By John Evanko
As the weather continues to get colder, most students are anxiously awaiting one of the biggest family traditions of the year: Thanksgiving.
But for some students at the University of Louisville with that tradition comes another. Monday, Nov. 24 marks the 55th consecutive running of the annual Turkey Trot. This intramural race is the oldest consecutively run road race in the state of Kentucky.
“A lot of events at the University of Louisville run off tradition,” Adam Jines, coordinator of intramural sports, said. “This event is always the Monday before Thanksgiving. We feel that the tradition gets a lot of people to compete.”
Approximately 75 students are expected to participate. The women will begin their one-mile trot through campus on the Humanities Quad when the 12:00 p.m. bell sounds from the SAC tower. The men will start their 2.3-mile run on SGA Parkway Field at 12:15 p.m. The course will lead the competitors throughout the entire campus, before they finish in the grassy area behind the Law School parking lot.
The students look at this event as one of the most unique events on the intramural calendar.
“It is such a completely different aspect because you’re so used to just walking through campus,” Pete Uthe, junior Sigma Chi member, said.
“It is really weird running through campus because people are walking to class in the middle of the race. It is just a unique experience,” Emily Erwin, sophomore Delta Zeta member, said of the “Turkey Trot”.
Erwin won last year’s Turkey Trot for the women, while Pi Kappa Alpha’s Patrick Read won first-place individually in the men’s division. Air Force ROTC won the overall men’s division and tied for first with Delta Zeta in the overall women’s division. Air Force ROTC will be the team to beat again this year.
“Army and Air Force always finish really high because they train so hard,” John Smith, assistant director of intramural sports, said.
In addition to students walking to class, the athletes must also face another obstacle—the cold weather.
“Running in the cold hurts your throat and lungs really bad,” Erwin said.
Other competitors are not fazed.
“I actually run better in the cold,” Uthe said.
Whether good or bad, the weather is part of the tradition, which, according to John Smith, is a big part of the U of L’s intramural program.
“We do a lot of things that aren’t common on other campuses,” Smith said. “We have a lot of special events that students from other schools don’t get to compete in.”
