For the Love of the Bay 5K/10K

Please to announce year 4 of the For the Love of the Bay 5/10K run and walk at Lake Merritt!!  

Please all the information below before registering. 

So excited to have this event again. From the people attending to the awesome medals we have had in the past, unique shirt designs, volunteers and of course our amazing sponsors, the event the past few years have been fantastic!!! Great finishing times, great weather, a colorful and inclusive Bay Area vibe and all smiles at the finish line. This year, we expect the event to be even better and more fun!!! And that's what a 5/10K should be. Fun for all with a the mix of community involvement, friendly competition and families coming out, all in the name of Love for the Bay.  

We are encouraging people of all walks of life, tall and short, thin and wide, fast and slow to come out. Whether you are a strong runner, casual walker or family with a stroller, this is an event that we feel embodies the diversity and unique culture of the Bay Area!! For some of you, this will be your first time at Lake Merritt where the run takes place. It's a beautiful lake and park and we intend to have it looking and feeling fun and friendly for all. 

We have done our BEST to make the event especially affordable. We want to help lower the barrier of entry for families and those who typically cannot afford the high registration cost of many of the weekend run events these days. The cost of entry for some of these races in the Bay Area are a joke. Especially working with major sponsors who fun their entire run. The money goes into these pockets of the organizers who sing the praises or Oakland but only because the profit they make from coming here to produce events like this for the elite. These community events shouldn't break yours or your family's pocketbook. We have no staff of 50 to pay. No run company administration to pay. The money we collect for the run goes straight back into the management of the run. 

Our standard registration is closed as of October 18th. What is left is BIB only entry registrations. Registration includes:

• Bibs with ChronoTrack racing chips to keep official times
• Results posted within 4 hours
• Top 3 overall prizes as well as Group Prizes for men and women, top 3 in each age group (15-35, 35-49, 50 and up) for Both 5K and 10K. 
• Entry into the post race raffle. 

Packet pick-up: Our main packet packet pickup will be Thursday October 24th at Sports Basement  (Berkeley location) between 4:30pm and 7:30pm. Do yourself a favor, come Thursday. Sports Basement will offer a shopping discount on store gear to whoever comes that day and picks the packet up!! The address is 2727 Milvia St. Berkeley 94703. We will also have morning off pick-up that starts right at 7:00am and will end at 7:45am SHARP. Please don't challenge the system and come late. It will be busy come 7:30am so, please help yourself and try coming Thursday. Potentially we will have a packet pickup Friday as well, in Oakland, for an hour or two, stay tuned to the 510 Hikers group page for details the week of. 

The starting location/line for the event is on the front lawn at the Lake Merritt Boathouse just past FairyLand on Bellevue Ave as you enter the parking lot. Look for smiling faces, red balloons and a couple hundred red shirts gathering!!  

Schedule/plan for race day the 26th:

6:55AM morning race packet pickup starts. It will end at 7:40am on the nose!! So, if you do not come Thursday to pick up, come early!! 

7:40AM Gather and rally to the start, get run ready, share hugs, high fives and making sure the person next you laces are tied (or not, lol).

8:00AM Start the of 10K run (followed by 10K walkers).

8:10AM Start of the 5K (followed by event walkers and strollers). 

10:05AM Raffle starts (in the time between race and raffle we will have post race recovery items for all the runners). 

Parking is $5 on Bellevue in the Fairyland parking area. On the street, it's metered parking starting at 8am. 19th BART would be the closest BART station to walk in from. It is .8 of a mile away from the starting line. 

any questions? @510hikers on Instagram!! Message us there!! Or, Facebook, message our community page!!