In 1977 Jim Balcome was running his fastest time at the Manchester Road Race – until he was forced to stop about 600 yards from the finish line due to a bottleneck of people going through the chute.

“Running was becoming popular and the people who were controlling the Manchester Road Race were just overwhelmed,” said Balcome, then the track and cross country coach at Rockville High.

Runners were not happy. Changes were made. Balcome, who lives in Manchester, was invited to a meeting with race organizers.

“I went and I walked out of the meeting, and I was the race director,” Balcome said. “I called my wife up and I said, ‘Hey honey, guess what? I’m the Manchester Road Race race director.’ ‘What is that?’ she said. I said, ‘I’m going to find out.’”

The 1979 race was his first year. This year will be his last.

Balcome, whose signature phrase “This is Thanksgiving in Manchester” has greeted Turkey Day runners for over 40 years, is retiring after this year’s race.

“It’s a very emotional decision for me, but it’s just time,” Balcome said.

Balcome, 79, a retired English teacher and guidance counselor at Rockville High, is only the second race director in the event’s 85-year history. He only missed one year – 2018 – following heart surgery.

Thayer Redman, who has served as an assistant race director under Balcome for the past 10 years with the intent of succeeding him, will take over.

In 1979, there were 1,300 runners. Now the race attracts over 10,000 and for a few years, 14,000-15,000 runners and walkers were converging on Main Street on Thanksgiving Day.

The race attracts thousands of spectators and is the oldest road race in the state.

Tris Carta, the president of the road race, said Balcome will be missed.

“There are several different traits that make Jim who he is: a fierce competitor, but he’s an easy-going guy,” Carta said. “He’s a proud person but the first to dole out compliments to anybody for doing a good job. He’s a dreamer and a micromanager, a salesman and a counselor, a friend and respected leader.

“No one person is going to be able to replace Jim Balcome for the Manchester Road Race and Jim Balcome will never leave the road race; it’s engrained in his soul. Even if he’s not here in person, he will always be here.”

Balcome was moved the first year he was race director to utter his signature line: “This is Thanksgiving in Manchester.” When the road race went virtual in 2020 due to COVID-19, race organizers had an app designed to track runners for their virtual races and when they turned on the timer on the app and started to run, Balcome’s voice intoned: “This is Thanksgiving in Manchester.”

A few years ago, Balcome recalled: “I was elevated above the race [in 1979], we fired the gun — and the sights and sounds, the cacophony — I said, ‘Wow, this is Thanksgiving in Manchester.’ It wasn’t planned. It was spontaneous. People were screaming and hollering, I felt the pulse and vibration of the town of Manchester.”

“Jim will forever be the ‘voice of the Manchester Road Race,’ Manchester mayor Jay Moran said in a statement.

Balcome also has a home in Florida and his wife would like to visit it in the fall, he said.

“She keeps mentioning that Florida in October and November is lovely,” he said. “I get it.”

The race will take place Nov. 24 starting at 10 a.m. on Main Street. Registration for the race starts Sept. 1 online at www.manchesterroadrace.com.

Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.