Thanksgiving Morning on Ridgewood Avenue: A Glen Ridge Guide to the Ashenfelter 8K and Tom Fleming 2K
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
The 27th Ashenfelter 8K Classic takes over Ridgewood Avenue at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2026. The cheapest entry, the long-sleeve shirt and the calmest bib pickup all go to people who make up their minds in early November.
The race starts and ends at Glen Ridge High School, 200 Ridgewood Avenue. The Tom Fleming 2K goes off at 8:15 a.m. and the 8K at 9 a.m. Proceeds go to the Glen Ridge Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that provides supplemental funding to the Glen Ridge school system.
The fee schedule on the race's RunSignup event page has three tiers. The first one runs out about two weeks after this post goes up.
| Registration window | Ashenfelter 8K | Tom Fleming 2K |
|---|---|---|
| Now through Nov. 14, 11:59 p.m. | $40 | $30 |
| Nov. 15 through Nov. 24 | $45 | $35 |
| Nov. 25 through race day | $50 | $40 |
A household of four, with two adults in the 8K and two kids in the 2K, pays $140 by Nov. 14 and $180 on race morning. That's $40 for waiting.
Current USATF-NJ members get $3 off, which comes out automatically at checkout. The discount runs until five days before the race. The race says it runs rain or shine.
The fee is one reason to register early. The shirt allotment is a stronger one. The race promises long-sleeve tech tops to the first 3,000 pre-registered 8K runners. The 2K gets long-sleeve cotton T-shirts for its first 1,000 pre-registered runners. Both are first-come, first-served.
Compare those numbers with last year's turnout. The official 2025 results show 2,804 finishers in the 8K and 923 in the 2K on Thanksgiving 2025. The 3,000 tech tops come to fewer than 200 more than the whole 2025 8K field. The 2K's 1,000 shirts leave a margin of fewer than 80 over last year's finishers. A field anywhere near 2025's size uses up most of the shirt supply. Only pre-registered runners count toward it, so race-day sign-ups aren't on that list.
Picking up your shirt on time matters too. The race says any shirt not claimed 30 minutes before the start may be given to another participant.
Pickup works on the same principle as the fees and shirts, with the night before as the better window. Everything happens in the Glen Ridge High School gymnasium.
Picking up on Wednesday also gets your car out of the way. The race's directions say there is no parking on Ridgewood Avenue. Drivers coming from Bloomfield Avenue are told to turn onto Woodland Avenue and look for a spot, and parking on Bloomfield Avenue is allowed. Anyone who lives within walking distance of the high school can leave the car at home.
The race site describes the 8K as a USATF-certified, "relatively flat" road course through historic Glen Ridge, with two water stops. The 2K is a certified out-and-back on Ridgewood Avenue.
The course map linked from the 2026 registration is the certified 2025 version. It starts on Ridgewood Avenue just south of Bloomfield Avenue and finishes on Ridgewood near Snowden Place. In between, the published map goes from Ridgewood onto Ardsley Road, Mitchell Place and Columbus Avenue, then back to Ridgewood. From there it heads out along Sunset Avenue, Forest Avenue and Osborne Street. After another stretch of Ridgewood it turns onto Washington Street, Hawthorne Avenue and Maolis Avenue, then follows Ridgewood to the finish.
If you live on any of those streets, you'll have several thousand runners passing your front walk Thanksgiving morning. If you're watching rather than running, the route doubles back to Ridgewood more than once, so you can see the same runners at several points without walking far.
The race attracts more than serious runners. Montclair Local's photos from the 2023 race show children running with adults, runners in turkey costumes and at least one Santa.
The 8K is named for Horace Ashenfelter, whom NorthJersey.com described as "of Glen Ridge." He won the steeplechase at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and set a world record of 8:45.4 in the final, according to Olympedia. The race's profile of Ashenfelter credits him with 17 national championships. On the race's flattish course, an 8K is about five miles. Ashenfelter's Olympic event was about two miles over barriers and a water jump.
The 2K is named for Tom Fleming, a longtime Bloomfield resident. He won the New York City Marathon in 1973 and 1975 and finished second at Boston in 1973 and 1974. He also coached at Montclair Kimberley Academy, according to the race's profile of Fleming. The shorter race came later. In 2017, NorthJersey.com reported that organizer Dan Murphy said the Fleming-named segment had been created about five years earlier.
Between them, the two races are named for an Olympic champion from Glen Ridge and a two-time New York City Marathon winner from next door in Bloomfield.
Most of the awards favor local runners and early finishers over the elite. Here's what the 2026 listing promises:
The 8K awards are grab-and-go. The awards table goes in the high school parking lot if the weather allows and moves into the gym if it doesn't. CompuScore handles timing and posts results online.
The front of the race moves fast. The course records are Santana's 23:47.17 from 2015 and Roberta Groner's 26:35.43 from 2021. Last year's 8K came down to under a second among the top three. Jordan Brannan won in 24:16.95, followed by Pelle Nogueira in 24:17.21 and Joey Datta in 24:17.82. Ben Bailey won the 2K in 6:33.44. For the other 2,800 or so runners, the medal, the cup and the age-group race are within reach.
If you're registering a family this year, or just trying to figure out where to park on Thanksgiving morning, I'm glad to share what I know about Glen Ridge streets on race day and on every other day. Jillian Nolan is happy to talk Ridgewood Avenue, pickup timing or where to watch the runners go by. Let's Connect.
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