A Thanksgiving morning road race through the streets of a small village, with the route winding through the neighborhood blocks that make up downtown Newark. The terrain is flat pavement, the kind of course where you can settle into a rhythm early and hold it. Proceeds go toward the local cross country program.
Check-in opens race morning at the community center, so there is no need to sort out packet pickup the day before.
Free race emails
Get races near Newark in your inbox. Every Monday we send the races coming up, and every Thursday we send the ones happening that weekend.
Two helpful emails per week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Going by the 2025 results, this is a small, friendly field, with a competitive front end and a big recreational middle.
Top 3: Braxton Guy (28:13) · Matthew Roberts (31:47) · William Andrew (32:07)
The Newark Turkey Day Race has been held every year since at least 2021. That is as far back as RunSignup's records for this race go, so it may well be older.
Enter a finish time to see where it lands against the most recent 5 Miles results.
How we calculate these stats: RunSesh calculates these figures from the most recent published results of past editions, sourced from RunSignup. We show aggregates only: field size, winning and median times, and the cutoff. We never publish individual finisher tables. Last updated Nov 12, 2026.
Set a goal and get a pace band: every mile split on a card sized for your phone lock screen, so race morning needs no math.
Traveling for this race? The map shows hotels and rentals in and around Newark — pan or zoom to compare what's nearby.
The map is provided by Stay22. If you book through it, RunSesh may earn a commission at no extra cost to you — it never affects the races we list.
Almost certainly not. Half the 5 Miles field finished slower than 49:17, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:16:37, so there is a long tail of runners behind the middle of the pack. Most fields are far slower than people expect.
It is a small race (122 finishers), which is friendlier and less intimidating than a big-city event, though the field thins out. There is no qualifying time, and the finish-time spread above shows how varied the field really is. If it is your first 5 Miles, that spread matters more than the winner's time.
The 5 Miles winner ran 28:13 while the median finisher took 49:17. That spread points to a mixed field, with a competitive front and a big recreational middle.
Want more races like this delivered straight to your inbox?
