The Most Popular Road Racing Day

The Most Popular Road Racing Day

According to Running USA, Thanksgiving Day is the most popular holiday for road racing surpassing all other holiday including the 4th of July and Mother's Day. In 2016 alone Running USA reported that there were 961,882 finishers and 726 different races across the country with the Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot in San Jose, CA being the largest race coming in at 12,996 finishers. Running USA also shared that 2016 revealed record numbers in both finishers and number of races.

As great as it is to hear that more people are enjoying the road on Thanksgiving, I was curious about the history of Thanksgiving Road Racing. Thanks to Runner's World I found out a little bit of the history. Below is a brief timeline with highlights from what I learned. If you would like to read the full article click here. It has some more details, some fun facts, and talks a little bit more about why people think that the Thanksgiving race has become so popular!

1896 - Inaugural Turkey Trot is held in Buffalo, NY hosted by the local YMCA. An 8k race that drew 6 participants with only 4 finishing. To this day it is the oldest continuous footrace in North America.

1990s - The idea of the Turkey Trot spread and races started popping up along the East Coast and then across the country.

• 1907 - New Orleans
• 1908 - Berwick, Pennsylvania
• 1909 - Cincinnati, Ohio
• 1916 - Troy, New York

1927 - Manchester Road Road began on Thanksgiving Day with a dozen runners. Now one of New England's oldest and most storied road races.

1967 - The Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, one of the largest races in the country, began with 107 runners. Now this race boosts 20,000 runners.

1972 - A big milestone women were allowed to compete in the Buffalo Turkey Trot.

There is something important in knowing the the history of a sport that one is passionate about. This is just a small piece of a larger history of the sport of running but small pieces are a place to start.

There is still time to register for a Thanksgiving Day Running Race. Running the USA has a great search tool to help you find your local race. Click here to find yours!