What Makes This 5K Gay?
After a lot of years producing running events, you start to learn the formula.
There are certain pieces that make an event work: a moment that brings everyone together before the start. Someone on the mic who can hold the crowd. People on course keeping an eye on the front, middle, and back of the pack. A way to make participants feel celebrated. Some traditions. Some swag. And, ideally, a finish line worth getting to.
I’ve spent MANY years doing those things for perfectly respectable, perfectly traditional running events.
So when we started building the Big Gay 5K, I wanted to see what happened if we kept the parts that matter — and decoded a few of the tropes.
Because this isn’t a regular 5K with a rainbow logo slapped on it.
Although, to be clear: there will absolutely be rainbows.
Lots of them.
Rainbow decor may be cliché, but there’s a reason it became our umbrella of belonging. Under that umbrella, there’s room for all of us: trans, lesbian, gay, bi, nonbinary, queer, straight allies, and anyone else who believes people should be able to show up as themselves and be welcomed there.
So yes. Rainbows.
But also something deeper than rainbows.
Here are a few of the ways we’ve taken the familiar machinery of a running event and made it feel a little more like us.
1.THE RACE ANNOUNCER → ROYALTY
A traditional running event usually has a race announcer.
Someone who can talk splits, pace, course records, finishing times, and possibly produce an alarming amount of trivia about competitive running.
We have Lucinda Holliday.
Lucinda is one of those people woven deeply into Tucson’s queer community. She’s a drag queen, an entertainer, a fundraiser, a community connector, and a familiar face in an extraordinary number of rooms where queer Tucson gathers.
Can she give you a flawless tangent about age-group pace differentials?
Maybe not.
Can she bring hundreds of people together with warmth, ridiculous amounts of love, genuine positivity, and exactly the correct dosage of sass?
Absolutely.
So instead of the standard race-announcer voice booming across Armory Park, we’re putting the microphone in the hands of someone who actually feels like part of the community we’re gathering.
Consider yourselves in the presence of royalty.
2. THE PRE-RACE MOMENT → THE BIG GAY POET
At a major international event, the national anthem can make perfect sense.
But before a glitter parade through Armory Park? We wanted a moment that felt a little more like us.
We still wanted that pause before the start — the moment where hundreds of people realize that, for the next few hours, we’re sharing this experience together.
So we invited TC Tolbert.
TC is a former Tucson poet laureate, an extraordinary writer, and one of those humans who seems to bring a little more beauty into whatever space they enter.
Before the pack takes off, our Big Gay Poet will give us a moment to gather, listen, and be present together.
We’re not avoiding tradition simply for the sake of avoiding it.
We’re adding something that makes more sense for this gathering.
3. COURSE SUPPORT → TUCSON ROLLER DERBY
Running events need people who know where the field is.
Who’s leading? Where are the gaps? Where’s the final participant? Does somebody need help?
There are plenty of ways to handle that: bicycles, golf carts, designated walkers, balloons, chase vehicles, or a sag wagon slowly creeping along behind the final athlete.
We have Tucson Roller Derby.
Skaters will be out with you on course helping us keep tabs on the pack. Some will give the faster runners something to chase. Others will move through the field, help with wayfinding, and eventually mosey their way back with our walkers so we always know where our final participants are.
And if you stop moving entirely?
There is at least a non-zero possibility that someone with a graphically hilarious derby name will encourage you forward with a pool noodle.
You have been warned.
4. RACE-DAY GLAM → UNICORN SNOT
We found people who take glitter VERY seriously.
Early in this process, we partnered with Unicorn Snot, makers of genuinely excellent face and body glitter.
They were looking at the running world.
We were building a running event where “Would anyone like glitter?” seemed like a deeply unnecessary question.
We found each other.
At many traditional events, a glitter activation might attract a fraction of the field.
At the Big Gay 5K, we are actively hoping you stop at our Glam & Go tent and experiment.
And no, this isn’t intended to turn the starting line into a matching bachelorette party.
Quite the opposite.
We want glittered cheeks. Glittered shoulders. Glittered mustaches. Glorious beards. Subtle shimmer. Reckless sparkle.
Whatever feels like you.
Want to experiment beforehand? Use code RUNBIGGAY for 15% off Unicorn Snot orders through the end of October.
5. A LITTLE EXTRA CHAOS → HIGH HEEL HAVOC
We also created the High Heel Havoc.
And no, we are hardly the first people to invent a dash in heels.
But we ARE doing one in Tucson, where the drag scene is wildly talented, deeply rooted, and not particularly known for doing anything halfway.
So while the field is open to anyone brave enough to enter, we are fully prepared for the possibility that some local drag queen is going to absolutely smoke everybody.
Honestly, that feels correct.
At 10:30 AM, directly in front of Armory Park, a small field of brave souls will attempt a one-block dash in heels.
The official Slay-In begins at 10:15 AM, when we’ll verify that those heels meet the requirements before sending everyone down the block.
At the moment, roughly three-quarters of our registered High Heel Havoc field is men.
Which delights us.
Because moving beautifully — or attempting to — has never belonged to one gender.
Finish your 5K and come cheer.
Or skip the 5K entirely and show up as a spectator.
Just don’t miss it.
6. THE RACE SHIRT → BIG GAY SOCKS
We went with socks.
Because your feet deserve some spectacle.
Every registered 5K participant gets a pair of custom Big Gay socks — race swag that can be loud without asking everyone to agree on the same shirt, cut, color, fit, or commitment to sleeves.
Will they make you faster?
Absolutely not.
Will seeing hundreds of ridiculous, happy ankles moving through the streets of Armory Park make us smile?
Hell yes.
And skipping the standard race shirt also gave us room to let you have more fun with what you actually wear.
Our Big Gay Glitter Goblin and Official Agent of Chaos has another identity: Salon J, maker of custom shirts.
Want your team name across your chest? A ridiculous race-day slogan? A subtle announcement that you are single and accepting applications?
Have at it.
CHECK OUT SALON J / GLITTER GOBLIN CUSTOM OPTIONS
Rather than putting everyone in the same shirt, we’d much rather see hundreds of people show up looking like themselves.
7. SPONSORS → PEOPLE WE ACTUALLY WANT AROUND US
We were intentional about who we invited into this event.
Partners like RayRay’s Sonoran, Slow Body Beer, Tucson Hop Shop, Waco Starr Realty, Jon Humig Lending Team, Unicorn Snot and others didn’t simply arrive with logos.
They showed up as people and places where members of this community can be themselves.
Welcoming. Safe. Thoughtful. Inclusive.
When you’re building an event around belonging, who you build it with matters.
8. A FUNDRAISER → FIVE PIECES OF OUR COMMUNITY
This event also sends money back into Tucson.
The dollars participants raise — along with additional support generated by the race itself — benefit five local nonprofits, each representing a different part of the queer experience.
Arts: Desert Voices
Because being seen, heard, and represented matters.
Sports: Tucson Roller Derby
Because movement, competition, teamwork, and belonging matter.
Health: SAAF
Because access to affirming health services and support matters.
Aging: Southern Arizona Senior Pride
Because queer life does not stop at 40, 50, 60, 70, or beyond — and nobody should have to age without community.
Housing & Safety: BOSS
Because everyone deserves somewhere safe to land.
Not every one of these organizations exists exclusively for LGBTQ+ people.
But each is queer-friendly, many are deeply queer-focused, and all of them help make Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community stronger, healthier, safer, more creative, and more connected.
That matters just as much as anything happening on the course.
Because Pride isn’t only about gathering once a year.
It’s also about supporting the organizations doing the work when the barricades come down and the glitter gets washed off.
9. AND THE BIGGEST THING THAT MAKES IT GAY? → YOU.
You don’t have to be gay to show up.
You just have to show up welcoming, open, and fully yourself.
Sprint it.
Run it.
Walk it.
Sashay it.
This is your own 3.1-mile Pride parade.
Get a group together and make matching outfits.
Run the whole thing inside an absurdly sweltering inflatable costume.
Apply significantly more glitter than any reasonable person would recommend.
Have a drink in the Pour Decisions Playground and flirt with that cutie playing cornhole.
Be loud. Be quiet. Be weird. Be fast. Be slow.
Be gay. Be not gay.
Just be here as yourself.
That’s what makes it Big Gay.
