Sun, Dec 6, 2026
East Rutherford, NJ
The course runs entirely inside a large shopping and entertainment complex, looping through the hallways. Because it is indoors, the weather is not a factor, and the hard mall floor makes for a fast, flat surface. Many runners show up in Santa hats or other holiday gear, which gives the whole thing an odd, cheerful energy you do not usually find at a road race.
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Going by the 2026 results, this is a decent-sized field, and the spread of finish times is wide, so this is a mostly recreational race rather than one for club runners.
Top 3: Tim O'Hearn (17:23) · Davies Adepoju (17:24) · Shmaryahu Storch (17:24)
The Racefaster through American Dream: Santa Run has been held every year since at least 2025. 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 Nov 12, 2026.
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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 31:54, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:31:21, 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 461 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 16:01 while the median finisher took 31:54. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
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