Construction Quirks Shrink Manchester Road Race Official Distance

MANCHESTER, CT — Honey ... they shrunk the race.

That's right, after finally memorizing the unconventional 4.748-mile distance of the Manchester Road Race, thousands of people will now have to think 4.737 miles on Turkey Day.

Race officials Thursday announced that a recent re-measurement of the loop course through central Manchester, featured at the race every Thanksgiving Day for nearly nine decades, is now 4.737-miles long.

Race officials said the course was last measured in 1986 and was found then to have a distance of 4.748-miles.

Repaving work performed along the race route over the years, along with road and setback alterations at the corner of Main and Charter Oak streets when a big chain drug store was built there several years ago to replace a car dealership, may likely have resulted in the slightly shorter length, Manchester Road Race Committee President Dr. Tris Carta said.

Carta said the re-measurement of the course was commissioned in conjunction with the committee's efforts to have the road race certified by USA Track & Field. USTAF is the national governing body for track and field, long distance running and race walking.

Pete Volkmar, an official course measurer with USATF, World Athletics and the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races, oversaw the measurement and confirmed the 4.737-mile distance. A three-person team riding bicycles measured the race course on June 28. Following guidelines published by USATF, the team members used the same type of equipment and procedures that were employed when the course was measured 38 years ago.

Carta said that the road race's start-finish line will remain at its long-time location on Main Street in front of St. James Church, and that the race course will look the same as it always has.

"With the exception of repositioned mile markers and split clocks, there will be no perceptible changes,” he quipped.

Carta noted that, although the course length has now been determined to be 59 feet, 11 and 7/16 inches shorter, existing course records will not be affected.

"The MRR's records are course records, and are not based on distances," he said. "Additionally, we have no way of knowing exactly when these changes to the course occurred."

The current MRR course record of 21:04 was set in 2022 by Conner Mantz. Weini Kelati set the women’s standard of 22:55 in 2021.

The 88th edition o the Manchester Road Race, one of the nation’s largest and most popular Thanksgiving Day events, will take place on Nov. 28 this year.

Online registration for the event, which attracted 11,060 runners last year, will begin at 5 a.m. EST on Sept. 1. More details about the opening of registration will be released next week, officials said.