Thanksgiving ‘Turkey Trots’ a big deal in America

In case you didn’t know—or perhaps you don’t care— today is Thanksgiving for our neighbours to the south. And while that may conjure images of decadent meals and desserts, it should also include running shoes and races.

According to data from Running USA, Thanksgiving has become the number one day for running and road racing in America. Some 850,000 individuals completed a road race on Thanksgiving in 2012. That’s significantly more than the 248,000 who finished an event on July 4, America’s second most popular day for racing.

New data from Runkeeper, an app that allows users to document their running, also adds credence to this trend. Some 19.7 per cent — averaged over the past three years — of active Runkeeper users recorded a run on Thanksgiving Day. That’s a full five per cent more than the second most popular running holiday, Labour Day, with 14.6 per cent.

Turkey Trots, as they’re known, have become the number one themed running event in the U.S. Some of them host tens of thousands of participants who routinely lace up on Thanksgiving Thursday before sitting down to turkey and pie.

The top five largest Turkey Trots in America, according to Running USA

1. Thanksgiving Day Race 10K, Cincinnati, Ohio –  14,000
2. Manchester Road Race (4.75M), Manchester, Conn. – 12,800
3. Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 5K, San Jose, Calif. – 12,000
4. Delaware YMCA Buffalo Turkey Trot 8K*, Buffalo, N.Y. – 11,700
5. Fifth Third Detroit Stuffing Strut Turkey Trot 5K, Detroit, Mich. – 11,600

*Note: First run in 1896, the Buffalo Niagara YMCA Turkey Trot is the oldest consecutively run footrace in North America. The Thanksgiving Day Race in Cincinnati is also historic, having been run for 105 years.