Why are Turkey Trots so competitive?

Our local turkey trot was the Manchester Road Race. So....yeah...

The thanksgiving meal gives runners the extra carbs that their muscles have needed to fully rebuild, a day of eating and sleeping works wonders.

long ago my friends used to plan a party with the turkey I'd win

i told them it doesn't work that way

they said no no no you will win....and i did for a few years

The 5k Turkey Trot in Parkville, MO (Kansas City) has been won in mid-14s and low 15s the last several years, incredible depth.

I have been organizing a Thanksgiving Day Run in my hometown of Port Washington, NY for decades (this is our 40th).

Some basic facts:

- Thanksgiving and July 4th are the largest family holidays that's not associated with a religion. Families get together and celebrate! For many, that means running a road race! The two biggest running days of the year.

- Many think that they pay their dues by running in the morning to stuff themselves later in the day

-Most college kids come home for Thanksgiving

- In regards to the level of competition, it's the end of the cross country season. Every kid in high school and college is at their best for 5k-10k,...time to show off.

Alabama pride wrote:

Because the winner gets to f*ck the turkey at the end?

ಠ_ಠ

"Some basic facts:

- Thanksgiving and July 4th are the largest family holidays that's not associated with a religion"

Awake in school?

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

-Abraham Lincoln Oct 3, 1863, 'First National Thanksgiving Proclamation'

Thank you. I learned something new. I would think that most Americans don't know this as well. My original statement is based on the fact that this is not a religious holiday.

Crossfit comps are over and that gives the xfitters a chance to jump in local road races.

Because Turkeys can't fly they have to run fast instead.

To release the pent up frustration of being around your family. And of course the finish line victory celebration.

Nappyxc wrote:

You are probably referring to: Delaware YMCA Turkey Trot 8K, Buffalo, NY/USA Nov 1896-2014

I believe that the longest running road race in the US is the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race, 1891-2015 is celebrating it's 125th consecutive running this November. It is held at Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in western Massachusetts. (Frank Shorter '65)

What Nappyxc says about the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race is accurate, but that race isn't open to the public.

The Delaware YMCA Turkey Trot is, so in terms of road races that anybody can enter, the Buffalo race is the oldest. (Of course the Buffalo Turkey Trot didn't allow women to enter until the early seventies.)

I timed the Buffalo race for 25 years, and saw what others have been suggesting -- the college runners home for the holiday produced some fast times. Even so, the course record is held by a Buffalo runner, David O'Keeffe, who ran 23:13 as a practicing MD.

Because the losers get decapitated and stuffed.

Because of all the hobby joggers!!!!!