The Hawktober 5K is making its debut on this year’s parents’ weekend. All proceeds from the event will benefit the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams.

The head coach of the teams, Stephen Walsh, explained the event in saying, “It’s a 5K run or walk around campus. It loops around campus, cuts through alumni plaza, and then comes back up around the student village and ends up back at the sports center. You can register at www.hawktober5K.com.”

This is the first ever Hawktober 5K being held. The teams hope to make it an annual event, as most other colleges and universities have a race or “fun-run” during their parent’s weekend.

Walsh said, “We came up with the idea because most of the other [Hartford] sports teams have an event during Hawktober weekend to welcome their alumni back and have, you know, the student body come out and support them…other teams have, you know, an alumni reception or a special game or event and us without having a facility on campus, we can’t host home events or home meets so we had to get creative and we came up with a 5K run.”

The run is scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 20th from 9:00am until 10:00am. Those interested should sign up on the event’s website (hawktober5K.com).

Walsh said, “We currently have fifty registered participants, we’re hoping to hit a hundred participants um but we can have up to two hundred so you know if you’re interested, sign up.”

The event is open to the university and anyone else in the community. The fee to sign up is ten dollars for current UHart students, and twenty dollars for everyone else. You don’t have to be a good runner either, you can walk the 5K. The goal for the event is for everyone to come out, have a good time, and support their local university’s men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams.