First Turn At Manchester Road Race To Have A Different Look In 2024

MANCHESTER, CT — The famed first turn in the Manchester Road Race will have a different look this year.

As the massive herd of runners makes a left from Main Street onto Charter Oak Street, the participants will encounter flexible plastic fencing, road race committee members announced Thursday. The premise is to simulate street width conditions that would exist if a permanent traffic roundabout is constructed at that location in the future.

The corner of Main and Charter Oak streets is located about a half-mile from the road race's start/finish line on Main Street in front of St. James Church. It is the first turn challenge that thousands of runners will encounter make as they compete in the road race, which is run annually each Thanksgiving morning on a 4.737-mile loop course through central Manchester.

The flexible fencing will be held in place by road race volunteers and can be moved in order to safely accommodate the flow of runners from Main Street onto Charter Oak Street. It will be positioned there prior to the start of the race on Thanksgiving morning and taken down immediately after the last runner makes the turn, event officials said.

Race officials also indicated that they plan to videotape the runners as they proceed through the location during this year’s race.

As part of its Main Street redevelopment project, The town of Manchester plans to construct traffic safety roundabouts at the intersections of Main and Charter Oak Street and East Center and Main Streets. Road Race and town officials will be trying to determine if the street width at the Main and Charter Oak streets turn will be sufficient to accommodate the large flow of runners at the location if a traffic roundabout of the size proposed is placed there in the future.

The temporary flexible fencing will be positioned at the site in a manner that would replicate the space that will be available there for the road racers once the permanent roundabout is installed. The temporary fence will allow the MRR and the Town to assess the corner without impacting this year's race. event officials said.

"We are working closely with the Town of Manchester to ensure that the proposed Main Street reconstruction will not adversely affect the road race, and we sincerely appreciate their cooperation," said Dr. Tris Carta, the president of the Manchester Road Race Committee. "By positioning the temporary fencing at Main and Charter Oak Streets this year, we will be better able to determine how runners will navigate the turn there at future races if a roundabout is installed. Both the town and our committee totally agree that the safety of our runners is the number one concern."

Carta added that the race committee does not plan to monitor the flow of runners from East Center Street onto Main Street this year.

"The field of runners is pretty well spread out by the time they reach the final turn onto Main Street," Carta said.

The 88th Manchester Road Race, one of America’s largest and most popular Turkey Day races, will be staged at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28 of this year). Last year 11,060 entrants registered to run in the race, which has been recognized as a World Athletics Label Road Race. As of early Thursday morning, 6,533 entrants have signed up for this year's event.

Online registration and more details about the race are available at www.manchesterroadrace.com.