A Race With Real Stakes on the Shoreline
Saturday, October 24 brings one of The Colony’s most purposeful mornings of the year back to the lakefront. The Colony Shoreline 5K & 8 Miler kicks off at 7:30 a.m. at Stewart Creek Park, 3700 Sparks Road, sending runners of two different distances along the Shoreline Trail with Lewisville Lake as their backdrop and UT Southwestern cancer research as their cause.
This is not a corporate road race dropped into a generic parking lot. The course hugs terrain that makes The Colony’s western edge genuinely distinctive — a flat, scenic route along the trail that residents walk and bike year-round, now converted for a single morning into a measured, timed event. Runners from across the Metroplex make the drive specifically for this course, and that says something about what the city has built out along the shoreline.
Two Distances, One Morning
The 5K and the 8-miler share a start line and a community, but they serve different runners. The 5K is approachable enough for someone lacing up for their first timed race; the 8-miler offers a longer, more demanding test for those who want to push well beyond a loop around the neighborhood. The flat profile of the Shoreline Trail means neither distance punishes newcomers with unexpected hills, which historically makes this event a popular entry point for people transitioning from casual jogging to organized racing.
Registration and full details are available through the official race site, where participants can review course information and sign up ahead of race day.
DJ Dame and a Post-Run Beer
The atmosphere around the start and finish area is part of what brings people back. DJ Dame provides live music entertainment, keeping energy up before the gun goes off and during the finish-line push when the last runners are coming in. It is a detail that separates a community race from a mere timed workout — there is something to run toward and something to celebrate when you cross.
After the race, each finisher receives a free post-run beer, a small but meaningful gesture that turns the finish line into a gathering place rather than a dispersal point. For a lot of runners, that stretch after a race — cooling down, swapping notes on the course, watching latecomers finish — is where the community dimension of road racing actually lives.
Proceeds Go to UT Southwestern Cancer Research
The charitable component of this race is not an afterthought. Proceeds benefit cancer research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, one of the country’s leading academic medical institutions and a major employer and research anchor for this region of North Texas. Runners who might otherwise feel indifferent about paying a registration fee tend to take a different view when they know the dollars are going somewhere specific and verifiable.
For a volunteer-led event — and this race is organized and sustained by volunteers — that kind of mission focus is what keeps a race on the calendar year after year. It gives the organizing committee a reason to keep showing up to plan logistics, and it gives participants a reason to return even in years when their personal race calendar is crowded.
Stewart Creek Park as a Race Venue
Stewart Creek Park, situated at the intersection of The Colony’s park system and the Shoreline Trail network, is one of the city’s most active outdoor spaces. On October 24 it will host both the 7:30 a.m. race start and, later that same afternoon, Family Fright Fest from 3 to 7 p.m. — a Halloween celebration with hayrides, a haunted trail, and food trucks. That the park can anchor two entirely different community events on the same day reflects how central it has become to The Colony’s outdoor programming calendar.
For the race specifically, the park’s proximity to the lake trail means runners spend most of their time out of traffic and on dedicated path, which addresses one of the persistent concerns in urban road racing. The course is genuinely pleasant to run, not just manageable.
Getting There
The race begins at 7:30 a.m., which means arriving by 7:00 a.m. at the latest to park, check in, and get warmed up without rushing. Stewart Creek Park is located at 3700 Sparks Road in The Colony. Parking and course details are available at the race’s official site.
October mornings along Lewisville Lake tend to run cool and clear — genuinely good racing weather by Texas standards. If there is a morning this fall that rewards an early alarm, this is a strong candidate.
