The Demo Site

(November 25)

No, I’m not talking about June 3, which actually is National Running Day. I’m talking about the unofficial national running holiday. The holiday when the largest number of people take to the streets to participate in a race of some sort.

Here’s how some of the major holidays stack up according to the number of events listed on Active.com in 2009:

Memorial Day 205
July 4th 418
Labor Day 340
Thanksgiving 404

So it’s a battle between July 4th and Thanksgiving. I’m calling this one for Thanksgiving for the following reasons: the weather is most likely to be more favorable for running than July 4th, a large majority of people have trained for and completed a fall marathon – so they are in running shape and finally, given the enormous caloric intake that the Thanksgiving meal represents, people feel the need to burn off a few calories before they gorge.

As running continues its renaissance, the “Turkey Trot” is a growing Thanksgiving day tradition. Entire families are making a point of hitting the streets before the big meal. You just don’t see that on July 4th. So given all this I would bet that Thanksgiving has the largest number of race participants than any other holiday.

A few random Turkey Trot facts:

1) The YMCA in Buffalo claims to have the longest running Turkey Trot – dating back to 1896. That’s certainly being ahead of their time. So we can now thank Buffalo for “Buffalo Wings” and the Turkey Trot – a great combination.

2) Dallas claims to have the largest Turkey Tot festivities with over 25,000 runners partaking in runs of three or 8 miles.

3) It's no trot: The Atlanta Marathon is the only marathon listed for Thanksgiving this year on Marathonguide.com.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.