Manchester Road Race Registrations At About 8,000 With 2 Weeks To Go

MANCHESTER, CT — With two weeks to go before 87th Manchester Road Race is staged on Thanksgiving Morning, registration is at about 8,000.

Race organizers said Thursday that there is still room at the starting line.

Registration will close at 11:59 p.m. EST on Nov. 21. No entries will be accepted on the day of the road race. Race organizers also indicated that runners who register prior to Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. will save $5. The registration fee increases from $37 to $42 on November 18th.

Online registration is available at www.manchesterroadrace.com.

Runners can register in person in several ways:

• Saturday, Nov. 18 from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. during the MRR Health & Fitness Expo at the Manchester High School cafeteria, 134 East Middle Turnpike in Manchester
• Monday, Nov. 20, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Fleet Feet, 1003 Farmington Ave. in West Hartford
• Tuesday, Nov. 21 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Urban Lodge Brewery, 47 Purnell Place in Manchester

The 87th Manchester Road Race will take place at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23). It is one of America's oldest and most popular turkey day races and takes place on a 4.748-mile loop course through the town's central streets. It starts and finishes on Main Street, in front of St. James Church.

Registration numbers so far are typical. Last year's MRR attracted 9,641 registered runners. Conner Mantz of Mapleton, Utah won the race and set a course record of 21:04. Weini Kelati of Flagstaff, Arizona captured her second straight women’s championship with a time of 23:39. Kelati holds the women’s course record of 22:55, which she set at the 2021 MRR. Both athletes have entered this year's race.

Race organizers discourage those who want to poach the race for free because the entry fees go to many charitable causes in the area.

The 87th Manchester Road Race has been listed as a World Athletics Label Event by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of track and field. It is one of only 238 road races in the world, and 15 in the United States, to receive that designation.

The road race is organized annually by the more than 500 volunteers of the Manchester Road Race Committee, with support from the Town of Manchester. ECHN, Hoffman Lexus, and Pratt & Whitney are the event's principal financial sponsors.