MANCHESTER, Connecticut — Registration for the 88th Manchester Road Race event is open as of Sunday, according to the organizing committee.
The annual Thanksgiving Day run will be held on Nov. 28 at 10 a.m. Those looking to register can do so on the event website here.
According to the Manchester Road Race Committee, the entry fee is $32 for runners who sign up online by 12 a.m. midnight EST on Oct. 1. After that date, the fee increases to $37 and then to $42 on Nov. 23.
MRR bibs, which are required to be worn by participants, will no longer be mailed free of charge, the MRRC said. Anyone looking to have them mailed will need to pay an additional $10 fee and register by Nov. 1. Multiple bibs mailed to the same household will be bundled under a single charge.
Those who choose to pick up their bibs or register after the mailing deadline, can do so via the following dates and locations, as included on the MRR website:
- Saturday, November 23, 8:30 am - 4:00 pm, MRR Health & Fitness Expo, Manchester High School
- RECOMMENDED - best parking; best hours
- Sunday, November 24, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Marathon Sports, Glastonbury
- Monday, November 25, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm, Fleet Feet, West Hartford
- Tuesday, November 26, 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Urban Lodge Brewery, Manchester
- Bib pick-up ONLY
- Wednesday, November 27, 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm, Cone Gym, Bennet Academy
The event is "one of the nation's oldest, largest and most popular turkey trots," and featured 11,060 registered participants in 2023, ranging "in athletic ability from Olympians and national champions to joggers dressed in turkey suits and pilgrim costumes," the MRRC said.
Dr. Tris Carta, president of the MRRC, announced on Aug. 8 that the traditional loop course through central Manchester, starting and finishing on Main Street in front of St. James Church, is 4.737-miles long after originally being measured as 4.748 miles in 1986.
“Repaving done along the race route over the years, and road alterations at the corner of Main and Charter Oak Streets when a drug store was built there several years ago, may likely have resulted in the slightly shorter length,” Dr. Tris Carta, president of the MRRC, said.
More information on the race course can be found here, including details on road closures and safety alerts.
The MRR also offers an option for a virtual run, which records participants' times through a GPS-enabled app on smartphones as they run the course distance at any location, with an entry fee of $30. Registration for the virtual option also began Sunday, and more details on how to participate can be found here.
According to the MRRC, Morgan Beadlescomb of Ann Arbor, Mich. won the 2023 race with a time of 21:12, with Weini Kelati of Flagstaff, Ariz. setting the women's standard of 22:55 in 2021. Conner Mantz, of Provo, Utah, set the course record at 21:04 in 2022.
The event is organized by 400 volunteers from the MRRC with support from Manchester.
Sean Humphrey is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at shumphrey@fox61.com.
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