For the Love of the Bay 5 and 10K

699 Bellevue Ave
Oakland, CA 94610

Running > 5k

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Event Description

We are BACK!!!

Year 2 of the For the Love of the Bay Run!!

This year, in addition to the 5K run, we added a 10K for those looking to step it up and increase the distance!!!

The Bay Area has one of the strongest running communities in the country. You can find a 5K or 10K practically every week of the year without looking too hard. Unfortunately, in these events, too many groups are left underrepresented at the start line. When I line up at the start line of a run in the Bay Area and 90% of the participants are of the same ethnicity, I believe somewhere, somehow, the community is dropping the ball. This run and event will work to provide something different. We want this run event to be as colorful and diverse as possible. And we are encouraging a diverse crowd filled with people of all walks of life, tall and short, thin and wide, white and black and every shade in between to participate. Diversity reigns supreme in the Bay, why can't it be on a Saturday morning at a start line of a 5K? The Bay Area and our diversity is what makes us strong and unique. We encourage everyone who believes in unity in the community and everything that has to do with diversity and representation to join in. And this goes beyond color of skin. We want everyone first time runners to families to people training and challenging themselves for a PR to join in!! Let's make the second year of doing this run as fun and colorful as the first. 

We want to make this run affordable to help encourage all walks and people with all sizes of bank accounts to attend. We don't want lack of funds to be the reason anyone stays home. We also want to be especially encouraging to get these kids out, off social media and off the couch (so please bring them!!). I can guarantee you they will NOT forget the Saturday morning they got out with mom or dad or both and actually had fun running/walking with the community at the lake with all sorts of people, all connecting, all good energy, all in the name of unity. In the end, we want everyone attending feeling accomplished and smiling as they cross the finish line, kids included (we will plan on having something fun for the kids run wise as well to participate in).

We want all veteran and seasoned runners to attend this race. We will have your standard racing chips and standardized distance to keep proper track of the run. But, have you never run a 5K before? Great. Allow this run/event to be an activity that helps motivate you to get more active. Let it be an incentive  We want hitting that "register" button to be an incentive for you to get active!! Our plan will to be help those who would like, to build up to run the lake by offering a number of Thursday evening runs with instruction and fun. New to the Bay? Great!! This is a perfect fun event for you. Please join in!! If you come to this event and end up not meeting new people by the time you get back in your car, you will have missed out on the best part of the event, the people!! Our aim is to have everyone heading home marking their calendar for next year's run!!   

We will have multiple water and aid stations on the course and post race. Prizes for top finishers in age groups (you win your division, you are going home with new shoes), medals for all participants and a raffle for everyone who shows up and pins a bib to their running shirt (this year we have some great running swag along with gift cards and a nice surprises up our sleeves). In addition, we have a great race shirt lined up!! With help from the City of Oakland Parks Department, REI and others, the Run/Walk for the Love of the Bay 5 and 10K will be an unforgettable event created by people from the Bay Area, for the Bay Area.

Pre-event packet pick-up: We will have multiple options including morning of the run and the week of the run at the REI store in Berkeley (we will notify everyone of the hours available as we draw closer to run day). 

The starting line and meet point will be on the front Lawn at the Boathouse just past FairyLand on Bellevue. Just look for smiling faces and red shirts gathering!! Gun goes off sharply at 8:15am for the runners looking to break personal records followed those who want to walk, jog, stroll and simply enjoy a community walk with the energy of 510 Hikers. 

Please run with your bib on. We will be having people taking "action" photos the day of the event!!  

7:45am gather and rally to the start, hugs, high fives and making sure laces are tied.

8:00am runners start both 5K and 10K, followed by the walkers and strollers (we LOVE dogs, we would prefer you keep any dog over ten pounds home however). 

10:15am Raffle (in the time between race and raffle we will have post race recovery items and water and for all the runners). 

11:00am We will have everything cleaned and finished

Parking is $5 on Bellevue in the Fairyland parking area. On the street, it's metered starting at 8am. 


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