Students, professors, alumni and Macon runners gathered Saturday morning for the annual Mercer University Homecoming 5k that circumnavigates campus.
Todd Thomas, director of recreational sports and wellness at Mercer, said that the race was the only of its kind that Recreational Sports puts on every year, and that it had been running for more than a decade now. As runners lined up at the start line, Thomas explained the two-lap course to the participants.
Starting at the main gate of Five Star Stadium, runners went through the stadium to College Street, past the Godsey Science Center and ROTC's Kicklighter Hall, up to Cruz Plaza and then along Adams Street next to the University Center, ending at the stadium.
In his first time back for Homecoming since he graduated in 2023, Themba Nsubuga finished with a time of 22:31, good for a pace of 7:15 per mile. The two previous Novembers, he said, he was running marathons on the same weekend that Mercer welcomed alumni back to campus.
"I haven't ran this loop since I graduated, and I was like, 'This is familiar, this is like muscle memory,'" Nsubuga said after he crossed the finish line.
Averett Lipp, a student at Columbus State University, said he ran Saturday with his friend, who is a Mercer student. The course, he said, had more hills than he is accustomed to, but he enjoyed seeing the campus along the way. Lipp finished eight overall and third in his age group with a time of 22:21.
Gabriel Kopp '26 is double majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't working on a Washington Post crossword, he enjoys going for runs around Macon and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
