July 4th ranked No. 2 most popular holiday for road racing
Fourth of July is the second most popular holiday for road racing, according to Running USA, second only to Thanksgiving.
On Saturday, before the cook outs and the sparklers and the fireworks, local runners will be lining up to sweat our way through a Fourth of July Race.
"It's sweaty. It's disgusting, but it's for a good cause," said Meghan Ziegler, who will be running the Good Neighbor Day race in Downingtown for the sixth time on Saturday this year. "I can literally walk to the starting point from my house."
Fourth of July is the second most popular holiday for road racing, according to Running USA, second only to Thanksgiving.
The largest Fourth of July race is the Peachtree Road Race, an Atlanta 10k, which had over 57,660 finishers last year.
Downtington's Good Neighbor Day race is the largest single Fourth of July race in the region with 1,208 finishers last year (the Revolutionary Run in Washington Crossing, Pa. has two races - a 10k and 5k - and for 1,233 finishers combined). The Downingtown race is also the forty-fourth largest Fourth of July race in the country, according to Running USA.
Having the race on the holiday is nice, says Ziegler, because "my siblings and I have been able to run it together. There's a really cool point where the course turns and we run right by my mom's house. She's been out there with my nephews screaming us on."
The Marlton Mayor's Cup 5k, also on Saturday, ranks 114th of firecracker races, and is the third largest such race in New Jersey with 671 finishers last year.
"Eighty percent of the runners are town people," said Mayor's Cup race director Carmen Tierno. The race, which will be run for the eighth time on Saturday, is followed by a kids one-mile dash, bike parade and then Fourth of July parade. "It's a day to bring the entire community together, and the 5k is the kick off."
Community and family is what got me running on the Fourth of July, too. As much as I hate running in the summer, I used to run the Haddon Heights Firecracker 5k because the course went by my mom's house. She, my brother, his wife and nephew would sit on the curb to cheer the runners on, and give out high fives. Then in 2013, my mom started running the race too. We'll be running it together for the third time this year.
I look forward to, as Ziegler said, a sweaty and disgusting race. Then a cheeseburger.
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