In spite of the significant drop in participation, the tradition of running on Thanksgiving Day continued – as seen on social media across the country. A few highlights:
The Wheeler Mission Drumstick Dash made a fun and inspiring video, highlighting runners across their community and reminding everyone of the cause they were running for. And they raised over $100,000 in the process!
The Virtual Seattle Turkey Trot also raised significant money for their local food bank, topping $136,000. Local runners shared their accomplishments via Instagram.
The ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot, a tradition since 1991, included iconic swag that virtual participants couldn’t wait to show off.
The Barker Ripley Houston Turkey Trot may have been virtual this year, but they still broke out their start line (and their Turkey) to make the race feel a little more real.
The Cocoa Beach Turkey Trot pulled off an impressive hybrid race, with both enthusiastic (and cooperative) in-person participants, and virtual participants joining together from around the country.
The Regal Knoxville Turkey Trot 5K and Little Gobbler Kids Run also offered a hybrid version, with the majority of their 1,200 participants opting for the in-person 5K. Participants adapted will to the socially distant rolling start, and showed off their face coverings in race photos. The post-race party was cancelled, but participants showed up with smiles regardless.
The Gobble Wobble’s hybrid race also saw nearly 900 in-person participants competing through 9 separate waves between 7:45am-9:45am. The general sentiment was summed up by a Facebook commenter who noted that “Definitely different this year, but we wouldn’t miss the Thanksgiving day tradition. Thanks for letting it go on!”.
We hope every race director of a Turkey Trot in 2020 – virtual, in-person, or hybrid – found some joy from keeping the tradition alive. We know your participants did, and we look forward to seeing them in droves again in future years.