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1984 — present · downtown to Notre Dame Stadium; since 2023, the Century Center
The institution: The Sunburst Races began in 1984 and grew into the largest footrace gathering on the city's calendar, held on the first Saturday of June. For most of its life its signature was the finish: the courses started downtown — in later years at the College Football Hall of Fame — and the marathon and its companion races ended by running through the tunnel and onto the fifty-yard line of Notre Dame Stadium, the Victory March playing, a finish no other American race could copy. The marathon's first winner, in the record the races keep, was Mike Haag, in 2:35:55. The marathon itself ran through 2019; the races' 2020 edition was cancelled in the pandemic — the first cancellation since the races began — and the 2021 edition ran in September. In 2023 the finish moved from the Stadium to the Century Center, for room for the post-race festival.
The crowd and the cause: The races are owned and managed by Beacon Health System, and their proceeds support Beacon Children's Hospital — the gathering is a fundraiser wearing a race. The 31st running, on May 31, 2014, gives the scale in Beacon's own count: more than 8,600 runners and walkers and more than 700 volunteers. The present form is a half marathon, a 10K, a 5K, and a 5K fitness walk, and the races ran on their first-Saturday-of-June date in 2026, their posted results running to thousands of finishers across the corporate teams and the fields.
Sources:
- Sunburst Races / Beacon Health System — the races' history and reference record: 1984 establishment, the Stadium finish, the 2019 marathon's end, the 2020 cancellation, the 2023 finish move, and the 2014 field of 8,600 with 700 volunteers.
- Notre Dame Magazine — the Sunburst finish on the fifty-yard line and the Victory March.
- RunSignup, Sunburst Races results — the current running's fields and team results, as posted.