Lutz Museum To Benefit From 2024 Manchester Road Race Honors Club

MANCHESTER, CT — The Lutz Children's Museum, known for its contributions to Groundhog Day, will now be a major player on Thanksgiving Day, thanks to the Manchester Road Race and a generous group of runners.

The Manchester Road Race Committee has announced that the Lutz will be the beneficiary this November of the road race's annual "Honors Club" program.

This year marks the 88th edition of the famed Thanksgiving event. Registration is set to begin on Sept. 1.

Each year, race officials reserve 120 bibs for entrants who elect to participate in the MRR Honors Club. The runners pay $100, instead of the traditional entry fee, and all of the money is donated by the road race committee to a designated charitable or non-profit organization in the community.

Established in 1953, the Lutz is a multifaceted museum that offers children the opportunity to explore culture, history and natural sciences through internal and external exhibits, programs and experiences. The museum is located at 247 South Main St. in Manchester, not far from the MRR course itself.

The Lutz is also the home of Chuckles, the state groundhog, and annually hosts a prognostication ceremony on Groundhog Day to predict either a drawn-out winter or early spring. The mayor of Manchester, who has the powers to speak groundhog, presides and translates.

"The Lutz Children’s Museum has been doing great work for the kids in our community for more than seven decades," said Dr. Tris Carta, the president of the Manchester Road Race Committee. “Our race is very pleased to offer this assistance, and we are extremely grateful to the generous Honors Club members who donate their time and money each year to run in support of worthy community causes like this."

Entrants who register for the MRR Honors Club will receive several perks, which include a special bib and the ability to wait for the start of the 4.737-mile race in the basement of St. James Church, where indoor plumbing and light refreshments will be available.

Carta said that entrants can sign up to participate in this year’s Honors Club when registration opens at 5 a.m. EST on Sept. 1. Online registration, and more information about the program, will be available then at www.manchesterroadrace.com.

The 88th Manchester Road Race, one of the nation’s largest and most popular Turkey Day runs, will be staged at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28 this year). The race is run on a loop course through Manchester’s central streets that starts and finishes on Main Street, in front of St. James Church. Additional details are available at www.manchesterroadrace.com.

The entry fee is $32 for runners who sign up on-line at www.manchesterroadrace.com prior to midnight EST on Oct. 1. The entry fee increases thereafter to $37 on Oct. 1 and to $42 on November 23. Race officials have announced that, due to rising postage and logistical costs, the MRR will no longer be able to mail bibs to runners free of charge. Entrants who wish to receive their bibs through the postal service will be assessed an additional postage and handling fee when they register.

The race committee has scheduled a number of times and dates when bibs can be picked up in person at no additional cost. Details about the new postage and handling fee, and the schedule of in-person bib pickup dates will be available at www.manchesterroadrace.com when registration opens.

The Manchester Road Race attracted 11,060 registered runners last Thanksgiving. They ranged in athletic ability from Olympians and national champions to joggers dressed in turkey suits and Pilgrim costumes.

Morgan Beadlescomb of Ann Arbor, MI, won last year’s event with a time of 21:12. Weini Kelati of Flagstaff, Arizona captured the women’s championship for the third consecutive year in 23:21.

Race officials are once again also offering a Virtual Manchester Road Race option. Participants can download a GPS-enabled app to their smartphones and have their times recorded as they run the MRR course distance at any location in the world. The entry fee for the virtual run is $30, and online registration also begins on Sept. 1. More details about the Virtual Manchester Road Race are available at www.manchesterroadrace.com.

"We anticipate that we're going to have another large field that will include some of the best distance runners in the world, and we are urging everyone to register as early as possible," Carta said.

About 400 volunteers from the Manchester Road Race Committee organize the annual Thanksgiving Day run, with support from the town of Manchester. The event's principal financial sponsors are Pratt & Whitney, ECHN and Hoffman Lexus.