Chaminade Alumn Wins 2011 Garden City Turkey Trot

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.