475 to Run in Bedford Turkey Trot

The Bedford Turkey Trot attracts families, serious runners and those just out to work off a few Thanksgiving calories.

It's been a community event since its inception in 2005 and has inspired some traditions among repeat runners.

"Last year when I was a freshman at Fox Lane, I asked my friends on the cross country team to run the race with me," said Paige Cloonan, who finished the race in 23 minutes last year. She and her mom, Ann Cloonan, invited her teammates over to their home in Bedford Village for pumpkin waffles, bagels and hot chocolate after the race and plan to do so again this year.

This time out, Paige is runnning with her friends Rachel Eisman and Carly Schwartz but they're not necessarily competing against each other.

"We'd like to see if we can place in our age group, but we're mostly doing it because it's a lot of fun and nice to be out in the community," said the Fox Lane sophomore.

The course traverses 3.1 miles and includes some steep terrain. Runners line up at , then shoot over to Seminary Road before climbing up Indian Hill Road. It's downhill from there to the finish in Bedford Village Memorial Park.

Organizers have been planning the seventh annual Turkey Trot for months, according to Jennifer Schwartz, who plans the event with Wendy and Rich Camerik, Rob Cavenagh, Don Marcotte and Rob Bernstein.

For the first time, the number of registrants was capped at 475, said Schwartz, to see if the on-site check-in and race start might be better managed with a finite number of pre-registered runners. The Trot reached capacity by Monday night.

The children's race is still open to interested runners and no pre-registration is necessary. Their run begins following the completion of the 5K, at approximately 10 a.m.

This year's sponsors include the Bedford Chowder & Marching Club, Lloyd Bedford Cox, Northern Westchester Hospital, Citibank, the Rippowam Cisqua School and the Bedford-Katonah Patch.

A full list of sponsors can be found here.

Check in begins at 7:30 a.m. in the park, and the race begins at 9 a.m. Parking is available at the Bedford Village Memorial Park, where shuttle buses will take runners to the race start. The last shuttle leaves the park at 8:40 a.m.

Participants can stop by the Patch table in the staging area to pick up a water bottle and enter a raffle to win a hydro facial from in Beford Hills.