Frederick Women's Distance Festival

2nd Annual Run Like A Warrior 5K – Frederick, MD

LEAF is teaming up with Lyme Warrior again for this exciting event on Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM at Hood College in Frederick, MD!

Join us for a fun, family-friendly 5K supporting Lyme Warrior, a patient-led nonprofit raising awareness and providing support for those affected by Lyme disease.

Dress to impress!

We’ll be awarding prizes for:

Most Green Spirit

Best Frederick Bling

Run, walk, or cheer—come out and show your support for the Lyme community while enjoying a meaningful morning with friends, family, and fellow warriors!

Hood College, Frederick, MD

Saturday, May 30, 2026

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Let’s make Frederick green, bold, and unstoppable. See you there!

WHAT IS GIRLS ON THE RUN?

Girls on the Run (GOTR) is a youth development after school program for girls in 3rd-8th grade. The program is dedicated to inspiring girls to be joyful, healthy and confident while creatively integrating running or movement. Each season concludes with a celebratory 5K run!

JOIN US:

The 2026 Celebrate your start GOTR 5K is a celebration of our team members’ journeys—honoring their hard work at practices in the past, embracing glorious goal-meeting moments in the present, and looking with great confidence forward to the future. A good memory maintains connections and impacts how we navigate life. Join us as teams tap into their new life skills, friendships, and confidence to accomplish a goal that will inspire them to set even bigger ones in the future.

2025 COURSE MAP

PARKING:

There is NO parking on Hood College Campus. Parking available at Frederick Health Garage, top floor.

Goal Race: Frederick Women's Distance Festival, August 1, 2026

Program Length: 8 weeks

Information Session: Wednesday, June 3, 2026 at 6pm at Baker Park Bandshell

First Group Run: Wednesday, June 10th, at 6 pm at TJ Middle School at 1799 Schifferstadt Blvd.

Ongoing Group Runs

Wednesdays: 6:00 PM meet at TJ Middle School and Baker Park, Frederick. More information will be posted on the "Frederick Women's 5K Training Program" Facebook Group.

Saturdays: 8:00 AM, Various locations in or near Frederick. More information will be posted on the "Frederick Women's 5K Training Program" Facebook Page

Head Coach: Brigitte Farrell

Program Description:

The Frederick Women’s Distance Festival 5k Training Program is ideal for:

• Walkers who would like to begin adding short run segments to improve fitness and run-walk a 5k race.

• Casual runners who would like to be able to consistently run an entire 5k race.

• Intermediate runners comfortable with racing the 5k distance who would like to improve their race time.

• Any women who would like to run with other women to make friends and get motivated to move.

Each participant is given a training plan including recommendations for mileage, cross-training, and days off. While some runs will need to be done on your own, volunteer coaches lead group runs twice a week. Group runs are encouraged, but not mandatory. A private Facebook page provides a place to coordinate additional runs with other participants, and to get support and advice from more experienced participants and your volunteer coaches. We try our best to answer your questions, or at least connect you with someone who can.

You must be a paid member of FSRC to register for this training. If you are not a member, it's only $25 to join FSRC and you get this training and so much more. Click on https://steeplechasers.org/membership/join/ to learn more and follow the instructions to join. If you think you are already a paid member of the club and you can't register, please check the spelling of the name you used to join the club, using the Membership Lookup function at https://runsignup.com/Club/SearchForRenew/668. Once you've joined the club, or renewed your club membership, come back here to register for the training.

Cost: $0 for current Steeplechasers members

Minimum Age: 14

Prerequisites:

To help protect against injury, we strongly recommend you are:

• comfortable walking 30 minutes at any pace

• Have the blessing of your physician if you have some sort of medical issue that may affect your participation (heart issues, orthopedic concerns, etc.)

To Register:

(1) Make sure you are a paid member of the club by checking https://steeplechasers.org/membership/registered-members/. If not already a paid member, you need to join before registering for the training program. You can renew or join at https://runsignup.com/fsrc. Click Renew to renew your membership or Sign Up to join. If you're asked to claim your account, please see https://steeplechasers.org/membership/claim-account-rsu/

(2) Sign up using the "Sign Up" button here.

(3) Ask to join the Frederick Women's 5k Training Program Facebook group. The Facebook group is our primary means of communicating to keep you updated on when and where runs are occurring, to help you find support and get your questions answered by your coaches and fellow participants, and to notify you of cancellations due to weather.

Celebrate the holiday with a FREE 5k race at Riverside Park. (off of Monocacy Blvd). This is a low-key, low-amenity event.

Race Start time is 8:30AM.

Free for FSRC Members

Our low-key races are free for Steeplechaser members, so YAY!

You must be a club member on race day in order to get free race entry.

• If you’re not a club member, you can join at https://runsignup.com/fsrc.

• To check to see if you are a current member, and if so, what your expiration date is go to https://members.loutilities.com/fsrc/members and search for your name. If it isn’t found, your membership has either expired or you may be using an alternate spelling of your name.

• To look up your membership by name or email and to renew see: https://runsignup.com/fsrc and click Membership Lookup. If you’re logged into RunSignup, you should see your membership under “Your Existing Users”. If your membership has expired, click the Renew Now button next to your most recent membership. We have no idea why they have Renew Now next to older memberships, so please click the right one.

• If you think you are a paid member of the club and you still can't register for free, please check the spelling of the name you used to join the club and ensure that the birthdate you're using for registering for the race matches the one in your RunSignUp profile.

• If this still doesn't offer the ability to register for the race for free, email [email protected] for assistance.

Finally - if you currently have an individual membership and would like to upgrade to "Two-In-Household" or "Family" membership in order to get the free race entry for family members, contact our membership committee at [email protected].

Race Day Registration

You may sign up on race day, but you'll need to do it online on your own device. We will not have paper forms or registration kiosks.

Competition

The Independence 5000 will count towards the FSRC Grand Prix.

Low-budget awards are given to the following divisions:

• Top male/female/non binary (clock time)

• Age Group male/female (net time): 12 and under, 13-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+

Logistics

Park in the lot at Riverside and pick up your bib.

The race will be chip timed, but still please make sure that you stay in order as you cross the finish line where volunteers will scan your bib -- we do this as a backup to resolve any missed chip reads.

The course is an out and back on the paved trail through the park. There will be two water stops.

Please bring a food item to share after the race.