By Mary O’Keefe

About 1,500 people did not have to worry about their Thanksgiving Day calories this holiday after running the 16th Annual Thanksgiving Day Run and Food Drive in La Cañada. The run is sponsored by the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge.

Thomas Gustovich and his mom Kim decided to participate in the 5K run for the first time.

“It is for a good cause,” Gustovich said.

Part of the participation fee was bringing a canned good for the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station Toy and Food Drive. Gustovich is a sophomore at CV High School and a member of the cross-country team. He said that compared to his team training, the 5K should be easy.

“It will be a nice change,” he added.

Crescenta Valley residents Dave and Jennifer Meyers were also on hand to meet the challenge of the turkey run.

“It’s a great way to start the holiday,” Jennifer said.

“With all the people celebrating here, it really is a community event,” Dave added.

The Gabor family from La Crescenta joined the run with their 4-year-old yellow Labrador Chip.

“He is really good and loves to hike,” said Vickie Gabor.

Husband Michael was a little concerned about how Chip would handle all the other dogs that were running. There were a few barks but for the most part Chip was well behaved.

Vickie and Michael said they loved the community events in the area and made this a real family affair. Daughters Jess, Abigail and Madison, who is a member of CVHS track team, were all there ready to run. Chip even sat still while Abigail put the official Thanksgiving Day Run T-shirt on him.

Rosemont Middle School was also well represented with members of the Builders Club racing. Many had not run before but were excited about the event.

The day began with music by the International Superstars of Rock warming everyone up with music, then a quick warm up by members of Extreme Boot Camp and then it was time to run.

The first to cross the finish line was Nathaniel Sellers, 21, whose time was 15:33.