UTICA, N.Y. (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) – The Boilermaker returned over the weekend with a lower turnout than the pre-pandemic races. Director Jim Stasaitis says that right now is a rebuilding period. 

“Finishers for the 15k we had 5,848 and in the 5k we had 2,468 for a grand total of 8,361. Happy with those numbers,” said Stasatis.

From the Youth Olympics to the Boilermaker Walk and both races 12,000 people of all ages participated in boilermaker events, and President Mark Donovan says he’s pleased with this turnout when looking at what the road race has endured the past two years.

“Huge numbers quite honestly a lot of talk about numbers 12,000 people out doing boilermaker things over Boilermaker weekend is a huge win from where we’ve been over these last several years,” said Donovan.

Donovan says when looking at the overall registration numbers, The Boilermaker is in line with the industry

“I’m not worried at this stage in the game if 2023 is another set of numbers like this it’s okay we’ll adjust to those numbers,” said Donovan.

When making adjustments, the team may have to lower the registration cap.

“We’ve always events which we put pressure on ourselves from that perspective we don’t need 19,000 as we proved yesterday we don’t need that to have a great event,” said Donovan.

However, Donovan hopes that those who decided to sit this year out, make it to next year’s race.