Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for Children

Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for Children is held in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 6, 2026. The program is a single 5K with a late 10:30 a.m. start, which spares you the pre-dawn alarm that most December races demand and gives the morning time to warm up a few degrees before you line up.

A 5K on a Sunday late morning is the easiest kind of race to fit into a life. Regular runners can treat it as a sharp effort between longer weekend sessions; if you have never pinned on a bib, this is a sensible first one, since 3.1 miles is reachable after four to six weeks of running three times a week. Whatever your level, warm up properly in the cold: ten minutes of very easy jogging and a few short accelerations will stop the opening half mile from feeling like a shock to the system.