The biggest US running day of the year impressed in 2024, with 1,109,909 people participating in 936 races across the country and raising more than $3.6 million dollars for charities. Those record-shattering numbers represent an increase of 21% – more than 189,000 compared to the previous record set in 2023. Diving into the numbers, it appears that the increase is due to growing market share on RunSignup, new turkey trots entering the market, and per-race growth.
On Thursday, we shared a few key stats looking at how the RunSignup infrastructure handled the rush. Today, we dive a little deeper into the participation numbers and trends. If you’re in a hurry, jump ahead to your key topic:
Thanksgiving By the Numbers
What is A Turkey Trot?
Turkey Trot Race Day
Thanksgiving Day 2024: By the Numbers
How Many Turkey Trots (and Turkey Trot Participants) Were There?
The headliner: the popularity of Thanksgiving Day races on RunSignup continues to grow and has nearly doubled pre-pandemic participation after a brief drop in 2020.
The last time a national, cross-platform report on turkey trots was released, Running USA reported that there were 726 races and 961,882 finishers in 2016. That data was based on timed finishers (not participants) and likely missed some races on smaller platforms. Regardless, the fact that 2024 participants on RunSignup exceeded all finishers from 2016 suggests that turkey trots have continued to increase in popularity.
How Big Are Turkey Trots?
While the vast majority of races throughout the year are small, Thanksgiving Day races trend towards larger events. Thirty-four percent of Thanksgiving Day races exceeded 1,000 participants while just 5.1% of all 2024 race weekends had more than 1,000 participants.
The magic of turkey trots, however, is that they are rooted in community. And there are turkey trots for communities big and small, with 46% of Thanksgiving Day races having fewer than 500 participants.
Are Turkey Trots Actually Growing?
When looking at where the increase in turkey trot registrations came from, there are three buckets we investigate. While this can be an imperfect science, we track the source of new events on our platform and the growth of existing events to give us a better overall picture.
Increasing Market Share
The first is that RunSignup continues to increase registration market share. To the best we can ascertain, approximately 65 Thanksgiving Day races moved to RunSignup from other platforms (or started using online registration for the first time) in 2024. While we’re grateful for the new business, this cohort doesn’t tell us much about the overall market on Thanksgiving Day.
New Races
The second area of potential growth is from brand new Thanksgiving Day races. We identified at least 70 races that appear to be inaugural turkey trots in 2024. In comparison, fewer than 20 races from 2023 cancelled in 2024. In other words, the number of turkey trots across the country is likely increasing.
Per-Race Growth
Finally, we want to understand if existing races are growing. For this, we compare the participation numbers only amongst the group of races that were on our platform in consecutive years. Per-race growth in 2024 was impressive, with races up an average of 12% compared to 2023, after seeing an increase of 10% from 2022-2023. As the industry has recovered from COVID-19, large races have had a slower recovery. However, the 8% growth for races over 5,000 indicates that Thanksgiving Day races of all sizes are thriving.
This report only includes races that remained on the platform and renewed their race rather than creating a new race.
In 2024, the average turkey trot had 1185 participants, continuing the trend of slight increases each year of non-pandemic racing.
Where Are The Turkey Trots?
Thanksgiving Day runs on RunSignup took place in every state except South Dakota (although South Dakotans did have a pre-holiday Gobble Wobble on 11/23). Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, and Texas led the way with more than 50 turkey trots each, while North Dakota offered just one Thanksgiving Day race on RunSignup.
What Is a Turkey Trot?
There are races within a week of the Thanksgiving Day that are named “Turkey Trot” and some Thanksgiving Day races do not include that phrase. However, for the purposes of this report we consider turkey trots to be all races that take place on Thanksgiving Day.
What Distance Is a Turkey Trot?
We audited our in-person turkey trots to understand the distances offered. Many races offer multiple distances for a more inclusive experience. Events of about 5K (including 3 mile races) are the clear leader with 92% of turkey trots offering this distance. Beyond that, the most popular events were 1 mile (20%), 10Ks (12%), and kids races of under 1 mile (26%). Turkey trots are typically on the shorter side to allow participants plenty of time to partake in other Thanksgiving traditions. These shorter distances and multiple distance options also make the events more accessible for multi-generational families to join in on the fun.
What’s In the Name “Turkey Trot”?
Of the 936 races on RunSignup on Thanksgiving morning, 64% include the actual words “Turkey Trot”, while another 12% reference the turkeys without the “trot”. While there are races with other creative names for the holiday, they are more rare: just 6% of races make mention of Thanksgiving, and 3% of races are called “Gobble Wobbles”.
Virtual Participation
Virtual participation has dropped precipitously since the end of COVID restrictions, and that decline continued in 2024. While virtual options and participation continues to exceed pre-pandemic levels, Thanksgiving Day 2024 saw less than 1% of participants choosing virtual. Regardless, as long as the virtual option has low overhead, it can be a worthwhile option to allow family members to run “together” even when they can’t be together.
The Charitable Impact of Turkey Trots
A large majority (82%) of all turkey trots supported one or more charity through donations. All-told, participants and donors raised a total of $3,615,558 for charity via races held on Thanksgiving Day. That total represents money donated, only, not additional charity contributions raised through event sponsorships or operations. That’s an average of $4,148.83 per race with donations enabled, an increase compared to 2023’s average donations of $3,034.86. Some races take fundraising a step further, engaging participants as fundraisers and raising $80,000+ for their cause.
Who Runs a Turkey Trot?
Anecdotally, we know that turkey trots are considered multi-generational family affairs. To see how true this is, we looked at the demographics of the top 100 Thanksgiving Day races to see compared with demographics of races throughout the year. Most notable is increased participation by young adult runners, a group the industry has struggled to attract in recent years. While it’s clear that kids also participate in turkey trot traditions, it’s encouraging that 18.9% of turkey trot participants were 18-29, compared to just 14.8% throughout 2023. The true challenge: turning those once-a-year turkey trotters into regular event participants. The biggest cohort of Thanksgiving Day runners? Runners aged 30-39 made up nearly a third of all participants.
The gender breakdown, on the other hand, was similar to what we see throughout the year. Female runners make up a small majority of participants both throughout the year and on Thanksgiving Day.
Turkey Trot RaceDay
RaceDay CheckIn App
Turkey trot participants have a busy day ahead of them, and waiting around in line is usually not on the list. RunSignup perennial favorite, the RaceDay CheckIn App continues to be the default way to streamine race day. In 2024, 54% of races used the app to check in 66% of Thanksgiving Day participants. That’s more than 700,000 participants checked in by the RaceDay CheckIn App in a single morning.
No-Show Rate
One question we often can’t answer is “how many registered runners actually show up?” Races use a variety of results platforms and check-in formats, making it hard to have a reliable source. However, this year we did have a enough volume using the RaceDay CheckIn App to get some idea of the no-show rate.
From races that appeared to have used the CheckIn App throughout their race pickup, an average of 93% of all participants showed up on race morning, an impressive turnout for a busy holiday morning.
Results Notifications
Results notifications sent (by email or SMS) also increased in 2024, with a record 219 races sending more than half a million notifications to participants and spectators. Notifications make race day more fun and engaging for runners and their “fans” alike.
RaceDay Photos
The free RaceDay Photo platform brings runners back to your race website even as the turkey is being served. On Thanksgiving Day 2024, more than 100,000 photos were uploaded by 152 races. With additional races adding more photos in the following days, that’s a lot people reliving their turkey trot fun.
Summary: Good News!
Thanksgiving Day 2024 was another booming running day across the country. As a company, the good news doesn’t end there: RunSignup has seen increases in both registrations and transactions throughout the year, with a 10% increase in November registrations.
Want more good news? Read a few of our favorite stories about turkey trots in 2024:
- Silicon Valley Turkey Trot Celebrates 20th Annual Thanksgiving Race
- Record-Setting Crowd Participates in 34th ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot
- Snowy Trotting: Annual Steamboat Springs Turkey Trot Dashes Through Town
- 14,000 Participants In the 129th Annual YMCA Turkey Trot in Buffalo
- Turkey Trot in Downtown Fort Myers Draws Record Crowd for Thanksgiving Tradition