Manchester Road Race 2020: Virtual Fast Facts

MANCHESTER, CT — Manchester Road Race organizers are rating this year's virtual road race as a virtual success.

The pun was intended because the coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to scrap plans for an on-site run through the town's central streets on Thanksgiving morning, the road race committee staged a virtual road race instead. Entrants downloaded GPS-enabled apps to their smart phones that allowed them to run the race at any location and upload their times to MRR officials.

Here are a few fast facts for 2020:

• The event, which was staged between Nov. 19 and 25, attracted 2,135 registrants.
• Of that number, 1628 of the entrants were from Connecticut.
• A total of 479 participants were from 12 other states or territories.
• The Virtual Manchester Road Race also had competitors this year from Ireland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Singapore.
• There were 1,749 finishers.
• Everyone who completed the 4.748-mile distance qualified as an official 2020 MRR finisher, and their effort will count toward longevity streaks.
• Eilish McColgan, a British Olympian and Scottish national record holder, ran the race in Dubai and was the fastest female competitor to record a time (25: 15). McColgan placed fourth at the 2017 MRR and finished fifth here in 2016.
• Two-time Olympic steeplechase finalist Donn Cabral, who grew up in Glastonbury, had the fastest overall recorded performance. Cabral, who has had a number of top-10 Manchester placements that included a runner-up finish at the 2015 MRR, competed on a course in his home town and had a time of 23:00.
• Chris Thompson, an elite athlete from Great Britain who won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2010 European Championships, had the VMRR’s second fastest time. He was timed in 23:30.
• Mark Carroll, a two-time former Manchester winner and member of the MRR's storied "Irish Connection," now 48, won his age group and was third overall in recorded times with a 24:10 clocking.
• The principal financial sponsors of the Virtual Manchester Road Race were Pratt & Whitney and Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN). Contributing sponsors were Henkel, Cigna, and USA Hauling and Recycling.
• A total of 306 pints of blood were collected at the MRR's annual Ray Crothers Blood Drive, which the road race staged in connection with the American Red Cross of Connecticut on Nov. 27 at Manchester High School.

A complete list of all finishers will be published this weekend, race officials said.

"This wasn’t the race we wanted to run this year, but it enabled us to offer a positive experience to our runners and fans, and to keep the spirit and tradition of the Manchester Road Race alive during this tragic health crisis," said Dr. Tris Carta, the president of the Manchester Road Race. "We are very grateful to our runners, financial sponsors and volunteers for making this year’s virtual road race a success, and we are already starting to think about next Thanksgiving, Carta added. "We hope to be back on Main Street in 2021 and make the 85th MRR the best one ever.”

Race officials have been conducting the blood drive each November since 1986, and in recent years it has become one of the largest single day blood collection efforts in the state.