The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
More than 200 runners from around the region gathered at Colonial Park on a crisp Autumnal November 23 morning to take part in what has become an annual Fall ritual: The Tom O’Reilly Memorial Turkey Trot.
Sponsored by the Raritan Valley Road Runners, the 5K event is sanctioned and certified by U.S. Track & Field and qualifies runners for 500 New Jersey Grand Prix points.
The memorial race was named after O’Reilly – the group’s former race director – five years ago, after he succumbed to glioblastoma brain cancer. The race itself is in its 29th year, having been run by the Somerset County Park Commission until being turned over to the Road Runners.
Awards were given to the race’s first, second and third overall male and female finishers and first, second and third place male/female finishers in the following categories: 15 and under, 16-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90 and over.
O’Reilly’s widow, Elaine Acosta, said the turnout “meant everything” to her.
“It’s great, everybody comes out,” she said. “We always have great support, and his family actually in Naples (Florida) have an unofficial virtual down there that they’re doing so they’re running at the same time.”
An avid runner, Acosta used the 5K as a warm up to the Philadelphia marathon on November 24.
A township resident, she and a friend are also in the process of running every street in Franklin.
Race director Ryan Rogers said that more than 230 runners registered for the race, “which is the all-time high for the event.”
“So it’s a very great year. We’ve got beautiful weather. The rain fortunately passed us over, so it’s looking like a very good event,” he said.
O’Reilly, Rogers said, “was a stand-up guy.”
“You could talk to half the people at the event, they all have fond memories of him,” Rogers said. “He was so personable and taken from us too soon by tragic cancer.”
The event, he said, “brings in the community from the Somerset area, ropes in a lot of people from the Raritan Valley Road Runners running club and promotes the activity of running in the local area.”
Following is an extended photo gallery of the event:
