This year’s Roanoke Canal 5K will take on a patriotic theme in honor of America’s 250th anniversary.

The race will begin at 10 a.m. September 13 and will take runners and walkers from the starting point at the Roanoke Rapids Lake day park off Oakwood Avenue over the Canal Trail to a turnaround before the Canal Museum. 

There will also be a half-mile fun walk.

One participant displaying the most patriotic attire will receive a special award handcrafted by parks and recreation Assistant Parks Superintendent Ryan Newsome — the bust of an Eagle sporting an American flag headband.

(Check-in for the race is 8 a.m. until about 9:30 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. everyone who is participating in the American Spirit competition will get together for photos. To register, follow this link)

 “We’re coming up on the 250th so we wanted to kick off some of our ways that we’re going to celebrate that,” parks and recreation Director Kelly Daughtry said.

The color theme this year is red, white, and blue and the race shirts will be white with red and blue.

“We just decided to try to do something fun this year so we’re encouraging all participants to dress patriotically for the event,” Newsome said. “We have a special award called The American Spirit Award that will be given to the person that has been voted the most patriotic. We’re just encouraging people to come decked out in red, white, and blue, their Uncle Sam outfits or whatever they can come up with and the most creative, funnest one will win the award.”

Daughtry said a committee will judge the participants during the race.

Said Newsome: “We just thought it would be fun to offer an award for a participant and it doesn’t matter what position you finish in — it’s an award anybody can win.”

Race organizers will also give awards to the top three male finishers and the top three female finishers as well as awards to the first place males and females in each age category.

Daughtry said the 5K format has worked well over the half marathon format. “We saw a big decline in the number of participants in the half marathons. The shorter runs were getting a lot more entries.”

And the logistics for a 5K are simpler than a half marathon, Newsome said. “They’re without the road crossings, the railroad crossings. We had to have water stations, fire, EMS. We had to have police blocking the traffic.”

Daughtry said CSX will not guarantee a stop at rail crossings. “Logisticallty it was just a lot simpler.”

Newsome said there were between 40 to 50 people involved in the half marathon “and now you can do it with 10 or less.”

Thomas Goble, recreation superintendent, said he believes a 5K is more appealing than a half marathon or 8K race.

And, Newsome said, “It’s walker friendly. An 8K is a little long for a person that just wants to walk. You can do the fun walk, you can walk the 5K.”

Early registration has been going well, Daughtry said. As of Thursday 65 people had registered. “They can sign up the day of the race.”

Newsome said the department has come close to doubling registration in the last week. “I feel pretty good about it.”

Last year there were 85 participants and the year before was 75, Goble said, so there is the possibility of setting a new 5K record.

Proceeds from the race will go to a fundraising effort by Friends of Canal to replace the batteaux that is on display in the locks at Canal Museum. 

Replacing the boat, Newsome said, has been a challenging obstacle to overcome. “We really would love to replace it with an authentic replica, an exact match of what it looked like going down the locks of the canal but they’re really hard to find. We are still on some waiting lists that are years and years long so we have realized that we may need to explore other options.”

Daughtry said over the past several years the money from the race has gone to the Friends of the Canal and is earmarked for continuing to raise money for the batteaux.

She said the department wanted to hold this year’s event as a precursor to the upcoming 250th celebrations. 

“It’s a big part of our history that happened right here,” Goble said. “We would have missed it if we did it next year.”

Said Daughtry: “We won’t have the race again until after the major celebrations so we just wanted to kick things off.”