The biggest running day of the year returns in just four weeks! In 2024, Thanksgiving Day races broke RunSignup records (again), with 1,109,909 participants across 936 races. As we approach the big day, we’re taking an early look at how the numbers are shaping up.
All data is as of 10/30/2025.
How Many Turkey Trots Will There Be This Year?
A month out, we have already exceeded the number of Thanksgiving Day races on RunSignup with at least three registrations, and are approaching our first year with 1,000+ races. To date, 456,450 runners have registered for a Thanksgiving run, an average of 467 participants per race. Of the 977 races currently up, 119 already exceed 1,000 participants and 6 have more than 5,000 participants committed.
Where are Turkey Trots Being Held?
Turkey Trots are currently scheduled in all 50 states, with 13 states hosting 30 or more races on Thanksgiving Day. The states with the most Turkey Trots scheduled include:
- Florida (64 Races)
- California (59 Races)
- Texas (57 Races)
- Pennsylvania (54 Races)
- Ohio (53 Races)
Texas currently has the most participants registered for Turkey Trots, with 43,830 registrants – an impressive average of 769 runners per race.
How Do Your Turkey Trot Registrations Compare to Previous Years?
The practical question for race directors is how registrations for your race compare to this time last year. To compare, a look at your YoY stats on your race dashboard to get an idea how your race compares to previous years.
For a national reference point, the average Turkey Trot returning from 2024 is currently at 39% of their total 2024 registrations. There is individual variation depending on the race, so you may not find that your race is exactly on the average.
Turkey Trot Race Churn
Next, we look at how many Thanksgiving Day races are not recurring. Additionally, we look at competitor churn to understand how many of our races move to a different provider each year. Because this must be checked manually and very small races are more likely to open registration very late, this report only looks at races with more than 100 runners in 2024.
In addition to No Race churn and Competitor churn, there are currently races of unknown status. These races have not definitively announced they are not returning, but do not currently have registration open on any platform. While it’s likely that some of races with unknown status will not come back, dozens of races open registration in November each year.
| Races Returning | No Race Churn | Competitor Churn | Unknown Status | |
| Number of 2023 Races Over 100 | 826 | 1 | 7 | 17 |
| Percent Races Over 100 | 96.9% | 0.1% | 0.9% | 2.1% |
Even if we assume that none of the races of unknown status come back, the race churn for Thanksgiving runs is only 2.1%. This is a lower churn rate than we see for all races throughout the year (typically 4-6%), highlighting how solid the Thanksgiving run tradition is. Competitor churn is also low, with less than 1% 2024 races moving to another registration platform in 2025.
Where Are the New Races Coming From?
In 2024, there were 936 Turkey Trots on RunSignup. This year, we have already exceeded that number, with 977 Turkey Trots today and many likely to be added. This might be the year we break 1,000 Turkey Trots!
So, where are all these new Turkey Trots coming from? To get an idea, we reviewed the 53 races with 100+ registrations that were not on our platform in 2024. From that, we found:
- The majority (68%) of new Turkey Trots on RunSignup were races that were using a different registration platform in 2024. The most common migrations were from Race Roster (7 races), and the now closed Enmotive (6 races).
- One quarter (25%) of the new Turkey Trots on RunSignup were brand new races in their inaugural year.
- The remaining four races were ones that had moved dates (usually from a weekend around Thanksgiving) or previously had no online registration.
This supports our understanding that a large portion of RunSignup growth is due to winning market share, not necessarily growth in the endurance industry. However, we are seeing an increasing number of actual events as well, with 1% of all current Turkey Trots in their inaugural year.
How To Improve Customer Service for Your Turkey Trot (and Save Time)
Just last week, the beta RunSignup AI Chatbot for customer service was released for all races to enable. In addition to the Turkey Trots we’ve seen activate the RunSignup AI Chatbot in the last few days, several Turkey Trots participating in our Early Access program, implementing a chatbot on their website in September.
RunSignup AI Chatbot Embedded on Homepage
RunSignup AI Chatbot as a Component
Why Enable a RunSignup AI Chatbot?
Race directors know how challenging it can be to keep up with customer service emails and race questions. Your RunSignup AI Chatbot solves the previously unsolvable problem: how to educate runners who refuse to read. Think of the RunSignup AI Chatbot as your own customer service agent, reading your race information for your runners and responding to queries so you don’t have to. The AI Chatbot for one race who participated in the Early Access program has already handled 87 conversations with runners. We expect the number of runner inquiries for all to increase significantly as race day approaches.
Can I have a RunSignup AI Chatbot for my Turkey Trot?
Yes! There are two requirements you need to fulfill before you can enable your own AI Chatbot for customer service.
- First, you need to enable (and set up) a Website V2. If you have not done so already, we recommend copying all your existing information to your V2 website in Website Builder and waiting to enable it until your have made all your content updates. If you need help with Website V2, you can catch up on our recent 101 and 201 webinars on Websites V2.
- Second, you need to add an FAQ component to your website with at least 3 questions and answers (we recommend more than 3, though)!
If you meet the requirements, you can simply follow the steps to enable your own RunSignup AI Chatbot for customer service! If you want a little more help, catch up on our RunSignup AI Chatbot webinar (below).
What’s Next?
2025 is shaping up to be another exciting, record-breaking Thanksgiving Day! Getting ready for your race day and want to make sure you’ve crossed every T? Join us for one of our two upcoming Turkey Trot Prep webinars (one for timers and one for race directors). Happy trotting!