Paving the Promise 5K

Paving the Promise 5K takes place in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on November 7, 2026, with one distance on the schedule: a 5K (3.1 miles) starting at 9 a.m. A nine o'clock gun leaves enough of the morning to travel in, warm up without hurrying and still be finished before lunch.

Three miles of road racing asks for less specific training than almost anything else on the calendar, which is why it works both as a first race and as a fitness check for experienced runners. If you are new to it, build to comfortable 30-minute easy runs and the distance takes care of itself. If you are racing, do a proper warm-up including a few strides at goal pace, because a 5K is fast from the first stride and there is no time to ease into it. Run the middle mile honestly and the last one will still be there.