Last year’s Newtown Turkey Trot was Soheib Dissa’s first 5K race and the Newtown High School track and field competitor, then a freshman, came in fifth. About a dozen or so road races, winter and spring track seasons, and his first cross country campaign later, and Dissa was first in this year’s Thanksgiving Day race, the 13th Annual Turkey Trot to benefit C.H. Booth Library, which took place on a 30-degree November 24 morning.

“I just trained more and running a 5K got easier,” summed up Dissa, who led the field of 974 finishers in the 5K, which started and finished at Newtown Middle School; the race winner crossed the finish line in a time of 16:18, bettering his time of 18:39 from a year ago.

The chilly conditions may have been welcomed by some. Dissa may have preferred a few degrees warmer but certainly heated up enough in this race.

“To be honest I really don’t like running in cold weather but training makes it easier,” Dissa said.

He was followed by Aidan Budge in 16:44, last year’s race winner Ryan Escoda in 17:23, last year’s runner-up Joey Conrod in 18:18, Liam Murphy who finished in 18:34, and top female and sixth-place runner Jeanna Sondag who came across in 18:38. Sondag kept on running and could not be reached for comment.

Rounding out the top ten were Noah Masotta in 18:39, Landon Wall in 18:45, Matt Brantl with a time of 18:53, and Eric Fagan who clocked in at 18:54. The rest of the top 25: Ricky Robinson was 11th in 19:11, next came Erik Wessel in 19:16, Chris Lestik in 19:18, Maggie Caban in 19:18, Walter Brady also with a time of 19:18, Ryan McNerney in 19:21, Craig Moyse also in 19:21, Nick Jacobs clocking in at 19:33, Phil Tisi in 19:41, Kevin Collins with a time of 19:53, Yale Dulaney in 19:54, Warren Teichner in 19:59, Ally McCarthy in 20:12, John Boccuzzi III with a time of 20:21, and Tommy Kealy finished in 20:22.

Some of the runners wore turkey hats, and Hadrian Gardner even took on the course wearing an inflatable turkey. “Luckily, he did most of the running,” joked Gardner, who made this a true turkey trot.

Newtown’s Scott Bulkley runs the race with his family members each year and enjoys seeing people he knows and the overall community feel.

“I think it embodies Newtown,” said Bulkley, adding that it does not matter when participants complete the race. “Just finish so you can eat a lot later in the day.”

All of the participants earned their extra serving of stuffing and gravy, but let’s highlight the age division winners:

1-9: McKenna Memoli 32:01 and T. Ruffles 26:48 (first name not reported in results); 10-19: Keren Teichner 22:06 and Noah Masotta 18:39; 20-29: Brenna Nimkoff 21:56 and Joey Conrod 18:18; 30-39: Brenda McRae 20:34 and Erik Wessel 19:16; 40-49: Jennifer Chintala 20:41 and Phil Tisi 19:41; 50-59: Judy Toussaint 23:34 and Robert Katrinak 22:07; 60-69: Laura Anderson 25:25 and John Andrew 24:40; 70 and over: Patricia Murdock 32:02 and Bruce Goulart 30:32.

Complete results are available on the Turkey Trot webpage.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.