Runners and walkers got Thanksgiving off to an early start as they participated in the 6th Annual Newtown Turkey Trot 5K road race and fun walk to support the Cyrenius H Booth Library, on November 26. Newtown’s Zach Schwartz was the first to complete the course, which started at Hawley Elementary School – at 7:45 am and in high 30-degree temperatures – and ended at Newtown Middle School. Schwartz, who was third last year and won the race in 2013, finished in a time of 15:47.

“Definitely happy with it. It felt pretty good the whole way. The first hill usually takes a lot out of you but it didn’t so much today,” said Schwartz, alluding to Schoolhouse Hill Road.

Jake Krong was second in 16:01, narrowly edging out 2010 and 2011 winner Kevin Hoyt, of Newtown, who came across in 16:03.

Hoyt was striving to catch Schwartz. “I was trying to but he was just a little quicker than me today,” said Hoyt, who ran the New York City Marathon only a few weeks ago and was not 100 percent for a 5K course

Sawyer Maher was fourth in 17:03, Michael Bodie placed fifth in 17:34, Ethan Burg was sixth with a time of 17:56, Thomas Germano came in seventh in 18:22, Christian Lestik was eighth in 18:24, Ryan Escoda placed ninth with a time of 18:34, David Csordas came in tenth in 18:43, Cory McCullough was 11th in 19:12, Andrea North, the top female finisher, was 12th in 19:20.

Among the runners were some first-time course participants. Newtown’s Melissa Della Corte has run the Turkey Trot three or four times and this year competed along with her son, Aidan, a seventh-grader, who laced up the sneakers for the first time on Thanksgiving morning.

“It was great. I love running with him. He’s a good partner,” Della Corte said.

“It was fun. The uphill was tough,”Aidan added.

Several runners wore turkey hats, and one runner was dressed as a Native American.

All times are unofficial; official times will be posted on the RAT Race Timing website, aratrace.com and at newtownturkeytrot.com.