Griffith Park is a sprawling historic green space in Los Angeles, and the course winds through it comfortably. The shorter route is mostly flat; the longer option adds enough extra ground to feel like a genuine step up. Runners tend to show up in Santa costume, so the scene on course has its own character.
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Going by the 2025 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: Matthew Alvarez (18:16) · Sal Bautista (19:41) · Nolan Lautrette (20:28)
Top 3: Dylan Bourne (39:41) · John Gilchrist (40:45) · Raul Vazquez Aguado (41:38)
The Santa Runs Griffith Park 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 25, 2026.
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Almost certainly not. Half the 5K field finished slower than 39:26, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:21:51, 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 582 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 18:16 while the median finisher took 39:26. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
Join a local run club. DTLA Running, Venice Run Club, Los Angeles Running Club and others in Los Angeles welcome runners of all paces, and a weekly group run is the most reliable way to hold a training block together.
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