Mike Mulkey caught the running bug while participating in a turkey trot near his hometown of Corona Del Mar shortly after graduating college. Nearly 20 years after relocating to Mountain View, he spread that passion as the founder of the Spartan Turkey Trot.
The 15th-annual event, held Nov. 28, marked Mulkey’s last as one of the organizers of the race held Thanksgiving morning to benefit Mountain View High School athletics.
“My daughter, she’s now 31 years old, tells me, ‘Dad, I can barely remember us ever having a turkey dinner at home on Thanksgiving, because it’s been 15 years,’” Mulkey said. “So I am slowly stepping away, and this year was my last as emcee.”
Mulkey came up with the idea for the turkey trot when he was assistant basketball coach at the school and realized MVHS did not have the support to bring in a full-time athletic trainer, purchase new uniforms and hire custodial staff for the gym.
“It just hit me really hard that they didn’t have the funding to do a lot of the things any successful high school athletics program would have to do to be successful,” Mulkey said. “From when I went to school, it was shocking to see how little in comparison they had to support the athletes.”
To organize the fundraiser, Mulkey turned to his running group, the 7-by-7, that he set up after moving to the Bay Area. The meetup, which started as a Tuesday track gathering, had, by then, become a social group as well, participating in annual summer barbecues and white elephant gift exchanges.
“That was really wonderful, because it brought together a bunch of people like myself who were just plain zealous about running,” Mulkey said. “So the next Tuesday, I mentioned it to the 7-by-7 team and just said, ‘What do you guys think of starting a turkey trot?’”
He added that the group quickly agreed it was a good idea but needed to figure out the logistics of the turkey trot as the city wouldn’t let them run on the streets. He and a few 7-by-7 members scoped out the course of a 5K that would stay on the MVHS campus. They set the cost at $10 and did most of their advertising through word of mouth.
While they encouraged preregistration, Mulkey said not one person signed up.
“I’ll never forget it was one of the coldest Thanksgiving mornings, and we didn’t know if anyone would show,” Mulkey said. “But 100 people showed up, ran the 5K, and everyone seemed to have a good time.”
From then on, the number of participants doubled until hitting 800. According to Mulkey, there was no longer space on campus to accommodate so many runners, so he pushed for the city to allow him to move to the streets.
“We got a guy with a GoPro on a bicycle, and we had him ride a proposed course,” Mulkey said. “And what he showed is that the entire ride, there was one person walking a dog. Everyone else was home. Nobody gets in their car and goes anywhere on Thanksgiving morning.”
After showing the video to the Mountain View City Council, he received approval. Since then, the demand for participation in the turkey trot has grown beyond the capacity of the streets, necessitating a cap of 1,400 runners and a fee of $56 each.
“What we started to realize is that people are establishing a tradition around our turkey trot,” Mulkey said. “It’s a really fun thing to do, and you’re home by 11 to put the turkey in the oven.”
As the race expanded beyond what Mulkey and 7-by-7 could handle themselves, they appointed a race director to organize the bulk of the event, with the help of more than 120 volunteers.
Mulkey said this past year’s race attracted people from around the United States, including the east coast, Florida, the Midwest, Washington and Oregon, raking in more than $70,000 for the MVHS athletic department.
“Now, this race provides the money to do some of those basic things that the school doesn’t take for granted, but, … should be doing for their athletic teams,” Mulkey said.
For more information on the race, visit spartanturkeytrot.com.
