Thanksgiving Morning at the Norpoint Turkey Trot

Somebody in the house said “before we eat,” and now you own a race bib. Thanksgiving morning at the Norpoint Turkey Trot looks the same every year: a group warmup before the gun, and a course the race’s own FAQ describes as including “some famous Northeast Tacoma hills.”

The Center at Norpoint calls it Tacoma’s original Thanksgiving fun run. It started in 1995, which makes it older than some of the people who will beat you to the finish line. Parks Tacoma has also listed it as the Norpoint Classic, including in 2025, so look under that name for past years.

Here’s how the morning goes, from the registration table to the walk you take afterward so you can feel better about the pie.

Before you go

The start is 9am, at the Center at Norpoint, and the parking lot is both the start and the finish. Get there by 8:30 if you’re picking up a bib.

Register online. Day-of registration runs 8 to 8:45am, but only if the race hasn’t reached its 1,300-person cap. That’s not a number you want to test on Thanksgiving morning with the family waiting in the car.

Order by November 12 for the shirt. Registration includes a long-sleeve shirt, a sticker, a bib and a medal. Skip the shirt and you save $15, which is a reasonable trade if you already own eleven race shirts.

Runners to the front, walkers to the back. The race asks for this, and on a course that winds through Northeast Tacoma it’s the difference between a good first mile and a lot of apologizing.

Bring food if you can. The race collects for the NE Tacoma Healthy Kids Coalition, which supports students and families across five Northeast Tacoma schools. There’s a table near the starting line on race day, and the Center takes donations from November 2 to December 18 during its open hours. The list is practical stuff: Cup O’Noodles, juice boxes, microwave mac and cheese cups, fruit cups or applesauce pouches, protein bars, 12-ounce Gatorade.

Show up, warm up, line up

The Center at Norpoint is at 4818 Nassau Ave NE. The group warmup happens before the gun, and it’s worth doing if the hills are the part you’re worried about, because they should be.

Everything happens in one place. Bib pickup, the food-drive table, the start and the finish are all in or beside the same parking lot, so there’s no shuttle and no second location to find. If you’ve done races where the finish is two miles from the car, this one is a relief.

The course

Two distances, one set of hills. The 5K is chip-timed. The 3K is a run or a walk, and it’s the one to pick if you’re out with kids, a stroller, or a dog on a leash. Both wind through Northeast Tacoma and come back to the Norpoint parking lot.

The hills are real and the race says so. Volunteers are posted at the steep sections to cheer, which helps less than you’d hope and more than nothing.

There’s a course map on the race page. Look at it before race morning rather than during it.

The finish

Times are chip-based and get posted online within 48 hours, so you can stop refreshing your phone at the finish line. The top male, female and non-binary finishers in each distance are recognized, and they need to be there for the photo, so if you’re fast, don’t leave.

Then the food drive: if you forgot a donation at home, the Center is still collecting through December 18.

After: Owen Beach

Point Defiance is across Commencement Bay from Northeast Tacoma, so getting there means driving around the water through the Tideflats and downtown, about 25 minutes. Owen Beach has a flat promenade along the water, and after a 5K with hills in it, flat is the correct terrain.

The park is open from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, and the beach is free. It’s a good place to let everyone cool down before the drive home and the oven.

If the hills worry you

Register for the 3K instead of the 5K. It can be walked, and it finishes in the same parking lot.

The other two

Two more Thanksgiving races run the same morning. The Gig Harbor Turkey Trot starts at 8am, an hour earlier, on the waterfront, and asks you to bring two cans of food. The Tacoma City Turkey Trot starts at 9am in Proctor on a certified course, with a kids 1K at 10:15.

Pick the one whose neighborhood you want to spend the morning in.