Brewer Turkey Trot to celebrate silver jubilee Sunday’s 5-kilometer event to be last time popular race contested on traditional course

While some local bargain hunters already have started their holiday shopping before the post-Thanksgiving rush, hundreds of local runners will flock to Brewer on Sunday for the 25th annual Brewer High School Turkey Trot 5K road race.

The action starts at 12:30 p.m. with a one-mile fun run with the 5K following at 1.

The race’s silver jubilee will be the final time the event will be run on the traditional out-and-back, fast Parkway South course, as traffic has been difficult to shut down on one of Brewer’s busiest thoroughfares.

“The [Brewer] police, and I would agree with them, said it’s too much to shut down this road with the Interstate [395],” said Brewer sophomore class adviser and race director David Jeffrey. “It’s so difficult to shut down all the different things that go into this road.”

So for one more year, runners will enjoy blazing down a course known to locals as ‘the fastest 2 1/2 miles in all of racing.’

The course starts across from the Post Office, and continues to the end of Parkway South, with only one small uphill just before the one-mile mark.

After those fast 21/2 miles are up, however, runners will endure a tough uphill – the same hill they raced down during the first half-mile.

The finish line is in front of Brewer High.

Jeffrey is pitching an idea to run the race on nearby Dirigo Drive starting in 2007.

“It’ll be a lost easier to run it up Dirigo Drive from a race-management perspective just because of the lack of different roads that come into it,” he said.

Four-hundred-thirty-three runners finished last year’s race, and if you combine the number of participants Jeffrey has pre-registered for each race (378 for the 5K, 74 for the mile as of Friday night), that’s well over last year’s 452 starters.

“We have the most number of pre-registrants we’ve ever had, which is good,” Jeffrey said. “We’ve been out of T-shirts for a long time.

“I think a lot of people put it on their calendar, both runners and nonrunners alike,” he added. “We get a really good group of runners that run every weekend.”

Last year’s field was one of the fastest in race history – with the top nine finishers all breaking 16 minutes, and Jeffrey won’t be surprised if that is the case this year.

“I’ve heard a rumor that we may have a quality field this year, we could have something very similar that happened last year,” he said.

As has been the case in years past, the race will feature a post-race raffle with a plethora of prizes.

Jeffrey gave his sophomore class representatives credit for the work they do, including getting those prizes from local business.

“We couldn’t put on the race we put on without the sophomores going out and working and without the community really helping us,” he said. “It should be a great day for everybody.”

The prize many runners stick around for is a big turkey stuffed with money. Last year’s turkey prize included $500, and Jeffrey said he thinks this year’s total will be the biggest ever.

Defending race champion Jeff Caron, who won in 14 minutes, 57 seconds last year, is planning to run this yea, while for the first time since 2003, the women’s winner will not be named Cassie Hintz, as the Stillwater native is attending the University of Wisconsin.

Other top runners who could be in the field are Evan Graves, Donny Drake, Adam Goode, Erik McCarthy and Josh Trevino.

Contenders for the women’s title should be Lara Rand of Orrington, Kathleen Bell of Orono and JoAnn Nealey of Northport.