May 3rd, 2025

Smitty's Run Virtual 5K

Smitty's Run is a virtual 5k run, bike or walk. The event can be completed in a location of your choice. The 2025 race will officially begin on Saturday, May 3rd at 9AM EST, but you can complete it at a date and time that works best for you. Participants have the option to complete the entire 5k at once or break up the distance into segments of their choosing. This is the PERFECT time to begin chasing your fitness goals.

Medals and apparel are currently available by contacting via email at smittysrun@gmail.com or going to www.smittysrun.com.

Orders are available through March 17, 2025 or while supplies last.

Help us honor Smitty and make a difference in the lives of some lucky students!

Travis Mahaffey Remembers Robert "Bob" Smith, aka Smitty:

"Smitty and I met in 1994, in the United States Air Force Fire Department, while stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany.  Not only did we quickly become friends, but chosen family; brothers.  Smitty served a lifetime in the military and cross-trained from the Fire Department into Nursing and ultimately became a commissioned officer.  He loved life.  He loved hunting.  He loved the outdoors.  Mostly, he loved his family; his wife, his two kids, his parents and siblings, and his friends.  To know Smitty was to love him.  Being friends with him made you a better person.  It made ME a better person.
 
Smitty lived while battling a form of sarcoma cancer.  Even while sick, he participated in a local 5k and remained highly active.  There was no quit in Smitty.  Which eventually lead to the Smitty's Run Memorial Scholarship 5k. Smitty's Run was created to commemorate Robert "Bob" Smith.  The acronym, S.M.I.T.H., embodies the characteristics Smitty lived by:  Service, Merit, Integrity, Truth, and Honor and originated based on Smitty's actions while sick, fighting cancer.  
 
Following Smitty's passing, we participated in a 5k, where a portion of proceeds would be donated to the "Smith Scholarship" award.  It was an emotional time, and we wanted to do more.  As a result, "Smitty's Run" was born.  The first annual Smitty's Run was inaugurated in May, 2021.  It was a great success!  What was expected to be only a handful of runners turned into 70 registered runners and well over 100 participants in the virtual Smitty's Run, which was worldwide.  We were blown away by the participation, love, and support for this cause.  People ran, biked, and participated in yoga from all over the United States, to England, Canada, Germany, Scotland.  In commitment to keeping Smitty's memory alive and running, there is a time clock on the smittysrun.com website with a perpetual countdown to race day.    
 
This year, Smitty's Run will take place on May 3, 2025 and all proceeds will be donated once again to the Smith Scholarship.  The information for donations and participation options will be at smittysrun.com.  Anyone, and everyone, can participate.  This is not your typical "5k".   You can run it, walk it, bike it, jump rope it, you name it!  
 
Help us keep Smitty running around the world! "
 
 
Until we meet again.  Rest in peace.  
Robert "Bob" Smith
March 10, 1976 - December 1, 2018