The annual Santa Scramble 5k is held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year. Started in 2003 by the Cabarrus County Parks Department, the event has since been sponsored and organized by the Phidippides Sports Center, a local retail sporting goods store in Carolina Mall. The store specializes in running shoes from Nike, New Balance, Saucony, Brooks, but also carries a full line of apparel merchandise from the NFL, NCAA, and other sporting goods as well.
The race is held as part of the annual Concord Christmas Parade. The runners gather at the Cabarrus County Sr. Center at the end of the race course and are tansported to the start of the parade route. As the parade begins, the runners are the first unit in the parade and are running along the 3.1 mile route in front of approximately 20,000 spectators lining the streets to watch the parade. The end of the parade route is 3 miles and the runners continue to the finish line for the last 2/10ths of a mile. The entire course is closed to traffic with the exception of the last 2/10 of a mile.
The runners are part of a police escort by the very helpful crew of the Concord Police Department and all interscections are blocked and manned by police department personnel.
The runners then finish the line at the Sr. Center and are served refreshments until all runners have finished. The awards are held in the comfortable multi purpose room of the center (can be moved outdoors if weather allows). Door prize give aways are drawn until the results are completed. Upon completion of the results, the runners that finish in the top 4 in each of the 17 age divisions are given trophies along with the Top Overall Male/Female, Overall Masters Male/Female, and Overall Grandmastes Male/Female.
The beginning of the race can change based on the parade lieup taking longer than usual. Parade organizers have done an excellent job in lettin gus know about 30 minutes prior to the race with updates every 5 minutes. We usually start with the annouced time frame no more than 5 mnutes earlier or later. That is a big reason we ask all runners to be at the start line 30 minutes ahead of time.
