Trot Time

11th Annual Pacific Palisades Turkey Trot Draws a Crowd

By STEVE GALLUZZO| Sports Editor

More than 1,200 people participated in the 11th edition of the Pacific Palisaes Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and hundreds more ran the race for fun—a testament to the spirit of a community that is rebounding despite the devastating Palisades Fire in January.

Powered by XBP Global, the 5/10K event was preceded by a Kids race from Antioch to Bowdoin and benefited the “Day of Giving” and “Live Like Braun” charities. This year’s race featured a new and flatter course which started and finished at the Village Green on the corner of Swarthmore and Antioch.

Race founder David O’Connell was on hand along with YMCA Executive Director Jim Kirtley, Palisades’ own “renaissance man”  Jimmy Dunne and emcee, Dameion “Lucky” Smith, a former Cal State LA athlete, who fired up the crowd with his flare and energy and counted down to the start of the annual event that debuted in 2013.

Fitness trainer Caitlyn Moyer led everyone in pre-race stretching exercises before Orlando Antunez, a 31-year-old classical crossover singer from Culver City, took the state and belted out a stirring rendition of the national anthem.

At 8:15 a.m. race starter David Houston hopped aboard his familiar mint green scooter and led the enthusiastic field (which included co-honorary mayors and actors ted McGinley and Gigi Rice and former  honorary mayor and boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard) southbound on Swarthmore into the Via de las Olas bluffs for a 3.1-mile trek through a neighborhood full of empty lots and chain link fences.

In an all-out sprint to the finish line, 17-year-old Henry Winn, a junior on the track team at Harvard-Westlake High, surged ahead of last year’s winner Stephen Sloan in the last 30 yards to prevail in a time of 16:05­—the closest 5K in race history. Sloan, a 27-year-old triathlete  from Berkeley, won last year’s race (which started and ended at Palisades High’s Stadium by the Sea and wound through the El Medio bluffs neighborhood) in 16:15.

The 5K record of 15:36 was set in 2023 by Williams College trackster Luke Zanuck.

Winning the women’s 5K was Highlands resident and Brentwood School freshman Keaton Schaefer, who was happy to win it and said she looks up to fellow Palisadian and Eagles teammate, junior standout Amelia Sarkisian. Schaefer’s time of 18:55 was 14 seconds faster than runner-up Claudia Knox, who nevertheless took first in the 10-12 age group. Former Santa Monica High track coach Tania Fischer set the 5K record of 18:47 in 2014.

10K runners ran an extra lap and the first femaile to finish was former Palisades High standout Sarah Bentley, a two-time City 3200 meter champion and four-time state qualifier in cross country who went on to run at MIT.

Gavin Morrow took first in the 5K male 9-and-under category in 24:48. The Broihiers found the revamped course to their liking as  Liam was first in the male 10-12 age group in 22:11), Landon topped the male 13-15 category in 17:59 and Keira won the female 9-and-under category in 25:56. Hailey Hubbard won the female 19-25 age group in 21:17.    

Former Harvard-Westlake and Northwestern University  soccer star Mackenzie Howe won the 10K female 26-35 age group in 39:15 while former Pali High swimmer Darby Green was second to Bentley in the 20-25 age range with a time of 41:30.

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