Stars and Strides 5K & 10K
San Jose, CA
- 10K, 5K, Kids Run
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Every step you take at the Stars & Strides 5K/10K helps strengthen the health of our community. All proceeds from this event benefit Valley Health Foundation, which supports Silicon Valley’s most vital public healthcare facilities and programs. Your participation empowers families with the tools to take charge of their well-being, … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Jul 11):
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| H (°F) | 84 | 99 | 84 | 86 | 74 |
| L (°F) | 60 | 67 | 57 | 65 | 58 |
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Still Stridin'
The Stars and Strides 10K and 5K is run through central San Jose neighborhoods, starting and finishing across the Guadalupe River from Discovery Meadow and the Children's Discovery Museum. The … MORE
The Stars and Strides 10K and 5K is run through central San Jose neighborhoods, starting and finishing across the Guadalupe River from Discovery Meadow and the Children’s Discovery Museum. The event is well organized, with a water-only aid station. The course is 5K, with 10K runners doing the course twice. The neighborhoods are a mix of small business and residential areas. I don’t remember if I did this event in 2022, but I tried the 10K in 2024, having to drop out at ~7K due to a lingering knee injury, and did the 5K in 2025. The race T-shirt continues to be very good, and there is also a nice finisher’s medal. The Star Spangled Banner is sung prior to the start, and the “tradition” of too many politicians speaking and delaying the start continues. Patience will be rewarded with an otherwise very good race experience.
Decent production
Benefit oriented race, had a late start, got warm, but surprisingly had a couple of water stations, not the best organized, but makes up with the energy of the volunteers. … MORE
Benefit oriented race, had a late start, got warm, but surprisingly had a couple of water stations, not the best organized, but makes up with the energy of the volunteers. Had fun.
FANTASTIC EVENT!
This year was my 2nd time participating, and I hope to be back as a regular to this fun community event. This race had about 2,700 participants across all distances, … MORE
This year was my 2nd time participating, and I hope to be back as a regular to this fun community event. This race had about 2,700 participants across all distances, and apparently they raised around $280K for the Valley Health Foundation. Bravo!
And despite this being a charity event, it was top notch quality with awesome swag and a post-race atmosphere to enjoy. The shirt is a HIGH QUALITY tech shirt (one that you will actually wear versus throw in the recycle bin) and the medal is also beautifully designed and great quality. The festive vibe of the race adds to the fun, with many people in RWB attire as well as some costumes – I saw one woman dressed up as George Washington!
2025 was this race’s 5th anniversary (2021-2025) and it seems to get better each year. Looking forward to next…
Lots of fun!
Great cause, great fun. Raised money for the Valley Medical Center Foundation through this fun family-friendly race at Discovery Meadow in downtown San Jose. Race management took the necessary COVID … MORE
Great cause, great fun. Raised money for the Valley Medical Center Foundation through this fun family-friendly race at Discovery Meadow in downtown San Jose. Race management took the necessary COVID precautions to make it a safe event for everyone.
Good 1st Running, Some Room to Improve
Event & Course Description: The Stars and Strides 5K and 10K is run in central San Jose, benefiting the Valley Medical Center Foundation. The start and finish were near the … MORE
Event & Course Description: The Stars and Strides 5K and 10K is run in central San Jose, benefiting the Valley Medical Center Foundation. The start and finish were near the Discovery Meadow Park, near the Children’s Discovery Museum. The 5K course does a sort of squared figure-8 using First, Second, and Reed Streets (going under I-280 three times), and then does a sort of dogleg loop that returns to the finish area using First Street (going under I-280 again). The 10K basically does this twice.
My preference is trail run scenery, so keep that in mind with what follows. The course goes through, mostly, older business and residential areas, some possibly a century old. The buildings and residence range from vacant storefronts to open businesses, plus mostly nice multi-story residence. Not my favorite scenery, but still more interesting than the homogeneity of some suburban courses I’ve done. One thing I appreciated was that this course did not use the parts of central San Jose used by events such as the Rock-n-Roll San Jose Half.
Organization & Production: It may be because this is a charity event, and possibly because it is the first running (and also post-Covid-shut-down), but some basic information about the event was posted to the event’s website fairly late. The email contact person was helpful and responded quickly. If the event is done again next year I think the information will be more complete, earlier, and the event may also be more publicized.
The start was in three corrals, divided by estimated pace, 10K and 5K runners together, starting 5 minutes apart. Unfortunately, the intro speakers went long, so the first start was 10 minutes late, with 4 minute separation for subsequent corrals. The delay wasn’t huge, but a bit irritating for some who had been standing around for up to half an hour, raring to go.
Bib: The bib has the race logo (see description below), the distance, and the charity name on a white stripe at the top. The middle is the bib number on a wide, distance color-coded stripe (the distance in the top is the same color), green for the 5K distance I did. The stripe on 10K bibs was blue. There is a narrow white stripe across the bottom with the logo of the sponsor of the particular distance.
T-Shirt: The T-shirt is tech type, light grey. The front has the race logo, the race name in red, blue, and green, the distances and two runners in black, and the charity name across the bottom in blue. For my tastes it’s neither spectacular nor meh, though for a smallish charity race it is quite nice. The event sponsors are on the back in black.
Finisher’s Medal: There was no finisher’s medal. It’s a charity event, so I’m fine with that. It should be noted that a nice medal could attract more runners. On the other hand medals are an expense. So charity event organizers have to weigh the attraction vs. the expense and the net benefit to the charity in making the choice.
Finish & Recovery Area: Discovery Meadow was spacious, even for the almost 700 participants plus family and friends, plus volunteers and booth people. Unfortunately, the recovery snacks were limited to GoGo Squeeze packets, a bag of pretzels, and Hint water, plus the bottles of water given out near the finish arch. Kind of disappointing, but definitely Covid-impacted, and maybe a bit more more I’ll touch on below.
My Results & Opinion of the Race: My finish time was about a minute faster than a 5K I did 3 weeks ago, so I’m pretty happy with it. There is definitely room for improvement, organizationally (fewer politician speakers, with trap doors where they stand would be good, 😉 ). However, this was the first running of an event that was originally planned to be done on July 4. Thank you, SARS-CoV-2 virus, thbbbbbbbbt! This had to have impacted what planning could be done, and what kinds of recovery snacks could be available.
Under all those circumstances, I think it was a good first effort, and it will be among my possibilities for July 4, 2022.