Event Description

Scenic 5K along the Grand River in Riverside Park, August 14th, 2021.

Course is out and back on a paved trail, very flat, shaded and impossible to get lost on.  This will be a great race for families with young children and seasoned runners looking for a fast course.

Lots of age group awards for the kids to win, age groups for those over 20 will be in 10 year increments plus a masters division.  Please let us know if you are participating and have Type 1 Diabetes so that we can acknowledge you.

All proceeds from this race will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, in honor of Beau Joyner.  This race is organized by John Joyner, his older brother.  Beau was diagnosed two days before Christmas with Type 1 Diabetes.  Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, caused by your body's immune system attacking your pancreas and insulin producing cells.  What that means is, Beau needs to monitor his blood sugar 24 hours a day via finger pricks or a continuous blood sugar monitor. He must take an insulin shot before eating anything with carbohydrates.  There is currently no cure for this disease, but the Juvenile Diabetes Research foundation gave Beau a stuffed bear named Rufus, a new bag with a book about diabetes for children and helped to make this diagnosis just a little bit easier for him to handle.

We are grateful for the comfort JDRF gave our son and want to help fund the work they do for other children like Beau in the hope that one day, there will not be a need for insulin shots or alarms going off in the middle the night.

Since 2017, there has been a 30% increase in the number of people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and that number is expected to continue to rise.