The course mixes trail and road, which gives it a different feel from a straight road race or a pure trail run. Dogs are welcome, and the field tends to draw families alongside faster runners. The terrain shift keeps things interesting without being punishing, and there are prizes for those at the front of the pack.
Free race emails
Get races near Chapel Hill in your inbox. Every Monday we send the races coming up, and every Thursday we send the ones happening that weekend.
Two helpful emails per week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
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.
Top 3: Coen Figge (17:38) · Creighton Irons (18:23) · Aidan O'Neil (18:52)
The Into the Woods 5K has been held every year since at least 2021. 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 25, 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.
Traveling for this race? The map shows hotels and rentals in and around Chapel Hill — pan or zoom to compare what's nearby.
The map is provided by Stay22. If you book through it, RunSesh may earn a commission at no extra cost to you — it never affects the races we list.
Almost certainly not. Half the 5K field finished slower than 35:37, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:03:34, so there is a long tail of runners behind the middle of the pack. Most fields are far slower than people expect.
A field of 236 is big enough that you will have company at your pace without feeling lost in a crowd. 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 17:38 while the median finisher took 35:37. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
Want more races like this delivered straight to your inbox?
