Every Thanksgiving Charleston hosts the Charleston Turkey Day Run which is a 5K race through the heart of downtown Charleston.

If you are looking for a destination race to get a PR, this one is for you! This race course is nearly flat with only a few turns and entirely on paved streets. The course is USATF Certified and chip-timed to the hundredth of a second. There are numerous hotels close to the start and end of the race, along with sight-seeing and carriage rides.

This race is promoted widely as the 3^rd largest Thanksgiving Day 5K in the US and during the 2025 event we had over 8,000 finishers! Every age group has entrants from multiple states and you will have a lot of competition no matter your age group. My group of men in the just the 65-69 age category had 133 finishers, which is more than the overall number of finishers in some small 5K races I have entered.

The course starts on Meeting Street north of Calhoun and heads south to The Battery at the south end of the peninsula, before heading west on Battery Street and ending up heading north on King Street towards the finish line just north of King and Calhoun. See the map graphic for more detail.

The after party is well done with water, beer and food available.

While this is a fun event, I cannot give it a “5” for a couple of reasons. Reason #1 is there is no “finisher medal” awarded at the end of the race, which I do not understand. Runners collect finisher medals. Reason #2 is that they do not have an awards ceremony for all of the age groups represented; nor do they even send out medals to the top runners from each age group. This size race should award medals to the Top 5 for each age group. For these reasons, I give the race a “4”.

In summary, if you are looking for a destination race in a great city with a great chance of running a PR, then this race is for you!