OCEANSIDE, Calif. (Nov. 27, 2014) – Like many in the record crowd of 10,000, Sarah and Darren Brown started a new holiday tradition at the 9th Pacific Marine Credit Union O’side Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Only their tradition started off with more of a gallop than a trot.
Darren shattered the course record in the opening 5 Mile Run, clocking 25 minutes, 5 seconds at his debut PMCU O’side Turkey Trot. A few minutes later, his wife, Sarah finished as the easy winner in the women’s 5 Mile Run, finishing in 28:10. It was a great way for them to say welcome to Oceanside and North County.
“We just moved out here last February for my job at ElliptiGo in Solana Beach, so this will be our first Thanksgiving here,” said Darren, who broke the course record of 25:16 set here last year by Lukas Verzbicas, lowering the mark by a substantial 11 seconds.
Darren was a three-time All-American runner at the University of Texas, a three-time NCAA qualifier and currently has goals of competing in the 2016 Olympic Trials. “I am running my first marathon in Sacramento this December,” said Brown who ran the Turkey Trot Combo race, finishing the 5K in 15:37, good enough for fifth overall.
“It was really fun,” Sarah said. “I was leading the whole way and felt comfortable out there because I ran with a pack of guys. This will give my self-confidence a boost when we go to Pennsylvania on Dec. 13 for the club nationals.” Brown (formally Sarah Bowman), was a nine-time NCAA All-American and earned four NCAA titles, including the 2009 Indoor Mile, for the University of Tennessee.
Tom Kloos of Oceanside was victorious in the men’s 5K, winning in 14:43, his fourth victory at the event. “I’m thankful I’m able to be healthy and still be able to do this,” said the 37-year-old Kloos, now a track coach at St. Mary’s College in the Bay Area.
Lindsey Drake of Portland, Ore., easily captured the woman’s crown, finishing in 16:45. “I’m from Carlsbad so I am here visiting family for the holiday,” said Drake. “It’s cold and raining in Portland.”
The champions were part of a record-setting day that dawned cloudless and brisk for the opening 5 Mile Run, then turned warmer and dry for the later 5K, which alone had a field of more than 7,500 participants who went off at the starting line near the Oceanside Civic Center in a series of waves and finished adjacent to the Pacific Ocean near the iconic Oceanside Pier. Together with kids races for entrants 12 and under, it pushed the 2014 O’side Turkey Trot to record participation.
“We were thrilled with the event for our 9th year and look forward to the 10th year of the race,” said Race Director Kathy Kinane of Kinane Events. “We love the fact that North County embraces this event and that so many families come together at it to spend some quality time together on Thanksgiving morning.”
The record crowd will have a big impact on local schools and non-profit organizations because the PMCU O’side Turkey Trot is unique in that entrants can choose to have $5 of their entry fee go to support a local school or non-profit. And, most entrants did just that. In its first eight years, the PMCU O’side Turkey Trot raised more than 180,000, and that figure will rise considerably with this year’s record crowd.
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