Featured Running Event of the Week - Winterfest 5k

The Winterfest 5k is an annual event that takes place at the Small Memorial Park in Kankakee (that's the name of the park, not a description).  The event is walker friendly, and is billed as the Winterfest 5k Run and Fitness Walk.

The event is sponsored by the Kankakee River Running Club and benefits the Salvation Army.  It is also a food drive, and participants are asked to donate non-perishable food items if they so desire.

Packet pickup is inside the Civic Auditorium, which itself is quite a throwback to the days of the old local auditoriums.  Very spacious and very well maintained, with an old-fashioned wood floor and a very high ceiling and a stage.  It's always enjoyable to take a step back in time.  The post-race prizes - and pizza - are presented in this Auditorium as well.

The race is a loop course run on the city streets surrounding Small Memorial Park.  Because this is a perimeter course, the directions are quite simple - keep the curb to your right and follow it as it turns, if it goes left, go left, if it goes right, go right.  The course never crosses any intersections.  The start line is at the "park" end of Small Memorial Park and the finish line is at the Civic Auditorium, thus making it a certified 5k distance.  Runners complete this loop two times.

The scenery of the park is to the right of the participants and includes trees, two schools, the Kankakee Museum, the Civic Auditorium, and a "small memorial park".  To the left of the participants is residential.  The course is probably as flat as flat can be, and because of the psychological aspects of "knowing" the course on lap two - makes for some very fast times for those that track their times.

The time of the year - first Sunday in February can make it interesting as well.  2015 - many people didn't make it because they couldn't get out of their driveways from the heavy accumulation overnight.  In 2016 - many ran with shorts - it was 47 at start time.

One of the beauties of this event, it's style, and it's location, is the small town Americana feel to it all.  An well organized event.