Turkey Trot arrives early in altered year
Series of races kicks off modified holiday season events in Orland Park
For most of the past two decades, Orland Park’s Ronn Ross spent his Thanksgiving mornings running in the village’s Turkey Trot event before heading home for a feast.
Not this year.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Trot could not be the usual massive one-heat race on the morning of Turkey Day. Instead, the 32nd running of the race was a six-flight event that took place Sunday near Village Hall, and 296 runners finished the race compared to 844 in 2019.
The new-look Turkey Trot was one of many changes coming to Orland Park as the holidays get into full swing this week. Many traditions will either be altered or scrapped.
For instance, what will Ross and some of the other runners do this Thanksgiving morning with no race?
“It’s going to be so weird,” the 67-year old Ross said. “You know, this has been my routine for 15 or 20 years. I’ll still go to Starbucks because it’s all part of the routine. I guess I’ll go home and help my wife (Patti) with the turkey. I’ve always missed that, before.”
“I’ll finally get to sleep in,” said Sandburg senior and 2020 Turkey Trot champ Griffin Lehnhardt, whose family makes running the Trot a tradition.
The Dorey family of Orland Park is still going to keep its tradition going. Jeff, Abigail, Emma and Anna raced on Sunday and will also take part in a virtual race the village is offering starting Monday and ending Thursday.
“I’ve done 15 Turkey Trots in a row, and
Abigail has done 13 in a row,” Jeff said. “It’s going to be weird not having turkey after this run.”
Lehnhardt scorched the 2 ½-mile course in 11 minutes, 55.2 seconds, which was more than 30 seconds better than runner-up and Sandburg teammate Ismail Tineh. The first seven spots were gobbled up by runners on this year’s Eagles cross country team.
The overall female winner was Orland Park’s Caitlin Shanahan in 16:04.9 seconds, edging out Sandburg freshman Katherine Roche by less than three seconds. Shanahan, a 21-year-old Lewis University senior soccer player, also won the Orland Hills Turkey Trot on Nov. 14.
Lehnhardt and Shanahan earned frozen turkeys for their efforts and several other runners earned trophies.
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, who finished in the top quarter of the 844-athlete race last year, did not run this year because of left hip surgery performed last week.
“I think my jogging days are over,” he said.
One day earlier, the diaper crowd had its tradition rocked as the village had to move its Diaper Derby and Kids Turkey Trot from its usual indoor home at the Sportplex to a practice football field at Centennial Park on Saturday, meaning some bundles of joy were bundled for 40-degree weather.
Despite all the changes, Village Director of Recreation and Parks Ray Piattoni said it was a successful weekend.
“We were excited to host this for our community and have a level of normalcy
and to keep the Thanksgiving tradition,” he said. “We wanted to have people have a good time on the course and over the years we’ve built a good experience for our Turkey Trot participants. With the mitigation of COVID-19, we wanted to make sure we could deliver that good experience where it was fun and family oriented.”
Other holiday changes in Orland Park:
■ The wildly popular Sandburg Athletic Booster Club Craft Show, which traditionally takes place the weekend before Thanksgiving was nowhere to be found as it was canceled in July.
■ The Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce had its community October expo canceled, but Sunday it unveiled a virtual holiday edition expo online, which is scheduled to run through Dec. 19.
“For 30 years, we’ve had it inperson,” said Chamber Executive Director Felicitas Cortez. “But we won’t let COVID beat us.”
Cortez said that this is an opportunity for people do get some holiday shopping done online and to check out services that village businesses have to offer.
■ The Lions Club’s Christmas tree sale began on Sunday and is planning on running until Dec. 19 at Village Hall, 14700 Ravinia Ave.
There are not many changes in this event but there will be no delivery service this year and trees will be trimmed, wrapped and loaded into vehicles by the club’s volunteers.
■ The Holiday Festival and Tree
Lighting Festival will still take place in an abbreviated form. The fest is slated from 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Orland Park Civic Center.
Most of the indoor activities have been canceled. There will be a lantern procession at 4:45 p.m., the tree lighting at 5 p.m. and a visit with Santa at 5:30 p.m.