Twenty years running

Shopping, parties and holiday travel plans are enough to make anyone’s mind race close to Christmas. 

Luckily, the annual Meadow Brook 5K and Fun Run provides the opportunity to let your body do the running. 

It was about 20 years ago when Dr. Bob Cosby came up with the idea for a race while running in his neighborhood the Saturday before Christmas. Now, the race is celebrating its 20th year with participants who have grown accustomed to the lakeside course, the releasing of doves at the start of the race and finishing with the “Taste of 280” table. 

“As years progressed, people complimented me on adding something new every year,” Cosby said. “I just look around, and if I see something I like, I try to recruit.” 

Doves are released to remember past racers who had passed. When the weather permits, 50 to 100 doves circle the air above the lakes behind Aliant Bank before flying back home to Irondale. 

Although the race now has about 150 sponsors each year, the Meadow Brook Run started smaller. The first two years, Cosby’s home served as the headquarters for the run, and the course followed more high-level terrain through five miles of hilly roads. 

Aliant Bank changed the nature of the race. When the bank opened off U.S. 280, Cosby spoke to the owner about sponsoring the race, and they have been partnered ever since. 

So with the addition Aliant Bank’s facilities, Cosby just needed to change the course to something more popular. He and a friend from Birmingham Track Club shortened the course to a 5K, and they added an additional 1-mile fun run aimed at kids. 

 The race tripled in size. 

“It was a major leap for us to move from a home-based community race to one that was sponsored by a major bank,” Cosby said. “We had that big leap of a new course and a shortened version of the course that was more popular, and we were able to make use of those beautiful lakes behind the Aliant Bank.” 

Through the years, Cosby said he has been able to rely on products from sponsors who have continued to help out. Golden Flake potato chips, Bud’s Best Cookies and Smoothie King smoothies are usually available. 

This year the new Steak ‘n Shake in Inverness will provide breakfast sandwiches as well as orange juice and milkshakes for all the racers. 

“That’s pretty much unprecedented at a race, and certainly our race,” Cosby said. “We are faith-based. This is a blatantly Christian race, and I believe that God has provided so many things for us.”

Because it is a faith-based run, all of the proceeds benefit the JESUS Video Project of Alabama, which is an organization that distributed a Jesus movie to every home in Alabama in 1998. Last year, they were able to help fund a showing of the Jesus movie in Africa. 

“I do it because I like to have a reason to connect to the community, and, of course, our JESUS Video Project distributes the Jesus movie,” Cosby said. “We think that the Jesus movie is the best way to present the gospel of Jesus Christ in its context, because it comes straight out of the gospel of Luke in the Bible.” 

The annual Meadow Brook 5K and Fun Run continues to grow and bring members of the community together during the holidays. Cosby said each year he finds new things to try for the race and keeps pushing it to be better. 

“Every year just kind of rolled into the next year, and as it goes along you don’t think about how many you’ve really accomplished,” Cosby said. “I mean, there are people running the race that weren’t even born when it started.” 

The Meadow Brook Run will start at 9 a.m. on Dec. 20 at Aliant Bank.

For more information, visit meadowbrookruns.org.