Saturday's Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars 5K on Pace to Becoming Biggest in Race History
By Chris Johnson on June 06, 2024
With race day rapidly approaching for the 14th annual Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars 5K, nobody is more anxious than Ashley Hotsinpiller.
As race coordinator for the Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars 5K which takes place on Saturday at the Bridgeport City Park, a lot of time, passion and work goes into making the event as memorable as possible on a yearly basis.
“I love and look forward to this,” Hotsinpiller said. But I am getting to the point where ‘I’m tired now’ and ready for a nap.”
It will be a well-deserved rest but first, this year’s race is shaping up to the biggest and best yet.
As of Wednesday, one goal was already accomplished as there is officially a registered runner from all 50 states – the fourth consecutive year this has happened.
“We got all of them, we hit all 50 states and that is exciting,” she said. “It’s awesome. We are very excited to hit that milestone again and we saw growth in a lot of states. We saw big increases in numbers in some states.
“We went up in some of the countries as well.”
In addition to the United States, other countries represented either in person or participating in the virtual race option are Saudia Arabia, the Netherlands, Canada, the Bahamas and Australia.
Hotsinpiller also said they are closing in on another goal, a new all-time high for overall participation.
“We had a participation goal last year, it was 1,000, we raised it this year because I like stretching those goals,” she said. “We are on par from where we were last year for registrations. We are about 100 shy of a thousand (as of Wednesday).”
Online registration is open until 7 p.m. on Friday. In-person registration on race day will take place from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Registered runners can also pick up their packets between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday.
The race ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. and the race starts at 8:30 a.m.
A LEO photo opportunity will be available at 9:30 a.m.
At 9:45 a.m., race officials will start lining up the participants in the first-ever Kids K and that race will start at 10 a.m.
The awards ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m.
There will be plenty of other things going on Saturday in addition to the race as Lunch Box Food Truck and Lizzy’s Shave Ice will be on site.
Paint Misbehavin’ will be there to provide face painting for kids and there will be various law enforcement and vendor booth present.
More information about the DHFS5K including online registration can be found HERE
Editor's Note: Photo from last year's DHFS5K by Joe LaRocca.
