COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — Runners gathered at Century Square in College Station on Saturday morning for the annual Firecracker 5K, a Fourth of July tradition that draws participants and sponsors from across the Brazos Valley community.
The event is organized by Brazos Running Company. The course takes runners around Aggie Golf Course before finishing back at Century Square.
Participant Beth said the event captures what makes the local running scene special.
"Yeah, I love it. I love College Station and I love helping out my community and I participating in it as well," Beth said.
Fellow participant Aaron Holladay said the organizers have refined the experience over time.
"I think they do such a good job of handling things like the food, the parking, the refreshments afterwards, and other things like that. They have taken lessons over the years and really now we've got the field for parking. So I think they've already done a really good job of anticipating most of the things that I would have complained about. I got no complaints," Holladay said.
The patriotic spirit was on full display, with participants dressed in red, white, and blue. After crossing the finish line, runners received refreshments, T-shirts, and discounts at local Century Square businesses.
The fastest finisher of the day was Major Mangum, who completed the race with a time of 17:58.
Multiple sponsors attended the event to show their support for the community. Among them was the Aggie Lyceum, a program within Texas A&M University's Department of Communication and Journalism focused on teaching citizenship skills.
Dr. Jennifer Mercieca, director of the Aggie Lyceum and a professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism, said the program's participation in the event was driven by a desire to celebrate a milestone and engage with the community.
"We're sponsoring this event today because, obviously, we want to celebrate the America 250th anniversary. We want to celebrate that. And also we of course want to participate in the community and so this is a great event for that," Mercieca said.
Mercieca said the Aggie Lyceum, which launched this year, has already held 110 events focused on citizenship skills. She described one held on July 2nd that recreated a debate from the Continental Congress.
"We had a recreation of Richard Henry Lee's debate in the Continental Congress about revolution. The students put on tricorn hats and they debated whether we should remain loyal to England or whether we should be rebels and patriots. It's a fascinating conversation because when you put yourself back in that moment it was a really scary choice and most of the students haven't really thought about that and so it's a great way to sort of learn history experiencing it," Mercieca said.
Mercieca said events like the Firecracker 5K reflect the kind of civic connection her organization works to promote.
"There are fewer events, not just in our community but everywhere, where everyone is sort of doing the same thing all at the same time and has the same experience. Our organization is all about promoting civic friendship, which is something that comes from Aristotle but applies today. It's about the way that we form a community and so this is a great community. Runners are awesome people, they're awesome at forming community. You always see them out in groups and they come to events like this. A lot of people don't do that, right? A lot of people just stay home and look at their phones, so it's great to be a part of this," Mercieca said.
Participants said they plan to return next year and hope to see the event continue to grow.
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