Niles-Buchanan YMCA hosts annual Thanksgiving Day Run

NILES, Mich.-Before diving into a delicious turkey and creamy mashed potatoes, thousands of runners laced up their sneakers and burned off some calories at the 36^th annual Niles-Buchanan YMCA Thanksgiving Day Run Thursday morning.

The event is a 10K, 5K run and walk and 1 mile fun run. Nearly 2200 people raced in 2016 from 29 different states and even from Australia. At least 3 runners this year have ran in all 36 races.

“The YMCA serves so many people in the community and they feel like this is their way to give back,” said Alexa Tupper, Marketing Coordinator for YMCA of Southwest Michigan. “It’s been going on for so long and it’s become a tradition for families to come out every year.”

The logo on this year’s t-shirt has special meaning. Niles native and local artist, John Lidecker, passed away earlier this year. The YMCA wanted to honor him because he meant so much to the community and the race.

“He actually designed a lot of our logos for past races,” Tupper said. “We felt it was appropriate to honor him and our logo has a few different ‘John’ things on it.”

The t-shirts will also be sold at various downtown businesses in Niles, including Front Street Pizza.