White Elephant 5K/10K/Half Marathon - Atlanta

The White Elephant 5K/10K/Half Marathon takes its name from the gift-swapping game and leans into it completely. Runners gather at New Realm Brewing for an 8:30 start and head out along the Atlanta BeltLine, the city's paved greenway threading through the urban core. The half marathon runs on that same road-style surface, and with essentially no elevation change, it's a course that lets you settle into a rhythm and stay there.

The gimmick is the payoff: you pick your shirt size at registration, but what you actually receive at the finish stays a mystery until you unwrap it — a race shirt and finisher medal from a previous event, packaged White Elephant–style for a festive reveal. It's a playful inversion of the usual swag ritual, and it gives the morning a holiday-party feel rather than a grim time-trial one.

This is a smaller, younger event — roughly 170 finishers at its median, drawing runners from about 16 states, with a winning time around 78 minutes. Age-group awards run from 10-and-under through the most experienced brackets. With 5K and 10K options alongside the half, it's an easy race to bring a friend or family member to, and a genuinely different way to spend a December morning in Atlanta.