Twelfth annual Antelope Family YMCA Turkey Trot goes virtual

LANCASTER — The 12th annual Antelope Valley Family YMCA Turkey Trot will go on despite the COVID- 19 pandemic.

In fact, the annual 5/ 10K event and Gobble Wobble Fun Run is on now through Monday as a virtual event.

“We did decide to go ahead and do the Turkey Trot this year,” interim executive director David Harris said. “We’re running it virtually, actually, the whole month.”

The annual event serves as a fundraiser to support the Antelope Valley Family YMCA community. The goal is to raise $ 40,000. As of Tuesday, $ 13,385 or 33% of the goal was met.

The virtual event started Nov. 1. Participants run their selected race on their own course anytime before noon on Monday. There is even a warm- up video on the YMCA website for runners, teams and families.

“When you sign up, you can run your own race,” Harris said. “You can log back in and put your time on. If someone beats your time you can log back in and do a re- buy.”

A re- run costs $ 10 each time. As of Tuesday, six people posted times for the 5K race.

“Right now we’ve got just under 100 runners running,” Harris said. “It’s a great opportunity to just keep the tradition alive.”

He thanked event sponsors Antelope Valley Transit Authority and sPower for their support.

“Also the Lancaster JetHawks let us do our warm- up video on the field there,” Harris said.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office and Senior Field Deputy Donna Termeer also helped.

“It’s been really good as far as our sponsors returning,” Harris said.

Other sponsors include the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District, Kaiser Permanente

Antelope Valley, Monte Vista Building Sites Inc., the Thompson Von Tungeln law firm and the JetHawks. Lamar Advertising also helped with billboards.

Participants can register for the Gobble Wobble Fun Run 1K event for children ages 12 and younger at $ 20 per person. The Turkey Trot 5K is $ 40 per person. The Turkey Trot 10K is $ 45 per person. All participants receive a race T- shirt and finisher’s medal.

On Dec. 2 there will be a drive- thru event for participants to pick up their T- shirts and medals.

Participants can find a link to sign up on the YMCA’s front page at awww. ymcala. org/ locations/ antelope- valley- family- ymca

There is also a link to donate directly to the AV Family YMCA.