Run for Ret 5K set for Saturday

From the serious to the frivolous, the fourth annual Run for Ret 5K will have something for everyone Saturday morning at Hilton Head Prep.

Four area high schools -- Hilton Head High, Bluffton High School, Battery Creek High School and Hilton Head Prep -- will compete in a high school division. All runners will start simultaneously, with the high school runners leading the pack at the starting line.

The race also will be the second stop on the Irmo Fire High Intensity Team's four-day Road Race Blitz. The firefighters participate in four races in four days, wearing full fire gear while running to bring awareness to the "Everyone Goes Home" Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives.

Several other groups plan to participate, event organizer Suzanne Thomas said, including a group from CrossFit gym that will perform a full-body workout before the race and a group of mothers who plan to walk the five kilometers, then go out to lunch.

Proceeds from the event go to the RET Pediatric Cancer Foundation, which was founded in memory of Ret Thomas, a Hilton Head Prep student who died in 2000 -- at age 14 -- after a year-long battle with Ewing's Sarcoma.

What: Run for Ret 5K

Where: Hilton Head Prep, Sea Pines Forest Preserve

When: Saturday, 8 a.m.

Registration fee: $30, tax-deductible

Notes: The five-kilometer race begins and ends on the Hilton Head Prep campus, with the bulk of the course winding through the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. The scenic trail goes through wetlands and forests and around lakes. ... Participants living outside Sea Pines Plantation are asked to park in the Sea Pines Montessori School parking lot off Cordillo Parkway or pay the $5 gate fee to enter Sea Pines and park at Hilton Head Prep. Sea Pines residents may park at Hilton Head Prep.

More information: GoTriSports.com