On Sunday, about 450 runners will line up to compete in NIU’s 10th Thanksgiving Classic races.

Both a 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) and a 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) walk/run are scheduled to start north of the Recreation Center on Lincoln Drive. The rec center will open at 10:30 a.m. for check-in and warm-up, and the race will start at noon.

There are male and female divisions for the race, and entrants will range in age from 12 years to more than 55 years.

The competition is not restricted to DeKalb residents and NIU students. Runners from Chicago, Rockford, Wisconsin and Indiana are expected to participate in the races.

Event Coordinator Alicia Cosky said, “Participation is the most important aspect of the event,” and competition is not emphasized as much as fun and recreation.

Cosky warns people not to enter the 15K race unless they have been running at least three to four times a week for about two months. “If you have had little or moderate training, run the 5K,” she said. “The 15K race will also go out to country roads where there is little or no protection against the wind.”

There will be four water stations set up for the 15K race, and refreshments will be served at the rec center after the races.

Kemp Schanlaber, a DeKalb resident and NIU senior, won last year’s 15K race in 51 minutes, 38.5 seconds.

He said he will run again this year but more for the recreation than the competition. “Of course I’d like to win again, but I also like to run for myself,” he said.

Schanlaber said he has no specific formula for training. “I like to alternate hard and easy days,” he said. “I try to run every day, and three to four days a week, I run (both) mornings and nights.”

Last year’s winners also included Cynthia Woods of Bolingbrook, in the 15K race; and Steven Johnson of DeKalb and Susanne Anderson of Garden Prairie, in the 5K race.