YMCA Buffalo Niagara Turkey Trot

YMCA Buffalo Niagara Turkey Trot takes place in Buffalo, New York, on Thanksgiving morning, November 26, 2026. The single format is an 8K run / walk, just under five miles, with a 9:00 a.m. start. The 8K is an unusual distance on the American calendar, which is part of the draw: it is longer than the 5K most holiday races offer and short enough to run hard.

Five miles asks for slightly more discipline than a 5K. Go out at a pace you could hold for forty to fifty minutes rather than a sprint, and expect the middle two miles to be where the race is decided. Buffalo in late November can be genuinely cold and windy, so plan your layers around what you will want in the last mile, not what feels comfortable standing at the start. Four to six weeks of steady running, including one weekly tempo effort of fifteen to twenty minutes, is a solid build for the distance.