Fri, Jan 1, 2027
Spartanburg, SC
This is a New Year's Day race that starts and finishes on Ribault Street outside the Thomas E. Hannah Family YMCA in Spartanburg. Several distance options mean families and serious runners end up on the same starting line, and leashed dogs are welcome, so the crowd at the finish tends to look a little different than most road races.
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Going by the 2026 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: Max Delfino (17:12) · Brian Blount (18:53) · David Feig (19:43)
Top 3: Mason Burgess (37:29) · Sam Blackwell (37:38) · Victoria Hammersmith (38:09)
Top 3: Riley Hansen (6:04) · Anne Green (6:49) · Charlton Cruz (7:00)
The 45th Annual YMCA Hair of the Dog Run is in its 45th year.
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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Not sure what to aim for? The 10K pace chart lists the pace for every finish time.
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Almost certainly not. Half the 5K field finished slower than 37:36, and the last recorded finisher came in around 1:06:47, 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 255 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 17:12 while the median finisher took 37:36. That spread points to a broad, mostly recreational field rather than a race dominated by club runners.
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