Annual Montauk Turkey Trot Is Thursday

Montauk’s 47th annual Run for Fun Turkey Day Trot will be held, as always, on Thanksgiving morning, with proceeds benefiting local food pantries. The registration fee has increased to $20 this year, due to what event organizers said are rising costs around producing an event that in recent years has grown to attract nearly 1,000 runners.

The race will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 23, near the Village Green in Montauk. Preregistration is strongly encouraged, race organizers said, and will end at 9:30 a.m.

Registration can be done online at elitefeats.com.

Earlier this year, race organizer John Rooney, who is East Hampton Town’s superintendent of recreation, told the Town Board that the cost of producing the event had increased considerably, noting that the event for many years attracted 200 runners or less. Last year, he said nearly 1,000 turned out, requiring more town resources to manage the crowd, more T-shirts and medals and more staff all around.

The Montauk Turkey Trot was founded by John Keeshan in 1976, when he and a group of friends ran 11 miles, from the Village Green to the Montauk Point Lighthouse, and back again.

The race typically attracts a host of elite runners. Ryan Fowkes, a 22-year-old East Hampton High School graduate and collegiate runner from George Washington University, set the 6-mile record last year, finishing in 29 minutes and 25.04 seconds. Running the race for the first time, Bassel Zikry won the 3-mile race in 2022 with a time of 15:52.01.