2020 Thanksgiving Wattle

This is the 9th Annual Thanksgiving Wattle 5K Run/Walk in Grove City, Ohio. We are calling this year's event a HYBRID Event. This means we will offer an in-person option and a virtual option for the 5K and the 12 Mile Rotisserie Roll Bike Ride. (We will be offering an in-person run only for the Primrose Children's Run.) The in-person events are scheduled for Thanksgiving Day Morning, November 26, 2020. The Virtual Options can be done anytime from November 25th-November 26th. Virtual 5K Runners/Walkers will be able to upload their times in a special area on the runsignup.com site for virtual participants. We offer Virtual Options for those who want to be part of the community event, but for a variety of reasons may not attend the In-person event on Thanksgiving morning. They may be uncomfortable for signing up for an in-person event, they may be living away from home, or are traveling and out of town on Thanksgiving morning. In the event any governing authority forces us to cancel our in-person event between now and event day due to COVID reasons, we will switch over to virtual options for both the 5K, the Rotisserie Roll Bike Ride and the Primrose Children's Run. There will be no refunds if this occurs.

The In-person 5K  participants will get long sleeve shirts, chip timing,  pumpkin pies, and finish line bottled water. Finishers are asked not to congregate in the Finish area, but for the safety of staff and participants, they are asked to quickly pick up their carry-out goods and vacate the premise. Participants can opt-in on receiving a medal, but those will be put in pre-event goodie bags for the first 1500 entrants desiring one. The 13 mile Rotisserie Roll Bike Fun Ride is for bicycling enthusiasts. They receive the above benefits, but are not chip timed as they go out and do a 12 mile ride around Grove City. The 5K Route this year is a new one, and it will start/finish on Grove City High School Premises. It truly will have a small town feel to it.

We will use a rolling 2 hour start, separated into 10 minute intervals beginning at 8:00am and ending at 10:00am. Runners/Walkers will choose their actual starting time and not show up too early or late for it. Runners Walkers will use a 140 foot "Start Chute" on the South side of GCHS Building for the Start. Think of the Start Chute as the final 45 people ready to get on a Chair Lift at a Ski Resort. The chair arrives every 13 seconds or so at the Starting Line. When your chair is there, you go. The 140 foot Start Chute will be fed by a "Starting Queue Line" on the East Side/Front Side of GCHS.  Think of the "Start Queue Line" as pre-staging for the Start Chute. It will feed into the "Starting Chute Line" from the back of the 140 foot queue. The Start will be on the South-east edge of the High School Building. Runners/Walkers will then head toward the West, and back behind the school. They will move between the football and baseball field and head toward the high school running track. The course will include one loop around the high school track. From there, the course will go West through Murfin Fields, North on to Haughn Road to the turn around point at the Intermediate School, and return back. The entire course is paved and there will be a separate Start and Finish Line. Upon finishing the event, participants are encouraged to wear masks, not congregate tightly, pick up their pumpkin pies and make their way out of the finish line area.. We have once again selected the Grove City Food Pantry as our local charity to support. We help collect food and raise monies for the hungry of the community. Last year this event raised over $25,000 for the Grove City Food Pantry on Columbus Street. This is approximately 25% of their annual operations budget.

5K COURSE MAP