Sat, Nov 21, 2026
Columbus, GA
The course runs partly on road and partly on a rails-to-trails path, so the surface changes underfoot as you go. It starts at Hardaway High School, which gives the morning a school-grounds feel with plenty of open space around the start line.
Packet pickup is the evening before at Big Dog Fleet Feet, a local running store in Columbus. There is no race-morning pickup option, so plan to stop by the day before.
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Going by the 2025 results, this is a small, friendly field, and the spread of finish times is wide, so this is a mostly recreational race rather than one for club runners.
5K · 2025 results
Top 3: Caleb Kieffer (18:30) · Jordan Satterwhite (18:56) · Cullen Ward (18:57)
· 2025 results
Top 3: Evan Rehrauer (37:53) · Jonathan Williams (39:23) · Luke Harman (40:33)
The Beat the Bird 5K & 10K has been held every year since at least 2019. That is as far back as RunSignup's records for this race go, so it may well be older.
Enter a finish time to see where it lands against the most recent 5K results.
How we calculate these stats: RunSesh calculates these figures from the most recent published results of past editions, sourced from RunSignup. We show aggregates only: field size, winning and median times, and the cutoff. We never publish individual finisher tables. Last updated Jul 27, 2026.
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Almost certainly not. Half the 5K field finished slower than 35:43, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:00:24, so there is a long tail of runners behind the middle of the pack. Most fields are far slower than people expect.
It is a small race (168 finishers), which is friendlier and less intimidating than a big-city event, though the field thins out. There is no qualifying time, and the finish-time spread above shows how varied the field really is. If it is your first 5K, that spread matters more than the winner's time.
The 5K winner ran 18:30 while the median finisher took 35:43. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
