In what is quickly becoming a Fourth of July tradition, hundreds of runners and walkers will take to the city streets to raise money for a local non-profit agency.
The Elizabethton/Carter County United Way’s Stars and Stripes 4-Mile Run and 3K Walk will be held on July 3 beginning at 8 p.m..
The Stars and Stripes race will begin at 4th and Main streets, will loop through downtown Elizabethton and surrounding neighborhoods and will finish through the Covered Bridge.
Elizabethton/Carter County United Way Director Debbie Guy said the race will be a bit different from last year.
“We have changed it up a little this year,” Guy said. “The runners and walkers will not be walking or running on Highway 19E like they did last year.”
Instead, the course will follow Main Street to 1st Avenue, then up Academy Street to Riverside Drive and then Sycamore Street before resuming the same path as last year through the communities surrounding downtown.
Another change is that the walk is a 3K walk instead of four miles as it was last year.
“We think that will reduce the time the walkers are out on the course and hopefully the walkers will finish close to the same time as the runners do,” Guy said.
The walker course will follow the same path as the runners’ course except that when the runners continue on Sycamore Street to East E Street, the walkers will turn on Hattie Avenue to cross the Covered Bridge to the finish line.
Any proceeds from the Stars and Stripes 4-Mile Run/ 3K Walk will be used toward the United Way’s 2015 campaign and will benefit local non-profit agencies that receive funding from the United Way.
Guy said the race was unique because it is held in the evening. There are only a few road races held in the evening in the Tri-Cities.
“We have had some people interested in the race because it is going to be in the evening,” she said. “It is a great course. Participants do not have to run the entire course. If they want, they can walk parts and run what they can.”
Guy noted the race was a certified course. Registration is online at werunevents.com.
The United Way helps with funding for Adult Day Services, the American Red Cross, Assistance Resource Ministries, the Boys and Girls Club of Elizabethton, Contact Ministries, Elizabethton Senior Citizens Center, the Neighborhood Service Center and Personal Support Services.
Sponsors for the race are Citizens Bank, Pine Ridge Care and Rehabilitation Nursing Home, Silver Angels, Appalachian Community Credit Union, J’s Corner, Train Dirty Fitness, the Carter County Stop Litter, the Carter County Tourism Council, the City of Elizabethton and the Elizabethton Police Department.