The 39th annual Lions Run for Sight on Saturday, April 4, 2026, will be held at 9:00 AM at beautiful Masterson Station Park in Lexington.

 

Our race is an out-and-back 5K on paved roadway surface.  Runners, walkers, families, strollers, dogs (on a leash) are all welcome to participate.

 

RACE FEATURES

• Out and back course through scenic Masterson Station Park
• Chip timing and race management provided by RaceRise
• Commemorative race T-shirts
• Overall & Age Group Awards
• Vision Teams and Team Pricing, Prize for our largest Vision Team
• Free Race Photos 
• Music, food and fellowship 
• Over 100 Door Prizes!!!

5K ROUTE MAP

Who Benefits From our Run?

This race provides funding for our vision of service in Lexington and the surrounding bluegrass community, including:

• Kentucky Lions Youth Camps - Support the annual blind and vision impaired youth camp financially to keep the camp free for the campers.

• Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation - A non-profit founded in 1954 by the Lions Clubs of Kentucky to provide vision services in Kentucky.

• Purchase eyeglasses for those who cannot afford them in the bluegrass community.

• Central Kentucky Radio Eye - An audio service for the blind and visually impaired.

• Leader Dogs - Training dogs to assist the blind and visually impaired.

• Other club service projects in our community.

 

Race Day Registration

Registration opens at 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM start time.  Registration ends 10 minutes before start time. We will have paper registration forms, if necessary, but the easiest and quickest way to register is online.  Registration can easily be done on your phone on race day.  

 

Packet Pickup

We plan for an early packet pickup at Fleet Feet Lexington located at The Summit at Fritz Farm in South Lexington (Address:  4084 Finn Way Suite 140, Lexington, KY 40517). More information when it gets closer to race day.  

There will also be race morning PPU beginning at 7:30am at Masterson Station Park.  Tee shirts, bibs and goodie bags will be waiting for you at the registration table.  

 

Coffee and Doughnuts

Nothing goes better with the crisp clean air of a bluegrass Kentucky spring morning than a cup of coffee and a doughnut, or banana if you prefer.  

 

Join a Team and Save

At registration time you will have the opportunity to join a Vision Team with your friends and fellow runners or create your own Vision Team and invite your friends to join. 

You can easily create a team when you register, give it a fun name, then invite your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to join your team.  Teams can be as large as you want.  To help you recruit members for your team, all teams of 5 or more members, will save $3.00 off their registration!

How team discount pricing works:
When people register for your team, the first 4 members of the team (including you) will pay the current full registration price.  The 5th person, and every subsequent person who joins the team will pay the current registration fee less $3.00.  After that 5th person joins the team, to complete the 5-person team discount minimum, the first 4 members of the team will each be refunded $3.00 on their credit card!

Door Prizes

The Lions Run for Sight is known for our door prizes.  We hope to have 100 special prizes for our 39th annual run.

Race History

The first Lions Run for Sight was held in 1988 and has been run every year since in Lexington Kentucky.  2020 is the first (and hopefully only) year that we hold the run as only a virtual event.  We have survived rain, freezing rain, snow, and even thunderstorms (just made that one between lightening events, must have been lucky that year!)  But through it all we have managed to put on a small, but fun event that we have been proud to bring to the running community all these years!

For our 34th year in 2021, the Run for Sight, was held as a hybrid event, and not on our traditional date of the first Saturday in April, but the end of August.  The uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic at the beginning of 2021 forced us to choose to hold the run later in the year and as a hybrid event.  This also necessitated the changing of our venue from Masterson Station Park in Lexington to Coldstream Park in Lexington for this year.  Also, for the first time in Run for Sight history, we had to postpone the run in 2025 due to heavy rain and lightening.  We hope to be back to our regular Masterson Station Park venue in 2026.

Places the run has been held:

• Jacobson Park, Lexington
• Veterans Park, Lexington
• Masterson Station Park, Lexington
• Virtual only (2020)
• Coldstream Park, Lexington (2021, 2025)

Our vision of service 

Proceeds from the Run for Sight help us in our vison for service.  Some of the ways the proceeds from this event help us provide service to our community are listed below.

 

Liberty Elementary School

Our club began serving the students of Johnson Elementary in Lexington over 25 years ago until it closed 2009.  We held clothing drives, provided dinners and fun evenings for the students, and generally helped this school in its mission serving some of the less fortunate children of Lexington.  When it was replaced by William Wells Brown school, we continued this partnership with them for many years.  We provided goodie bags to every teacher at the beginning of the school year each fall school to get them the supplies they need to be successful in their classrooms.  For summer school students, we sponsor perfect attendant prizes with a grand prize of a drawing for new bicycles for one boy and girl from all those with perfect attendance.  Our latest project with the school is to provide hygiene bags for boys and girls who are in need of these basic necessities.

Now, we have shifted our partnership to Liberty Elementary where we provide the same services as we did for William Wells Brown elementary.  There are many needs to support this school that also has a large contingent of students who are in greater need.  We are always looking for opportunities to help the students and teachers of this school.

 

Kentucky Lions Youth Camps 

Regionally, our club has had a relationship with Lions Camp Crescendo since its inception in 1996, until its sale in 2024.   This camp hosted the Lions of Kentucky's free summer youth camp experience for children who are blind or vision impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, children with AIDS or are affected by HIV, and children living in foster or kinship care.  This camp is a wonderful facility and provides a cherished camp experience for the children it serves, and it will still host our Kentucky Lions Youth Camps for the foreseeable futured.  These free camps only last for a couple of weeks in the summer, but the memories and friendships forged by the campers last a lifetime. 

 

Foster Children

This demographic has been a group that we have been trying to serve more as the need continues to grow.  One way these children are being served is at Lions Camp Crescendo with the free camp week in the summers.  We have also been working to provide needed luggage, duffle bags and backpacks for these children who frequently get moved around.  These simple items help these children organize and keep their things in order.

 

Purchase Eyeglasses

Throughout the year, we receive requests from individuals who need assistance in purchasing eyeglasses.  Many of these people need to have clear vision to help them find employment.  This is a valuable service helping individuals in our community who are working to make better lives for themselves and their families.

RUN A RACE - ENJOY A FREE MEAL!

Back by popular demand, Carabba's Italian Grill will once again be serving food (menu to be determined) for participants of the upcoming Lion's Run For Sight 5K on Saturday, April 4th at Masterson Station Park!  This was such a big hit last year, that Carabbas ran out of food!  Come enjoy the race and the yummy Carabba's food.  You won't be disappointed! 

5K Run/Walk: T-Shirt