Get Your Rear in Gear® – Twin Cities for Colon Cancer Awareness

On March 26, 2005, over 2,000 people gathered on the shores of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis for the inaugural Get Your Rear in Gear, a run/walk to raise money for colorectal cancer education and awareness. It was the first run/walk for colon cancer awareness in the Midwest and one of the first in the country. On Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, Twin Cities-based Colon Cancer Coalition will celebrate its 20th Anniversary at Get Your Rear in Gear – Twin Cities at Harriet Island Regional Park in Saint Paul, Minn.

Supported for the past 20 years by both MNGI Digestive Health and Minnesota Oncology, Get Your Rear in Gear – Twin Cities brings new opportunities for the Minnesota colorectal cancer community to celebrate together and raise money to increase screening, support patients, and save lives from colorectal cancer. In the past 19 years, over $3 million has been raised through this event for these efforts in Minnesota alone.

New in 2024: The event is moving to Harriet Island Regional Park in Saint Paul to better support the crowds and provide more space to gather, a timed 10K option has been added for runners, a one-mile memory walk, plus an expanded survivor hub and larger kids’ activity area.

Get Your Rear in Gear – Twin Cities raises money to reduce barriers to colorectal cancer screenings and support patients, through public awareness and education, and screening efforts to prevent colon cancer right here in Minnesota. The event brings survivors, patients, caregivers, runners, walkers, and volunteers together a morning of celebration and solidarity. Get Your Rear in Gear also offers music, snacks, a giant inflatable colon, plus the timed 10K and 5K, an untimed 5K walk and one-mile memory walk, and a Kids’ Fun Run for those 12 and under (most 5K participants do enjoy the course at a leisurely walk, and all bets are off at the Kids’ Fun Run).

Since 2005, Get Your Rear in Gear has expanded to a nationwide series with over 40 events in 2024, and over 570 events in 39 states and the Bahamas in the past 20 years. Proceeds from each event stay in the local community to provide colorectal cancer screenings to uninsured, low-income patients, as well as raise public awareness and fund quality-of-life research for patients living with colorectal cancer in each local community

“Get Your Rear in Gear events are a time for the colorectal cancer community to join together to support one another,” says Colon Cancer Coalition President Chris Evans. “Events like these give patients, survivors, caregivers, and other loved ones the chance to connect with others living the shared experience of a colorectal cancer diagnosis while helping create awareness for this very treatable disease.”