MANCHESTER, Conn. — The Manchester Road Race, a Thanksgiving tradition, returns to Manchester Thursday morning with over 12,000 participants and thousands of spectators.
Weini Kelati, from Johnson City, Tennessee, is hoping for her fourth straight win. She won with a time of 23:21 last year.
The 2023 Men’s champion, Morgan Beadlescomb, decided not to return this year. He posted the second-fastest time in the history of the race at 21:12 last year. The men's course record of 21:04 was set by Olympian Conner Mantz in 2022.
The top three men and women will receive $7,000, $4,000 and $3,000, respectively.
This year’s course is officially slightly shorter than before. Road work on the course shortened the course from 4.748-miles to 4.737-miles long.
The race was first run in 1927. It took a nine-year hiatus from 1935 to 1944. Since then, it has had steady growth until now where it is considered one of the best road races in the country, attracting casual runners all the way to Olympic champions.
As of Wednesday, 12,123 people were registered to run.
In the 2023 King and Queen of the Hill competition, Connor Mantz and Weini Kelati, crossed the two-mile maker at Highland Park Market first and won an extra $1,000 each.
For the first time in decades, the race has a new starter. Bob Moran, the Manchester Road Race’s official starter since 1989, passed away on Sept. 17 at the age of 72. Dave Smith takes over the duties. The retired teacher and cross-country coach knows he has big shoes to fill.
Kelati holds the MRR women’s course record of 22:55, which she set in 2021. Annie Rodenfels, who finished second here last year with a time of 23:59, and Florencia Borelli, an Olympic marathon runner from Argentina who was fifth at the 2023 MRR, have also entered.
Former champions Ben Flanagan, 2021, and Sam Chelanga, who won in 2013 have returned this year. Edwin Kurgat, a Kenyan Olympian who placed seventh in the 5,000 meters at last summer’s Paris Games, is also running.
Doug Stewart is the Digital Executive Producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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