Oak Barrel Half Marathon

05/20/2026

LOCAL NEWS | During National EMS Week, a Huntsville retired Major General appeared before the Metro Council on Monday to credit local crews with helping to save his life during the Oak Barrel Half Marathon.

04/10/2026

We are fairly certain that you have seen these – but just in case you don’t read emails – the race photos can be found here: https://www.werunracephotos.com/WRH/2026-Events/2026-Oak-Barrel-Half
We Run Race Photos do a fabulous job with the pictures and they are super duper fast at getting them posted. We love We Run Race Photos.

04/09/2026

In looking at some of the comments from the post-race survey – one of the reoccurring comments was the suggestion to move the start time of the race to 7AM to help and avoid the heat.
One of the reasons that the start time is set at 8AM is to allow the large number of folks that drive in from an hour+ (Nashville, Huntsville, Nolensville, Franklin, …..) to get into town without getting up at an unreasonably early hour.

For just a few minutes – one of us started trying to sort out what the implications of that earlier start time might be. Then Sunday morning (the next day) we walked out at 8AM to 46 degrees outside and the temp got to about 55 by noon Sunday.

Looking back at the temps from the last few years at start and finish times
4/3/21 – 8AM – 36 F Noon - 55 F
4/2/22 – 8AM – 41 F Noon – 55 F
4/1/23 – 8AM – 63 F Noon – 72 F
4/6/24 – 8AM – 41 F Noon – 53 F
4/5/25 - 8AM – 72 F Noon – 79 F
4/4/26 – 8AM – 68 F Noon – 75 F

The first Saturday in April – it is difficult to guess what the temperatures will be. Yes – the last two years have been very warm. But we don’t know what we will get 4/3/2027.
And – thank you to those who took the time to give us your feedback.

04/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/185m8rnU7g/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Saturday, April 25 the Hardware & General Store will be offering raw (unfinished) barrel halves starting at 9:30 a.m. and while supplies last.

We'll be set up in Wiseman Park, and in honor of Earth Day, each half barrel will come with a free seed pack and [optional to fill your planter with] bio-char soil made from used barrels.

These $15 planters are raw barrel halves cut on-site with a chainsaw — no nails, no stain, no poly. Just plain barrel planters, ready for you to finish how you like. These will not be the finished, poly-coated planters you see out front — just the real deal, fresh cut.

If you want the finished/branded ones, we’ll have Premium Planters as well as whole barrels at 22% off — including finished branded planters, raw branded planters, and quarter planters in the Barrel Shop on the town square.

Lynchburg's annual Spring in the Hollow celebration is also April 25. So if you plan to attend, be sure to stop by and say hello while you are in Wiseman Park.

04/07/2026

Thank you all for your donations to the Friends of Animals Rescue & Adoption Center - Lynchburg,TN. The winners of the drawing for free 2027 Oak Barrel Half entries were
Debbie Robin
Adrian Aldape
Christy Scott
Jenny Tebon
Eva Courtney

04/07/2026

We have had several folks ask about purchasing the shirts that had the participant names on them. We sold all that we had ordered for the race. Our printer is going to make another run of them and ship them. So, if you are interested in one of the ‘name’ shirts – you can order it here: We have had several folks ask about purchasing the shirts that had the participant names on them. We sold all that we had ordered for the race. Our printer is going to make another run of them and ship them. So, if you are interested in one of the ‘name’ shirts – you can order it here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefHb3NTOhwbK7T3dj4porTN9n3K5SqCN6Zm4jXaM8lVm0btQ/viewform

The order form will be active until Monday 4/13/26

04/06/2026

Water Stations –
We absolutely can not manage this race without lots of help from local groups. We love our volunteers!
We also appreciate you taking the time to vote for your favorite water station.

So the results of the competition –

Water station #3 (Construction Zone – Paving the way to the finish line – Coffee County Beta Club) and #4 (Blankenship Heard – Farm Animals – Blankenship Community Church) will both be receiving the 1st place donation. Confession the race director swapped the themes and station numbers on the jars – so they both will be getting the first-place donation since the vote jars were a little messed up.

Water station #6 (Back to the 80’s – Moore County High School Band) was second place

Water station #2 (Firemen – Moore County Volunteer Fire Department) was third

Water station #7(Almost Holy Water – Boyd Christian School) was fourth.

Unfortunately – I don’t have many pictures of our water stations this year. If any of you happened to have gotten some – we would love to see them.

04/06/2026

Sometime after the race concluded, we were made aware of a situation whereby there were folks handing out what we later discovered was Jack Daniel’s on the course at an unapproved aide station was just after the Whiskey Hill climb. For the record, these folks were neither part of our race staff nor were they our authorized volunteers. We love our home town product, Jack Deniel’s, both the company and the product. But there is a time and place for everything, this was neither the place nor the time.

04/05/2026

A quick update on the gentleman that collapsed about a mile or so into the race. He was flown to a Huntsville hospital and he is doing ok. I don’t have the details but I was told that he is doing ok. A massive thank you to the runners that stopped to render aid. My understanding is that the incident happened just outside the EMS headquarters. So, if there is a good place for a bad thing to happen – that was certainly it. Medical professionals running along with him as well as a very, very short drive for the ambulance.

We also want to thank our EMS folks They were busy – and we are truly appreciative of all that they do!