Sports

Some Run to Race, Most Run For Fun

The 75th Manchester Road Race brought out all sorts of colorful characters.

For the few elite runners, the Manchester Road Race is a place to compete against some of the top athletes in the world.

For the majority of the 15,000 entrants in the 75th annual Thanksgiving Day event, it is all about having a great time, with many donning costumes to mark the joyous spirit that prevails around the 4.748 mile course.

Liz Whalen of East Granby ran Manchester for the fourth time, but said she had not run at all since the 2010 race. "I'm here and I'm going to do it, because it's an event that you can't miss," she said. "It's just amazing what you see around the course, with all the people watching and the enthusiasm, and then the people in the race itself. You see all kinds, from people dressed up as firemen to Indians to the regular runners. It's quite an experience."

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A group of young women all sported similar headgear in the shape of cupcakes. Rosie Flammang of Rocky Hill said she found the hats online, and convinced four friends to run with her wearing the hats and red tutus.

Costumes of all shapes, sizes and colors were everywhere: turkeys, referees, Gumby, a pizza, Cookie Monster, purple balloons and Jonathan the Husky Dog were just some of the various apparel seen throughout the course of the morning.

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The pagaentry of the day was not limited to the outfits. Prior to the race start, the Sphinx Temple Band of Newington, organized in 1899, entertained runners and spectators on the porch of the Army-Navy club. Along Highland Street, a pair of bands tooted away as the runners made their way up the hill.

Just before the starting gun, the Spirit of Freedom, a large cargo plane which had been utilized in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, flew over the start/finish line to wild applause from the thousands of spectators lining both sides of Main Street.

The day was capped by the appearance of two women significant to the race's history. Julia Chase-Brand ran in the Smith College outfit she wore in 1961, when she competed despite a ban on female runners in the race at that time. Betty Hutchinson of Concord, NH, who set a record for her age group in 2010 by finishing in 1:17:31, returned to complete the course again at age 91.


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