By Bill Burt, reprinted with permission from Dave McGillivray

Jerry Rossi tooook his turn at the microphone at 8:27 a.m., three minutes before about 7000 chilly people were to begin prancing downtown Marshallville, I mean Andover.

After hurling thank yous around like pennies, Rossi, the chief executive officer of Marshalls, repeated something he had said a few days earlier, "We want to make this bigger than the New York (City) Marathon...," Rossi said amid a roar of applause of the Marshalls Feaster Five runners and walkers "with 25,000 people here! In Andover!" Don't Laugh.

Yeah Rossi was caught up in euphoria of being around 7,000 excited people,and it might be argues 25,000 people couldn't fit into Andover at one time, but there was truth in the euphoria.

It was just six years ago from yesterday that the Merrimack Valley Striders running club gambled on sponsoring a road race on Thanksgiving Day, and about 500 people yawned their way to the starting line.

The next thing we knew there were sweatshirts, apple pies, Joan Benoit-Samuelson and 5,100 people.

Those were the days.

"It's not just the race has grown," said race director Dave McGillivray, whose involvement started last year. "It's that it has grown exponentially. In fact three days before the race (yesterday) I had already started writing up a critique of this year's event... There are so many things we could do to make it bigger."

One option is prize money and a competitive field, which would add spice and probable interest from a television deal. If you're thinking live or even taped on ESPN, you're getting warm.

Another is a parade, which could possibly coincide with the race, thereby creating an even more exciting day for the town.

There are ways to get more money to charities, allowing runners/walkers to submit sponsorship money instead.

McGillivray is the right person to the the race through to its saturation point. If he can get 15,000 (runners and workers) in an out of don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it Hopkinton for the Boston Marathon, without a hitch, he has wonderous talents.

The person who originated the "crazy idea" of a race on Thanksgiving Day", Bill Pennington of the race sponsoring Merrimack Valley Striders, said McGillivray expertise is the reason it has grown "exponentially".

"I can control 10, 20 and 30 thousand people," said McGillivray. "It comes down to expectations of the participants. The lines will be longer, traffic jams, etc... That's not the only issue".

McGillivray realizes that the attraction for a few thousand of the people who braved the chilly climate yesterday is the friendly, comfortable feeling you don't get in the big city races.

"We'd definetely have to take that into consideration," said McGillivray.

It would mean the apple pie and sweatshirt have to stay. And so does the emphasis on family.

Simply by word of mouth and continuing minor improvements -- ans as long as McGillivray, Andover town officals and Marshalls are thinking in the same direction -- the Feaster Five will go nowhere but up.