The St. Barnabas Medical Center 5K Run/Walk is quickly becoming all about family — as are competitive runs in general.

Valencia resident Kim Ebbert will compete in the Aug. 3 event in Richland Township for the fifth time with her husband, Ken, and third time with daughter Kaylee, 12, and son Kaden, 11.

“This is the first race I've ever done,” Ebbert said. “I used to run all the time at home and we went to Pine-Richland, so this race was right in our community.

“Now we run 5Ks together and we want to do the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon.”

Scott and Rachelle Haberberger of Sarver and Rachelle's sister-in-law, Erica Savannah of Butler. will be running the St. Barnabas 5K for the first time.

It will be their sixth 5K race in the past few months, however.

“My first 5K ever was last March,” Savannah said. “I never ran or competed in anything. Rachelle had been doing it for a couple of years now.

“She talked me into giving it a try and it's so much fun. Families can do it together, it's a fun way to stay healthy and most of the races benefit charities, which is the most important part.

“If an organization approached me about donating $20 to a charity, I'd do it anyway. With these 5Ks, you get a whole lot more while making that donation,” Savannah added.

Rachelle's first running event was the Turkey Troy 5K in 2011. She's run in roughly a dozen 5K events since.

“I was not an athlete,” she said. “I took part in a nine-week program to get off the couch and train through running. It's motivating and we like supporting each other.”

As many as eight Savannah family members may run the St. Barnabas 5K. Their mother will do the walking part of the event.

While Ebbert, 41, has done well in previous St. Barnabas 5Ks — never finishing worse than third in her age group — the Savannahs compete against their own previous times.

“I don't worry about winning ... I can't imagine doing that,” Savannah, 27, said. “But at the same time, if a little kid or 70-year-old man runs by you, that's motivation.”

Though she's been doing 5Ks for only a few months, Savannah has shaved eight minutes off her time from her first to most recent race. The Haberbergers have shaved four to five minutes off their time.

“Who knows what the future holds?,” pondered Scott Haberberger, a former center fielder on the Ohio University baseball team. “We're all planning to run the Pittsburgh Great Race, our first 10K, in September. We're thinking of trying a half-marathon.

“None of us are thinking about doing a marathon, but we don't know where running will lead us. I like the natural progression of all this.”

The Savannah family competed in their first Butler Road Race 5-Mile last month. That race benefitted the BRR scholarship fund for local high school cross country runners.

The St. Barnabas 5K benefits the organization's Free Care Fund, which provided nearly $4.5 million to poor and low-income patients last year alone.

St. Barnabas has a goal of attracting 1,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes to this year's race.

“At the end of the day, the charities, the scholarships ... that's what these runs are about,” Haberberger said. “That's why we do it.

“But I do enioy the competitiveness of it and how it keeps you health-conscious.”

The St. Barnabas 5K runs up and dow Meridian Road in Richland Township. Ebbert has no problem letting her children run in the event, though they get separated from their parents during the course of the race.

“The course is up and back, so we actually pass the kids going back the other way,” Ebbert said. “And it's in my community, so I know a lot of people here.

“This race, when someone goes down, surrounding runners help them back up. It's very family and friend oriented.”

Haberberger has it in perspective.

“None of us are planning on quitting our day jobs and competing with the Kenyans at the New York City Marathon,” he said, laughing. “It's all fun.”

And worthwhile.

“We did the Race for the Cure and seeing all of those (cancer) survivors running together in a group was very emotional,” Savannah said. “That was special.”