The Double Oak Turkey Trot: A Thanksgiving Tradition
How It Started
The race traces back to 2011 — a modest Thanksgiving morning 5K and one-mile fun run organized around Double Oak Town Hall. It was never meant to be just a fitness event. From the start, it was built around bringing the community together before anyone sat down to a holiday table, with proceeds benefiting Dare to Serve.
Registration was informal in those early years — walk-up sign-ups, custom T-shirts, hand-distributed finisher medals — but the bones of today’s race were already there: a Fun Run start at 8:00 a.m., the 5K following at 8:30, and awards for age-group finishers by 9:30. Chip timing was required to compete, a small detail that made clear this was a real race, not just a jog around the block.
Growing Up Without Growing Cold
Over the years, the Turkey Trot grew without losing its neighborhood feel. Registration moved online. Course maps got published. Road closures on Cross Timbers Drive and Waketon Road became an expected part of Thanksgiving morning, announced ahead of time so residents could plan around them. Local running shops started hosting packet pickup days the week before the race, turning it into a small tradition of its own.
By 2025, the race reached its 15th year. The course still winds through the rural streets of Double Oak — past pastures, tree lines, and holiday decorations already going up on porches, with neighbors waving from driveways who know half the runners by name.
More Than a Race
What keeps the Turkey Trot alive isn’t just the exercise, the T-shirts, or the finisher medals, though those matter too. It’s the feeling of a community doing something together before the day scatters everyone to separate tables. Families run side by side. Longtime residents compare times from ten years back. New residents run their first Double Oak race and start to feel like they belong.
Join the Tradition
Fifteen years in, the Double Oak Turkey Trot is still one thing at its core: a Thanksgiving morning gathering that brings neighbors together before the holiday begins — and every entry helps support Dare to Serve. Lace up, bring the family, and be part of the next chapter.
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