The Buffalo Turkey Trot is an annual Thanksgiving footrace held in Buffalo, New York each Thanksgiving Day. The Buffalo Turkey Trot, a popular fundraiser for the local branch of the YMCA, runs five miles down Delaware Avenue in Buffalo.
The race proclaims itself to be the oldest continually running public footrace in North America, having established itself in 1896 and run every year since.[1] The race on Thursday, November 24, 2011 will mark its 116th consecutive start. The Around the Bay Road Race in Hamilton, Ontario, first run in 1894, also claims the title of Oldest Road Race in North America, although that race was not held during World War I or during a ten-year stretch between 1925 and 1935.
The Turkey Trot has increased in popularity in recent years. It drew a crowd of 12,500 runners (the maximum the YMCA would allow) for the 2010 race,[2][3] resulting in the YMCA arranging to increase capacity and accommodate 13,200 runners in 2011,[4] which also maxed out several days before Thanksgiving.[5]
The race is partially a serious competition and partially a fun run; participants in the Turkey Trot have been known to wear unusual costumes (comparable to those used by the contestants in the game show Let's Make a Deal) such as turkey suits, hockey uniforms with mullets, whole canoes, Chewbacca outfits, or formal wedding wear while racing.[6]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||