Turkey Trot 2005

The first Turkey Trot (#1) was run on Sunday 6 November, 2005, as an "End of Season Wrap Up"

Long course runners started at 9:00 am, from the end of Drawbridge Place, Fred Caterson Reserve, Castle Hill. There were two map changes on this, the premier, course. The distance was approximately 19.2 km - about half marathon length. Medium distance (14.4 km) runners started at 9:15 am from Montieth Reserve, Elder Avenue, Crestwood. There was one map change. Short distance was approx. 8 km. Runners started from Max Ruddock Park, corner Junction Road and Romulus Street, Winston Hills at 9:30.

Each runner was at their mass start location ten minutes prior to their start time to ensure that they didn’t miss the pre-start briefing.

All courses finished at the southern end of Parramatta Park.

The course standard was “easy orange”. This standard required basic navigation skills in map reading and route choice. Non-orienteers had little difficulty with this standard yet it was still challenging in terms of route choice for the experienced orienteer.

The orienteering maps had a series of checkpoints. Runners would decide the best route between checkpoints. They were provided with a “control card”. On arrival at each checkpoint there was a punch hanging on the check point flag. Runners punched the appropriate square on their control card, confirming that they had passed through that checkpoint.

The orienteering maps for the long and medium distances were connected by street maps with recommended routes. These connecting maps did not have any checkpoints.

The long course crossed two major roads, Showground Road and Windsor Road.
These crossings were monitored and controlled to ensure safety without penalising running times. Long course runnershad their arrival times at each controlled crossing point noted. When the lights turned green the time was recorded and each runner was credited with their waiting times. There were no major road crossings on the medium and short courses. Water stations were provided on all courses.

The finish area was at the rear of the carpark on the west side of O'Connell Street, between Parramatta River and the Parramatta Swimming Pool, just north of Rings Bridge. Thiswas also the assembly area for the event where results were displayed.

Prizes were awarded to the winners and runners up for the Long Turkey Trot and certificates were presented to the winner and runners up for the Medium and Short Turkey Trots.

Entry fees were $19 for the long event, $16 for the medium and $13 for the short Turkey Trot.

Enter on the day (EOD) courses, orange (4 km), green (3 km) and blue 2 km), were available to all comers, friends and family for only $8, including a colour map of Parramatta Park. EOD started from 10.00am to 11.30am.

Because of the multiple maps involved in the Turkey Trot, pre-entry was essential.