CULLMAN – Hundreds of runners gathered at Sportsman Lake Park Saturday night to participate in the third annual Rock and Glow 5K.
The event is not an intense running competition. Rather, it is an opportunity for those who want to wear a lot of glow sticks, have fun, and enjoy a local park, while also encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle.
Attendance was down this year, according to Sara Teichmiller with the Cullman County Parks and Recreation Department.
“It’s not where we wanted it to be this year,” she said. “I think it has a lot to do with kids going back to school and everything. And it being tax-free weekend, too. We are definitely going to make some changes for next year.”
Some of the changes Teichmiller sees for next year’s event will be moving the date farther from the school-start date, making it a more summertime event and getting more activities and things around during the run. There is already a dance area for after the race, which all the runners end up at if they choose to stick around.
“This was the first time we have had the event on the first weekend of August as opposed to the third,” Teichmiller said.
While there were several who participated in this year’s event who have signed up each of the three years, there were also new families attending, such as the Caffey family who is new to Cullman.
“We heard about the event from Facebook and thought we would come out and it would be fun for the kids,” said Kristie Caffey, mother of three boys (aged 11,7, 2) and wife to Patrick. “We do not usually participate in the tax-free weekend because of the crowds, you know what I’m saying? We just thought this would be a good family time.” Patrick Caffey and his older kids, Cameron and Carter, ran, while Kristie Caffey and her youngest child hung out and watched.
The event had groups from all over the county participate, and, according to Teichmiller, there were 200 registered runners.
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