UF will host its first Light Up the Night 5K at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pony Field, on the corner of Gale Lemerand Drive and Mowry Road. Participants wearing bright clothing and glow sticks will run/walk to benefit of A Walk in My Shoes Inc., which collects shoes to send to people in need in Haiti, said CEO Caryn Barry.
Registered runners and walkers will receive a glow party kit with glow sticks, glasses, bracelets and necklaces so they glow as they run through the blacklight-lit route.
Race director and event coordinator Dan Phillips said more than 130 people have registered, but he expects between 400 and 500 to sign up. The race costs $20 for students and $27 for nonstudents who register early. All registration will be $30 the day of race, he said.
The route will end with a party in a 20- by 30-foot tent on Pony Field's parking lot, he said.
“I’ll be wearing neon for visibility and will be sporting my glow gear,” Phillips said.
The Florida Running Club will provide water bottles and the registration table staff for the race, said the organization’s president, 24-year-old food science and human nutrition senior Mark Benjamin.
The event is modeled after the Midnight Fun Run in April, put on by Healthy Gators and RecSports.
“In Florida,” he said, “it’s the only place you can have a night run in December and not have everyone be freezing.”
