Winning the Garden City Turkey Trot has become an annual tradition for one West Hempstead man.
Over 5,000 spectators were on hand to see 22-year old Ryan McDermott take home the home the Jim Flynn Memorial Trophy in the 34th iteration of the annual 5-mile race on Thanksgiving Day. This is the fifth consecutive time that he has won the race.
McDermott finished with a time of 25:03 with a 5:01 pace, around the same speed he ran at when he won the race in 2009 and 2008. He was able to shave seconds off his 2010 time and ran a whole minute faster than when he took home his first victory in the race in 2007 at age 18.
The Turkey Trot consists of three races: a Challenger Division Race for special needs athletes, a 1.4-mile Fun Run and a challenging 5-mile run. All three races start and finish in front of the historic on Stewart Avenue.
Earlier this month, McDermott, a graduate of , completed his , finishing among the top 250 men in the United States with a time of 2:45:47. He dedicated the race to his brother, a former track athlete who suffered a spinal chord injury while diving into a pool and used the race to raise funds for the Christopher Reeve foundation.
McDermott's next goal is to
The Turkey Trot has also netted substantial sums for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association through local sponsorships, as well as resulted in hundreds of pounds of food being donated to Mineola-based to feed the hungry. Several hundred race T-shirts were also donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.
