Although Jenny Lee is from Stockton and her sister Julie Lee lives in Los Angeles, the two sisters were in Turlock early Saturday morning — with the rest of their family — for a pre-Thanksgiving tradition, the annual Turkey Trot fun run.

Close to 300 individuals gathered at Donnelley Park on Saturday for the 50th annual event that aims to help people get some preemptive exercise in before the mass intake of calories that Thanksgiving seems to bring. The decades-long fun run is also now a holiday institution for many families.

“It’s a great community event, obviously, with 50 years it means something to the community. I was talking to a family earlier and they said that they’re bringing out three generations today, the grandparents, their children and their grandchildren, are going to be out participating,” said Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities supervisor Mark Crivelli before the races started on Saturday.

Runners of all ages lined up at Donnelly Park for the fun run, which this year featured a 1-mile walk, 1-mile kids run and a 2-mile run.

The top two finishers in the 2-mile run were Turlock High cross country teammates, Luke Oliveira and Aiden Mendonca. This was the first year competing in the Turkey Trot for both runners.

“It was a really fun run. I enjoyed seeing all the costumes that people were wearing as well,” said Oliveira.

“We pretty much stuck with each other the whole race. At the end he kind of out-kicked me a little bit,” said Mendonca.

Turlock High wasn’t the only school represented at Saturday’s fun run. A group from Cunningham Elementary School also competed in the Turkey Trot, but not in the kids race. The youngsters were right there with the adults in the 2-mile race, pretty in a good showing.

“It was breezy outside and nice scenery,” said Ezra Picasso, a sixth grader at Cunningham, about the run.