Four races, one Halloween theme, and 57 years of history converge on Bristol this weekend as the Mum-A-Thon Road Race returns Sunday, Oct. 18, starting and finishing at St. Paul Catholic High School on Stafford Avenue. The lineup includes an 8-mile race, an 8K, a 5K and the kid-friendly Monster Mile, drawing runners through the Naugatuck Valley for one of the region's longest-running road races.
A Historic Race Gets a Modern Sponsor
Findarace.com lists the event, and the New Britain Herald describes it as the 57th annual event. Bristol Health is the 2026 title sponsor. The race has also been organized by the Bristol Rotary Club in past years, per that same report.
The race’s autumn setting reflects Bristol’s chrysanthemum heritage. The town’s Mum Festival began on Oct. 7, 1962, as a fall celebration; chrysanthemums were added to its name the following year. Bristol nurseries once produced more than 80,000 mum plants, until local production stopped in 1986. The festival’s history includes the Mum-A-Thon among the community activities that have helped keep the seasonal tradition alive.
The 8-mile distance, which made its return for the 2025 edition after a hiatus, remains part of the four-race slate again this year, the Bristol Press noted. Online registration for the 2026 race is open through RunSignup, confirming the event is moving forward as planned this weekend.
Course Features a Downhill Finish
Runners tackling the longer distances will get a break at the end: the 8K and 8-mile events both feature a downhill finish, according to the nextrace.live listing. The downhill finish is a feature of both longer-distance events.
The event has deep roots in the community, and organizers have leaned into its Halloween-season timing in recent years. The New Britain Herald reports that the courses wind through the quiet neighborhoods of northeast Bristol, with a climb before mile one followed by flat sections and that downhill stretch toward the finish, and that runners should expect to share the road with traffic along the route.
Proceeds Support Breast Health and Youth Groups
Beyond the finish line, the race carries a charitable mission that has defined it for years. A portion of proceeds will support the Beekley Center for Breast Health & Wellness, the Bristol Press reports, while the remainder is distributed through mini-grants to organizations supporting local youth.
The charity recipients are part of a longer-running Rotary grant program. The Bristol Rotary Club says it has awarded mini-grants since 1987, with funding raised exclusively through its Mum-A-Thon races. The club, founded in 1927, directs the grants to nonprofits and programs serving Bristol youth. That arrangement makes the race more than a one-day fundraiser: its proceeds feed a recurring community grant cycle.
Last year's grants went to a wide swath of Bristol institutions, including the Bristol Boys & Girls Club Association, Bristol Early Childhood Alliance, Bristol Housing Authority, American Clock & Watch Museum, DK Movement, Bristol Family Resource Center, Girl Scouts of Connecticut, Imagination Museum and Shepard Meadows Equestrian Center, according to the same report. The Rotary Club has said it takes pride in the mini-grants awarded from the prior year's proceeds, underscoring how the race's economic footprint extends well past race day itself.
One of the race’s beneficiaries, the Beekley Center for Breast Health & Wellness, is located at Bristol Hospital. The center provides services ranging from annual breast screening to surgical and medical breast cancer care. The race’s support therefore goes to a local clinical service as well as youth-focused organizations receiving Rotary mini-grants.
Registration Details and a Few Unanswered Questions
Early sign-ups came with perks this year. Runners who registered by Sept. 27 were eligible for glow-in-the-dark race shirts, the New Britain Herald reported, while the Herald's Oct. 16, 2026, report said qualifying preregistrants would receive customized Halloween-themed race bibs. The 5K entry fee is $32.80, including a $2.80 fee; nextrace.live also lists the event, while the Bristol Press noted last year's individual fees ran $43.40 for the 8-mile race, $32.80 for the 5K and $16.90 for the Monster Mile, with a $5 jump for day-of registration.
Not every detail about this year's race has been nailed down publicly. The findarace.com listing states that the Monster Mile will not be timed and will not offer age-group awards, while the New Britain Herald says timing is provided and that the 8K and 5K have age-group awards. The Bristol Press described the 8K and 5K as timed events, with awards for their top male and female finishers. Exact start times have also varied across listings, so runners planning to join Sunday's event should confirm specifics directly with race organizers before heading to St. Paul Catholic High School.
