2022 TURKEY TROTS SHOW STRONG PARTICIPATION GROWTH
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2022 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.
NEW YORK (30-Nov) — In a promising sign for the running industry, participation in Thanksgiving Day races (commonly known as turkey trots) grew robustly in 2022 from a year ago and –surprisingly– also from pre-pandemic levels, at least for smaller events. Analyses by both Race Results Weekly and the industry-leading registration platform, RunSignup, showed participant growth of over 20% from 2021 and over 40% from 2019.
“The biggest U.S. running day of the year had an impressive showing in 2022, with 756,894 people participating in 730 races across the country and raising more than $1.8 million dollars for charities,” read a blog post from RunSignup which summarized their study findings. “That represents record participation on the platform, likely due to both an increase in market share and a strong rebound of the Thanksgiving Day running tradition.”
RunSignup processed 538,611 turkey trot registrations in 2019, but that number plunged by 71% to 156,380 in 2020 as the pandemic caused most –but not all– in-person road races to cancel or go virtual. There was a sharp rebound to 617,915 in 2021 setting the stage for this year’s record numbers. RunSignup estimated that their figures represent 75% of the total registration market for Thanksgiving Day races.
About two-thirds (69%) of turkey trots had fewer than 1,000 participants, the RunSignup data showed. Indeed, it was smaller races that enjoyed the greatest percentage growth. Races with fewer than 500 participants grew by 35% from 2019 to 2022 and 21% from 2021 to 2022.
Virtual participation in turkey trots, which gave race organizers a lifeline in 2020, was almost non-existent in 2022, representing just 1.7% of total participants.
“Virtual participation has dropped precipitously since the return of more regular in-person racing, but the impacts of the pandemic continue to make it a common option for races,” the Run Signup analysis said.
The one area where growth was not evident was in the largest Thanksgiving Day events. RunSignup noted that races with over 5000 participants had 17% fewer runners compared to 2019, although there was an 11% gain from 2021 to 2022.
Separate data from Race Results Weekly based on actual finishers backed-up the RunSignup data. The nation’s oldest turkey trot, the YMCA Turkey Trot 8-K in Buffalo, N.Y., recorded…
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