On a picture-perfect morning on the last Saturday in March, William Peace University students, faculty, staff, and community members lapped around the downtown Raleigh campus and the surrounding area.
The Exercise and Sports Science Club at William Peace University hosted the first Peace 5K, welcoming 60 runners and 40 volunteers to campus. After completing the event, runners were welcomed to hang out on the Main Lawn for a cool-down event featuring everything from ice baths to bouncy houses.
Kristin Koch, Director of Student Involvement, was pleased with how everything went for the inaugural 5K.
“I thought it went amazing. We had great weather, and it was just so fun,” Koch said. “Everyone I talked to was like,‘we want to see this next year, I can’t wait to see this grow. What a great run in downtown Raleigh.’”
Koch said half of the 60 runners were from Peace, while the other half represented the Raleigh community.
Before the race, Koch and her staff were required to send race notices to homeowners in the area along the race course. She believes that helped boost the number of locals who participated.
Twins Sophie and Owen Peterson, freshmen from Jacksonville, signed up because they thought it would be cool to participate in the first-ever 5K at Peace.
“It was something new, and I was just trying to stay active on campus,” Owen said. “The race seemed like a good opportunity to do that.”
The course started near the fountain on campus, went past Halifax Community Center and Pilot Mill, up Blount Street, through the parking lot, and back onto campus. Runners had to do this loop twice. While the participants went through some of the surrounding neighborhoods, they were cheered on by residents, some of whom stood outside with bells and other noisemakers to show support.
Geoffrey Hamilton, Institutional Effectiveness and Research Coordinator, signed up because he saw how passionate the students on campus were about recruiting participants and wanted to support them.
Hamilton added he hadn’t done much running since becoming a father but appreciated that, while they did give out medals, the race wasn’t purely about competition.
“It was about promoting wellness and health, and I liked that as someone who wasn’t going out there to compete,” Hamilton said. “It was more inviting than a 5K that might be somewhere else.”
Koch also sees the race, which she hopes will become an annual event, as an opportunity to promote the University.
“We’re capitalizing on the Seaboard Station location,” Koch said. “The neighborhoods behind us are beautiful, so it’s a fun route and a fun ending place because it’s on our campus, out on the main lawn. It could bring a lot of people here.”
Meghan-Joy Woodall, Director of Institutional Effectiveness & Academic Projects, would also like to see the 5K become an annual event at Peace.
“It would be a good opportunity to showcase our school and campus,” Woodall said. “Not many people know that we are in the center of downtown Raleigh. People were cheering us on, and I feel like we could embrace the residents of this area.”
Learn more about activities at William Peace University.
