While Thanksgiving continues to hold top billing as the most active
holiday for road race participation in the United States, Halloween sits
a close second, with 722,237 finishers in 2014, according to Running
USA.
Costume races, monster dashes, zombie runs and a host of
other Halloween-themed events have generated an increased amount of
participation across the country, creating runner experiences similar to
those generated by events such as The Color Run and Santa dashes.
“Halloween
continues to be one of the most active holidays in the United States
for a variety of reasons,” said Rich Harshbarger, Running USA CEO. “The
growth we’ve seen reflects the year-round trend of greater numbers of
runners seeking out events which are themed, social and festive.”
Since
2011, Halloween race participation has grown nearly 60 percent, from
469,602 race finishers in 2011 to 722,237. However, race participation
decreased 4 percent from 2013 to 2014, after finisher totals hit an
all-time high of 758,038.
The reduction in participation
reflects a nation-wide trend, as overall yearly finisher total were
down 1 percent in 2014, according to the Running USA U.S. Race Trends.
The
number of Halloween running events have followed a similar chart,
nearly doubling from 1,128 in 2011 to 2,042 in 2014, while decreasing 10
percent to 1,843 in 2014. Of note, Halloween dominates Thanksgiving in
terms of number of events, as 1,032 turkey trots were counted in 2014.
Halloween
participant totals take into account the entire week of Halloween since
the holiday often falls in the middle of the week.
For more information on Halloween races please visit: http://www.runningusa.org/halloween
