Sun, May 16, 2027
Rochester, NY
The course runs through Highland Park while the Lilac Festival is wrapping up its final weekend, so the park is in full bloom and the grounds are buzzing with festival activity. The lilacs along the route are the real scenery. Several distance options let you run one event or stack them back to back.
Post-race food and a party at the finish are part of the in-person experience. The start is at Highland Park, which has room for a crowd.
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Going by the 2026 results, this is a big field, and the spread of finish times is wide, so this is a mostly recreational race rather than one for club runners.
Top 3: Nolan Goldthwaite (18:04) · Tom Byers (18:23) · Keefe Murphy (18:23)
Top 3: Chris Bendtsen (34:03) · Colin Flannery (35:49) · Taylor Freitas (36:36)
The Fairlife Lilac Run 5K/10K has been held every year since at least 2024. 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 Oct 22, 2026.
Set a goal and get a pace band: every mile split on a card sized for your phone lock screen, so race morning needs no math.
Not sure what to aim for? The 5K pace chart lists the pace for every finish time.
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Almost certainly not. Half the 5K field finished slower than 35:24, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:22:22, so there is a long tail of runners behind the middle of the pack. Most fields are far slower than people expect.
With 2,131 finishers there are runners at every pace, so you are never out on your own. 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 18:04 while the median finisher took 35:24. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
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