Waterside at the Catawba Turkey Trot

Waterside at the Catawba Turkey Trot is held in Fort Mill, South Carolina, on Thanksgiving morning, November 26, 2026. The event offers one distance, a 5K (3.1 miles), starting at 8:00 a.m. With a single start and a single format, it is the kind of neighborhood holiday race you can get to, run, and be home from before the oven is hot.

An 8:00 a.m. start is early for a 5K, so the practical question is warming up in cool late-November air rather than pacing strategy: ten to fifteen minutes of easy jogging and two or three strides will do more for your first mile than anything else. Newer runners can walk sections without holding anyone up, while anyone chasing a time will find 3.1 miles short enough to race off normal training. If you do want a sharp result, add one weekly interval session, five to six minutes total at 5K effort broken into repeats, for the three or four weeks beforehand.