As Buffalo residents dig out from up to seven feet of snow in some areas and brace for possible flooding from the melting snowfall, organizers of Buffalo’s YMCA Turkey Trot say their event will be held downtown for the 119th consecutive year.

“We are still going as planned,” YMCA Buffalo Niagara communications director Kathy Romanowski told Runner's World Newswire Monday. “The snow hit south of the race course, so thankfully we didn’t get that much.”

It seems implausible that one area could be so hard hit while just down the road the streets are clear, but that’s the result of lake-effect snow, where cooler air pulls up moisture from a warmer body of water, then releases it in the form of frozen precipitation in whatever direction the wind is blowing.

If the Buffalo Turkey Trot continues as planned, the event will remain the oldest race in the U.S. It narrowly beats out the Boston Marathon, which was established five months later, in 1897.

“We always had the mindset that this will happen,” said Romanowski. “We have diehard runners, so we knew that someone would have shown up no matter what.”

For Buffalo residents, the race is both a major community happening and a source of pride.  Since 2010, the event has reached its 14,000-person capacity, a number that could be even bigger if the post-race party had room to accommodate more bodies. 

On average, Buffalo experiences 50 days per year where the temperature never rises above the freezing mark, but November storms are still rare. The closest the race committee ever came to cancelling the 8K was back in 2000, when a surprise blizzard blanketed the area with two feet of snow two days before the race. “Our mayor ordered that the streets be cleared so the race could go on,” said Romanowski.

The forecast for Thursday is in the low 30s, with the possibly of light snow.

Buffalo’s YMCA Turkey Trot was first held in 1896 when Henry Allison beat five other runners in a five-mile cross country race on the dirt roads around downtown. The course later moved to city streets in the mid-1900s. Despite the notoriously chilly conditions, runners still post fast times. David O’Keefe set the course record of 23:13 in 1989 when the temps were in the low 20s. Victoria Mitchell holds the women’s course record with her 26:21 in 1998.

This year the race will be bittersweet. Tom Donnelly, the race director, died unexpectedly on Saturday, November 15, at 61. Donnelly—not to be confused with the Haverford coach of the same name—was also the director of the Buffalo Marathon. Donnelly was credited with growing the field from about 5,000 runners when he started in 2004 to nearly three times the size of that today. Local reports indicated that heart problems contributed to his death.

“We are all very saddened by losing Tom,” said Romanowski. “He was a terrific supporter of running in the community, and he thrived when he was putting on the race.” Donnelly will be honored in a moment of silence before the race start and later during a tribute at the post-race party.

Romanowski said that a replacement for Donnelly has not been named, but that a core group of race committee members will guide the event on Thursday.

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