Overview The Run Jax Labor Day 5K runs from 1st Place Sports' Baymeadows store in Jacksonville on Labor Day morning, over a USATF-certified, flat course through the Beauclerc neighborhood, and it pays cash to the top three men and women. A one-mile fun run follows the 5K. The race counts toward the Jacksonville Grand Prix, the local series in which the top ten in each age group score points. 1st Place Sports is the running store Doug Alred opened in 1978, and in 1982 he became race director of Jacksonville's River Run. On site The 5K goes off at 7:30 a.m., with runners lining up by the pace per mile they gave when they registered. The one-mile run and the awards follow at 8:30. Every finisher gets a large medal, a moisture-wicking shirt and an electrolyte popsicle, and age-group awards run across 16 brackets. The store runs a Labor Day sale the same morning. Audience Age groups run from 10 and under to 80 and over, and the field mixes runners chasing prize money and Grand Prix points with people who came for the medal and the popsicle. Track record 1st Place Sports billed the 2025 race as the 20th annual. Proceeds go to high school cross country and track programs in Duval County, a summer camp scholarship program and a three-mile trail at Aterro Recreation Park. Brand presence The title sponsor's name goes into the race name; HOKA held it for 2025 and 2026 as Run Jax Powered by HOKA. The title package puts the logo on the start and finish banners, the race backdrop, the back of every participant and volunteer shirt and the race website, and on at least eight promotional emails to the store's list of more than 75,000 subscribers. It also buys a goodie-bag item, a 10-by-10 booth and promotion in the chain's stores. The 2025 proposal to HOKA added a HOKA week in the stores with a shakeout run, banners, flags at the Baymeadows entrance and prize drawings on race day.