Pacific Palisades Turkey Trot to Return on Thanksgiving Morning, Registration Open

Submitted by DAVID O’CONNELL | Special to the Palisadian-Post

The Pacific Palisades Turkey Trot Powered by Exela Technologies returns for its ninth running on Thanksgiving morning, November 23.

The Family Fun Run (5k & 10k) will start at 8 a.m. and once again run in and out of the football field at Palisades Charter High School. Over 2,000 runners are expected along with thousands more spectators along the course that runs through the El Medio Bluffs neighborhoods (5k course) and Temescal Canyon (10k course).

The race is operated by the O’Connell and Houston families, longtime residents of Pacific Palisades who first launched this Turkey Trot event back in 2013.

“We are beyond excited to be able to keep our healthy tradition of kicking off the holiday season in style here in the Palisades,” said Race Founder David O’Connell. “The entire goal of this event has been to gather together friends and family to burn some calories in a fun setting before a long weekend of celebrating. The response from the community has been incredible and our signups are far outpacing year’s past. So, we’re looking forward to another fantastic event—and praying, as always, for our gorgeous Southern California weather.”

Returning sponsors include Exela Technologies who is powering the event with their corporate energy of their team of orange clad runners. Also continuing their support of the event is Palisades Village who will be hosting packet pick-up in the Swarthmore Room in the days leading up to the event and providing a recyclable shopping bag for those who come to the packet pick-up.

The event will benefit the two local Los Angeles Fire Department Stations (69 and 23) as well as Desita, a medical charity run by the family of Dr. Dan Levi of UCLA Medical.

Thanksgiving Day is the biggest running day of the year in the U.S., according to RunSignup. It is estimated that over a million people will run some type of Turkey Trot in 2023 and raise close to $2 million for charities.

For more information or to sign up, visit paliturkeytrot.com.