Park District, runners’ group hosting series of free 5Ks
Free running. It sounds funny. But entrance fees for running events around town can add up quickly.
So starting Saturday — and for the third straight year — the city will begin hosting a series of free 5K and one- mile runs that will last through the warm- weather months.
The runs kick off at 9 a. m. at Humboldt Park on theWest Side, Washington Park on the South Side andWarren Park on theNorth Side.
The Chicago Park District partnered with the nonprofit Chicago Area Runners Association to create the program in 2016.
During the spring, runs will be held — same times, same places — for seven consecutive Saturdays. Runners from all three parks will be invited to meet at a separate location for the eighth and final Saturday.
To sign up and check the schedule, go to gorunchicago. org.
This year CARA will spend about $ 45,000 on the events, which are funded almost entirely by the Park District, according to Greg Hipp, CARA’s executive director. About 3,000 runners participated last year. Free water and Gatorade are handed out to runners. And the runs will be timed, with results posted to the website.
But participants will not receive medals or T- shirts — standard handouts in the forprofit running industry. Those omissions are necessary to keep costs down so as many events can be held as possible.
Hipp hopes to reintroduce people to the parks, build community and offer an easy and unintimidating entrance to a sport that some might wrongly think is for “tall, skinny people covered in spandex,” Hipp said.