Ohio's big 5Ks come in two kinds, and they do not publish the same number.

• Standalone 5Ks publish their own field. Those figures mean what they say.
• 5K legs inside a bigger race weekend — a half marathon weekend, a heart walk, a marathon — usually publish only a weekend-wide or event-wide total covering every distance. The 5K is a share of that, and nobody breaks it out.

Both kinds belong on a list of Ohio's largest 5K events, so both are here. The Counts column says which number you are looking at. Two rows should never be compared without reading it. The apples-to-apples answer — largest field published for a 5K on its own — is the second table further down.

No number appears here without a named source and the year it belongs to.

#	Event	City	When	Reported field	Counts
1	Cincinnati Heart Mini-Marathon & Walk	Cincinnati	mid-March	close to 30,000 registrants	whole event — ½ marathon, 15K, 5K race, 5K heart walk, 2K, 1K, fun run
2	OhioHealth Capital City Half & Quarter Marathon and Columbus Promise 5K	Columbus	late April	12,000+ expected, 2026	whole event — half, quarter, 5K
3	SKECHERS Hot Chocolate Run Columbus	Columbus	mid-November	10,000+ (RunGuides size band); about 8,000 in 2023	whole event — 5K, 10K, 15K
4	Queen City Running Co. 5K (Flying Pig weekend)	Cincinnati	first weekend of May	8,300 in 2026, 8,199 in 2025, sold to 100% capacity	5K only
5	Susan G. Komen Columbus Race for the Cure	Columbus	mid-May	more than 7,500 in 2026; 30,000+ in 2015; 749 at the first in 1993	5K plus a 1-mile
6	Air Force Marathon weekend, 5K at Wright State	Fairborn	September	7,600+ across the weekend; 1,600+ in the 5K, 2025	weekend total, with the 5K broken out
7	The 5th Line 5K	Columbus	mid-February	more than 4,000, 2026	5K only
8	Race for the Place	Beachwood	early June	about 2,700 at the 25th annual	5K plus a 1-mile walk
9	OhioHealth Grandview Yard Half & Quarter Marathon and Purple Heart 5K	Grandview Heights	August	2,400+, a record in 2025	whole event — half, quarter, 5K
10	Granville Turkey Trot	Granville	Thanksgiving Day	more than 2,000 at the 20th annual, 2025	5K only

Strip out the weekend totals and this is what is left — the five Ohio races that publish a 5K field and nothing else mixed in.

#	Race	City	Field	Year
1	Queen City Running Co. 5K	Cincinnati	8,300, at 100% capacity	2026
2	The 5th Line 5K	Columbus	more than 4,000	2026
3	Granville Turkey Trot	Granville	more than 2,000	2025
4	Air Force Marathon 5K	Fairborn	more than 1,600 registered	2025
5	Tuscarawas County YMCA Turkey Trot	New Philadelphia	1,172, a race record	2025

The Queen City Running Co. 5K is the largest 5K field in the state that anyone publishes as a 5K field: 8,300 in 2026, up from 8,199 the year before, and capped — it fills to 100% capacity and stops, so its ceiling is a decision rather than demand. Everything above it in the first table is a multi-distance event quoting a weekend total.

The Komen Columbus Race for the Cure is the historical answer and needs its own line. Columbus grew the largest Susan G. Komen race in the country — 30,000-plus downtown in 2015, from 749 at the first running in 1993. The 2026 edition drew more than 7,500. On any peak-year basis it is the biggest 5K Ohio has ever held; on a current-year basis it is fifth.

Two seasons carry the rest. Spring stacks four of the ten into six weeks — Heart Mini in March, Cap City in late April, the Flying Pig and Komen Columbus in May — and Thanksgiving morning is the single busiest race day of the Ohio year. The Granville Turkey Trot is the only trot large enough to make the ten, but it is one of dozens: the Tuscarawas County YMCA trot set its own record at 1,172 in 2025, and every metro in the state has several more.

Two entries are 5Ks that finish somewhere a 5K normally cannot. The 5th Line 5K finishes on centre ice at Nationwide Arena and is run with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Air Force Marathon 5K runs the Wright State campus the day before the marathon at Wright-Patterson.

• Arnold 5K, Pump & Run and Ruck, Columbus — Arnold Sports Festival weekend at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Grew more than 50% in 2026, its first year produced by M3S Sports, and is described only as "thousands of athletes". No count published, so it cannot be ranked.
• Cleveland Marathon 5K, Cleveland — run Saturday morning of marathon weekend, 7:30 a.m. from St. Clair at Mall B. The weekend is one of the largest in the state; the 5K field is not broken out.
• Komen Northeast Ohio Race for the Cure, Cleveland — a 5K run and walk plus a 1-mile, 25 years old as of 2018. No recent participation figure found.
• Tuscarawas County YMCA Turkey Trot, New Philadelphia — 1,172 registered in 2025, a race record for a 54-year-old event, ages 3 to 88.

Named here so nobody goes looking for them above.

Race	City	Distance	Size
Flying Pig Marathon weekend	Cincinnati	marathon, half, 10K, 5K, mile	45,197 registered across three days, 2026
Western & Southern Thanksgiving Day Race	Cincinnati	10K	116th running in 2025; one of the nation's oldest and largest 10Ks

• Records Fall at 28th Annual Flying Pig Marathon — Queen City Running Co. 5K at 8,300 (2025: 8,199), 45,197 weekend registrations
• More than 7,500 participants gather in downtown Columbus for 2026 Race for the Cure — 10TV
• By the numbers: the biggest Komen race in the country — Columbus Monthly, on 749 in 1993 and 30,000+ in 2015
• 43rd Heart Mini-Marathon and Walk — "close to 30,000 registrants"; the distance list including a 5K race and a 5K heart walk
• OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon returns to Columbus April 25 — ABC6, 12,000+ expected, Columbus Promise 5K named
• 2026 Hot Chocolate Run — Columbus — 10,000+ size band; Columbus SKECHERS Hot Chocolate Run for date and distances
• The 5th Line 5K — overview — more than 4,000 in 2026, Nationwide Arena finish
• The 2025 Air Force Marathon drew more than 7,600 competitors — Wright-Patterson AFB; Wright State hosts thousands for the Air Force Marathon 5K for the 1,600+ 5K field
• The Gathering Place marks National Cancer Survivors Day at 25th annual Race for the Place 5K — WKYC, about 2,700
• OhioHealth Grandview Yard Half & Quarter Marathon Sets Record in Fourth Year — M3S Sports, 2,400+ including the Purple Heart 5K
• Thanksgiving 5K a beloved holiday tradition in Licking County — more than 2,000 at the 20th Granville Turkey Trot
• Tuscarawas County YMCA Turkey Trot raises record amount — 1,172 registered, 2025
• Arnold 5K, Pump & Run and Ruck see record growth in first year produced by M3S Sports — over 50% growth
• 2025 Western & Southern Thanksgiving Day Race — 116th running