Objective: To determine the demographic characteristics and performance outcomes of runners in an annual 5k community running event held six times from 2018 to 2025.

Methods: Age, sex, and finishing chip times of 2421 runners were obtained from TruTime for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Doc Dash 5k held in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Results: 2421 runners finished the race. 55% of all runners were female; females comprised the majority of runners every year. 55% of the runners were between the ages of 20 and 34, and 5.2% were 60 years and older. 937/1105 (85%) were female one-time event runners vs 703/862 (82%) of males. 327 of 1967 (16.6%) were repeat runners. 4.8% of runners ran the event more than twice, and only one ran in all 6 events. Median male finishing times were at least 4 minutes faster than female times for each age category >15 years old, and at least 7.5 minutes faster in >50-year-old runners. The fastest male time for all six events was 15:36, and 18:18 for the fastest female time. There was a trend in the number of decreasing runners in the event from 2018 t0 2025, but it was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Our data are consistent with data reported nationally for community 5k races in the United States, in which the majority of runners were female, repeat event runners were a minority, and median and fastest male times were faster than female times.