Every Thanksgiving morning, while some sleep in and enjoy the holiday, others rise bright and early, and flock to Manchester, Connecticut for the premier road race in the state. The Manchester Road Race was run for the 81st time this past Thursday, and attracted roughly 50,000 participants and spectators.

The course follows a 4.748 mile loop beginning and ending on Main Street. Philimon Hanneck set the overall record in 1995 with a time of 21:19. The female record was broken this year by Buze Diriba, who ran a 23:57 to beat the previous record, set in 2003, by 2 seconds. Diriba outkicked Molly Huddle, who also bested the old record. On the men’s side, Paul Chelimo was the overall race winner in 21:32.

Many members of the Hall community were present, including Frankie Lynch, a junior. She came in third for the Female 14-18 year old division with a time of 30:44. I asked her what she thought about the race.

“Going into the race I really only wanted to run a personal best,” she said. “When I found out I was third, I was so excited.” Frankie will return next Thanksgiving with hopes of claiming another award. “[I] can’t wait to race it again next year,” she concluded.

A few of Hall’s fastest alumni were also present on Thursday. Mr. Everett Hackett (better known as Everett), a Hall faculty member and coach of Cross Country and Indoor/Outdoor Track and Field, dueled it out with Hall alum Grant O’Connor ‘15, who recently came in fourth at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. Hackett was able to out-sprint Grant by two seconds, coming in 17th overall, with a time of 23:06.

Another Hall faculty member with a special connection to the Manchester Road Race is Mr. Billing, who also coaches Cross Country, and is the nephew of Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon. Burfoot has run at Manchester for a record 55 consecutive years, and has become the “grandfather of the race,” as Mr. Billing describes it.

Mr. Billing himself ran the road race for the 26th straight year this past Thanksgiving. He attributes this streak by praising the tradition of the Manchester Road Race.

When it was run for the first time, the Manchester Road Race has only 12 participants. It has since blossomed into an event that attracts elite runners – National Champions and Olympians among them. However, the event hasn’t lost its small town feel, as Mr. Billing pointed out. Seemingly a town’s worth of people come out every Thanksgiving either to run among over 10,000 runners each year, or to cheer among the roughly 40,000 spectators that line the course.

Mr. Billing mentioned that when he taught in California, it wasn’t always convenient to run a race in Connecticut. There were some years where he would teach on Wednesday, fly to Connecticut for the race, and then fly back to California to coach in the California High School Cross Country Championships. However, his presence was never really in jeopardy. “I was always going to come back,” he said.

Besides gathering a community of running enthusiasts or enthusiasts of those who run, a community, the Manchester Road Race fosters a community of giving to those less fortunate. Over $100,000 of last year’s proceeds were donated to eighteen charities. In addition, the road race committee holds a blood drive the day after Thanksgiving so runners can feel their race registration fee was well worth it.

The Manchester Road Race has already become a Thanksgiving tradition for many, including members of the Hall community. If you haven’t yet run it, I encourage you to give this turkey trot a try.