about a year and a half ago.
“We actually moved mid-pandemic,” she added. “It was more for my kids because if the world should shut down again, where is our happy place? It’s Ocean City, so here we are.”
Some of her family members wanted to be in the race, but couldn’t make it.
“They were originally going to but they weren’t feeling well so they stayed home, but we made our donation to the cause,” she said about the benefit to the Humane Society. “It’s all good.”
Schmeizer, who moved on to run for Lafayette College after his career at OCHS, said the race is just what he does.
“It’s so much fun to come out. You see the whole town. You see old friends. You get a chance to run on the Ocean City Boardwalk. There’s nothing like it,” he said. “I grew up running this boardwalk.”
Schmeizer runs competitively, but that wasn’t the point of the Turkey Trot.
“I finished the cross country season about two weeks ago at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships for Lafayette College. I just came out to have some fun. I love this sport.”
Aside from bragging rights, he joked that the win may help him at the Thanksgiving dinner table. “I deserve first pickings for everything now because I ran so hard,” he said, laughing.
“Honestly, it’s all part of the fun. I was running with the guys up front,” he said. “I know them all so we ran together most of the way.” He was in the same class at OCHS with Greene, who now runs at Rowan University. Hoffman maintained his ties with OCHS after graduation and now is an assistant coach with the runners.
A little bit of the competitiveness did come out toward the end. “I felt pretty good,” he said. “Let me turn over a bit and speed up a little bit.”
