Fiesta 5k Challenge - Benefiting Emory ALS Center

Kick off your Cinco de Mayo celebration with the Fiesta 5k Challenge! This is our 20th annual race so lace up your running shoes and join us as we #runLOCO4ALS.

We are on a mission to stop ALS. The Fiesta 5k Challenge is held in memory of Jon Blais, who died from ALS in 2005, and in honor of all who are living with ALS and those who have lost their lives because of it.

This is an In-Person race with Virtual options. 

• Free Photos!
• Chip-timed 5k race
• Awesome t-shirt (guaranteed if registered by 4/16/26)

Join the Facebook Group called @runLOCO4ALS.  Use the hashtag #runLOCO4ALS and post your pics & videos in the group. Make sure to also follow us on Instagram @runloco4als 

Virtual Runners: You will receive email instructions on how to upload your results.

Event will be held rain or shine.

#runLOCO4ALS

We call ourselves Team Duffy. Who are we?

After watching a broadcast of the 2005 Ironman World Championship, our son, Brian, then a 12-year-old triathlete, was motivated to help raise awareness and money to find a cure for ALS. Brian saw Jon Blais finish the grueling endurance event just five months after being diagnosed with ALS. Brian watched as Jon did a log roll across the finish line, something that would catch on with athletes spreading awareness for the disease which took Jon's life just two years later.

Brian started what has now become a family mission to stop ALS. His first fundraising campaign was a letter asking friends and family to sponsor his triathlons in 2006. Then Brian had the idea to host a community road race. The Fiesta 5k Challenge started in 2007, is held every year in the spring, and benefits the Emory ALS Center. Brian’s dream of following in Jon’s footsteps (and log roll finish) happened at Ironman Florida 2021. While training for the race, he raised $13,000 for the Emory ALS Center. 

Kevin, our younger son, began playing golf at the age of nine. He competed in middle school high school, and on the collegiate level and then took his passion into his career. He is now Manager of Rules & Competition at the LPGA. When he saw how the community responded to helping families living with ALS, he too became inspired. Naturally, Kevin decided that we needed to host a golf tournament. We hosted our own event from 2013-2019 and now support the Goode Foundation Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament & BBQ Tailgate each year in the spring to support families living with ALS.

Mike joined Brian in competing in triathlons in 2006 at a sprint distance race. He gradually challenged himself to the longer distances, eventually building to the Ironman distance. Mike has completed three Ironman triathlons and the inspiration from Jon carried him to the finish line each time. 

In addition to organizing our fundraisers, Karen is the Community Outreach Coordinator and webmaster for the Emory ALS Center, Race Director for the Fiesta 5k Challenge, and a committed advocate for ALS across the country. She was a founding member of Team Blazeman and was on the initial Board of Directors for the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. Karen attends and helps organize ALS events regularly and, literally, there isn't a day that goes by without her doing something to spread awareness, work on a fundraiser, or support a patient.

We started Cure for ALS in 2006 to host the inaugural ALS road race, but the organization has grown to be much more than we ever imagined. Our family has raised $958,000 for the Emory ALS Center. While our fundraisers benefit Emory, we support many other organizations benefiting ALS. We participate in events throughout the year and do our best to be the voice, the hands, and the feet of those pALS who have lost theirs. 

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which eventually costs patients their ability to perform such basic functions as walking, dressing, speaking, swallowing, and breathing. I recently had the honor of meeting the team at the Emory ALS Center—the only program in metro Atlanta working to understand this devastating and ultimately fatal disease and to support the patients and families affected by it.

The Emory ALS Center, directed by Jonathan Glass, provides a comprehensive program of multidisciplinary patient care and cutting-edge clinical and basic research. “We are one of the largest clinical centers in the U.S., currently caring for about 400 patients and their families,” Glass says. “The majority of our patients partner with us in our research efforts, providing DNA, spinal fluid, and tissue samples for research. In this way we are able to connect our basic research activities with the essential clinical data that makes our collections so valuable to investigators locally, nationally, and internationally.”
  
As the only ALS program in the Atlanta metropolitan region, Glass says, the center provides “a ‘home’ for these patients and their families. This differentiates Emory from other Atlanta health care facilities – none of which support a focused ALS program. Indeed, we are the primary referral center for ALS in Atlanta, and for some patients around the southeast and the world.”
 
Glass is understandably proud of the ALS team, which is leading progress against the disease in both patient care and research. “In the clinic,” he says, “we provide a full complement of experts to address the varied problems experienced by our patients – including physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists, speech pathologists, dieticians, social workers, and even wheelchair technicians to adjust and fix any problems with our patients’ most important piece of equipment. Our clinical staff are dedicated to this patient population, with most working with us for more than a decade. In the lab, those working on ALS include investigators from Neurology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Biostatistics, and Computer Science. These collaborations allow for multiple avenues of investigation, largely focused on patient derived data and tissues, which we believe provides important relevance to the human disease.”

Thank you, Jonathan Glass and the entire ALS Center team, for helping us improve lives and provide hope! 
~Ravi I. Thadhani, MD, MPH
Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Emory University
Executive Director, Woodruff Health Sciences Center
Vice Chair, Emory Healthcare Board of Directors

Each year we are honored to have teams of fundraisers helping to increase the amount raised for the Emory ALS Center. Join our team and become a fundraiser! You will have your own personal page to tell your ALS story and be able to share it with friends and family. 

To donate to the event or one of our fundraising teams, hover over "DONATE" from the top menu.

To create a fundraising team, click "DONATE" and choose "BECOME A FUNDRAISER" from the drop down menu. 

Why Sponsor the Fiesta 5k Challenge?

As a sponsor of the Fiesta 5k Challenge, you will join us in making an impact on stopping this disease. 100% of the funds raised supports groundbreaking research at Emory toward a cure or effective treatment for ALS. Sponsors will be featured on the website and social media and are invited to set up on race day to interact with participants and spectators.

Since 2007, Team Duffy/Cure for ALS has hosted the event that brings entire families out to participate in this well-organized race in Cumming, GA. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a neuromuscular disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord. It takes away the ability to move, speak, swallow and ultimately breathe. The Emory ALS Center is part of the Emory Brain Health Center, led by Dr. Jonathan Glass, is one of the largest clinical centers for ALS in the United States. Their team approach to ALS care and research bridges multiple disciplines and departments, all sharing the same goal of a world without ALS. 

Download the sponsor agreement below.

Awards will be given to the Overall Male/Female and Overall Masters Male/Female plus the Top 3 in the following Age Groups:

10+Under
11-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75+

Friday Packet Pick Up Location: Big Peach Cumming - 5485 Bethelview Rd #430, Cumming, GA 30040. Friday, May 1,2026 from 11am to 5pm.

 We will not hand out packets before 11am and appreciate you letting us get completely set up first. 

Saturday Packet Pick Up: May 2nd –7am at the race location, Cumming City Center, 423 Canton Rd., Cumming, GA 30040 

Yes, you can pick up packets for others. If you have more than 5 people that you are picking up for, email fiesta5kchallenge@gmail.com so we can bundle them ahead of time and have them ready for you. Email by Thursday at 12pm please.