2019 Manchester Road Race To Feature Strong Field, Strong Winds

MANCHESTER, CT — Runners in the 83rd Manchester Road race will likely be facing a stiff headwind as they pass the crucial Mile 4 mark before turning onto Main Street for the finish on Thanksgiving Day.

That was the word from Connecticut Weather icon Brad Field this week. Field said the winds could be greater than 20 mph coming out of the northwest. Temperatures during the road race should be rising slowly through the 30s, highlighted by sunshine mixing with some clouds, Field said.

If the foercecast holds, it will feel downright balmy compared to the 2018 race, when temperatures were in the low teens with wind chills of zero.

The 83rd Manchester Road Race is scheduled to take place at 10 Thanksgiving morning. The race starts and finishes on Main Street, in front of St. James Church. The 4.748-mile race course runs through Manchester's central streets.

Defending champion and course record holder Edward Cheserek has entered the 83rd Manchester Road Race. Cheserek, 25, hails from Flagstaff, AZ, by way of Kenya. Cheserek won the annual Thanksgiving Day run last year while seting a new record with a time of 21:16 in frigid conditions. He sliced three seconds off the old mark of 21:19 that had stood since 1995. He will be wearing bib No. 4 in the 2019 race.

Olympic steeplechase runners Donn Cabral (bib No. 20), a Glastonbury native, and Hillary Bor (bib No. 6), of Colorado Springs, are also in the men's field. Cabral, always a local favorite, has yet to win in Manchester. He was eighth in 2016 (21:51) second in 2015 (21:36) and fourth in 2014 (21:51). Bor was eighth in Manchester in 2018 with a time of 22:03.

Running legend and nine-time MRR champion Amby Burfoot has committed to run for the 57th year in a row. Burfoot, 73, first competed in Manchester in 1963, when he placed 14th and won the high school division as a senior at Fitch High School. He has run every Thanksgiving morning since then and his string of 56 straight appearances is already the record for most consecutive races.

In the womens field, Sally Kipyego (bib No. 50), an Olympic silver medalist and two-time Manchester Road Race champion, will return to the Thanksgiving Day run this year. Kipyego, 33, won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 London Olympic Games. She was also the runner-up in that event at the 2011 World Championships. Her personal best time for 10,000 meters is 30:26.37.

One of the world's greatest marathon runners will compete at the 83rd Manchester Road Race. Edna Kiplagat (bib No. 59), who won the marathon at the World Championships in 2011 and 2013, will return to Manchester after a two-year absence. She finished fourth at the 2016 MRR with a time of 24:34. Kiplagat grew up in Kenya and recently relocated to the Boulder, Colorado area. She won the 2017 Boston Marathon, the 2014 London Marathon, and the New York City and Los Angeles Marathons, both in 2010. Kiplagat recorded her best time for the event in 2012 when she placed second behind Mary Keitany at the London Marathon in 2:19:50.

More than 10,000 are expected to take part in the race, including local, regional and national runners of various abilities and a party of favorites in a wide array of costumes.