The Run For The Water Hat features the Course Profile and Wave Pattern, and here's why
Gazelle Foundation has officially dropped the 2025 Run For The Water hat, and supplies are limited. The new hat celebrates our vibrant fan culture, epic race course, and our slogan: One Race. A Lifetime of Change.
Introducing “The Impact Hat” an instant classic that checks all the boxes:
Run For The Water logo
Course elevation profile
Our slogan because clean water is the key to a healthy, prosperous life
Motivation: reminders that every step you take helps bring more clean water to Burundi
Made by Boco, this year’s official Run For The Water hat has an adjustable back, and its lightweight wicking keeps you looking and feeling cool on the road or trail. 100% washable. One size fits most. Supply is limited. When they’re gone — they’re gone!
How to buy
Order your hat during race registration, or click here. Reserve yours, collect it in November during packet pick up at Karavel Shoes in Austin, Texas.
Hat pick-up is available during packet pick-up only.
Behind the design
The design pays homage to all of the things that make our city and Run For The Water special. The colors—aqua blue, orange, and white—symbolize renewal and love when Burundian communities get clean water and athletes join the race. Run For The Water was created as the Gazelle Foundation’s signature fundraiser, raising the profile of the water crisis in Burundi and giving participants a way to run while helping people half a world away.
Thanks to our supporters, we partner with Burundian communities to build clean water systems that are low-tech and sustainable. We have a 100% success rate.
Participate in Run For The Water because One Race = A Lifetime of Change
Aqua Blue – Water, Connection, Trust
Aqua blue evokes clean, life-giving water, the heart of the foundation’s mission. Water is not only used for daily living, it nourishes families and the land and animals they steward. The color also speaks to trust and calm, the trust communities place in Gazelle Foundation and its many supporters, and the calm and relief of finally having nearby access to clean water and local know-how to maintain that access for years to come.
Orange – Joy, Action, Resilence
Orange bursts with warmth, energy, and joy reflecting the vibrancy and strength of Burundian communities and the Gazelle Foundation’s mission as an active partner with each community. It’s the color of sunlight and celebration, of children laughing, women dancing, crops thriving, and futures brightening. Orange stands for the local ingenuity and spirit that powers every water project we build. It’s the color of action and a reminder that anyone can be involved to help more communities become water resilient.
White – Peace, Hope, Dignity
White is the color of a fresh start and peace, washing away hardship and conflict, restoring dignity, and making room for hope and possibility. In rural Burundi, where clean water can be the difference between life and death: from scarcity to sufficiency and from illness to health. Moreover the white color in Burundi’s flag represents more than serenity; it is a backdrop for harmony and the luminosity of the country’s ambitions. It signifies a dedication to openness in administration and the sincerity of purpose in Burundi’s public pursuits, promoting togetherness and collective aspiration for its people.
Breaking down the design
Top of Hat
The Gazelle Foundation’s Run For The Water logo with water droplet is front and center. The race, now in its 19th year, started as a way to give people an outlet to get involved to help people in Burundi in response to Gilbert Tuhabonye’s story of resilience, joy, and forgiveness. (See Gilbert’s memoir: This Voice in My Heart.) Over the years, it has grown into a movement for change. Every step up on the course shortens the walk for someone in Burundi — from four miles to just 400 meters.
The hat's top features curved lines and geometric patterns representing Burundi's hills, springs, and rivers, as well as Austin, Texas' landscape, where the charitable road race and Gazelle Foundation are based.
While Burundi’s hills may be taller and at higher elevation than those in Austin, this year’s new Hill Challenge, Powered by lululemon, part of the 10-mile course during Run For The Water, adds fun and challenge. Whether running to prove you can do hard things or to win, runners are invited to take up the challenge and celebrate on this scenic 600-yard stretch of the course.
Side of the Hat
The hat’s side design celebrates a race course that takes you from hills to water, ending on a fast, flat finish. Follow the race elevation profile around the hat, water stops are marked, and the line finishes in Burundi, where we bring clean water and hope to more new people. When the race ends, a lifetime of clean water begins in Burundi.
Run For the Water supports Burundi, and the race is inspired by our Co-Founder Gilbert Tuhabonye’s experience as a genocide survivor and world-class runner, coach and philanthropist.
Our work would not be possible without so many supporters from Austin and Central Texas and across the world who participate in Run For The Water.
Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking very near the bottom of the UN Human Development Index. The country continues to have one of the world’s highest under‑five mortality rates—around 49 deaths per 1,000 live births according to the UN (2023)—driven largely by preventable infectious diseases such as malaria, acute diarrhea, and respiratory infections, many of which are closely linked to inadequate access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Waterborne illness remains a leading cause of death overall in Burundi. The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs reports high levels of humanitarian need, and certain government regulations make it very difficult for non-governmental organizations to operate in Burundi, making the need greater still. Our unique knowledge of the area and our local partnerships enable us to provide clean water to thousands of Burundians every year.
Under the Bill
The slogan: One Race. A Lifetime of Change reinforces our mission about why we hold Run For The Water each year. We also think it’s the perfect reminder that your run gets clean water running in Burundi. Every action you take from running, donating, volunteering, or wearing this cap around town, helps us spread the word about our work and how others can be involved.
“The path someone can take to change a person’s life in Burundi is remarkably short,” says Pete Rauch, Co-Founder and Board President. “Every race registration matters because it helps us send more resources directly to Burundi.”
Reminder: Hat pick-up is available during packet pick-up only. You don’t have to be registered to buy a hat.
Why Run for the Water
The race, a race built by runners for runners, invites people of all abilities to run or walk the course along Austin’s Ladybird Lake. Offering distances to challenge absolute beginners, casual runners, and elite runners—10-mile, 5K, or KidsK—the race is designed for anyone who wants to participate.
Burundian drummers joyfully celebrate runners with their heart-pounding beats and performances at the finish. A finish line festival on the First Street Bridge caps off the event with activities, food, and fun for all ages.
A portion of every registration goes toward the Foundation’s mission to bring more clean water to Burundi.
About The Event & the Gazelle foundation
The Gazelle Foundation knows that clean water is the key to life. But no one knows this better than the people of Burundi. For more than 14 million people, access to clean water means access to better health, stronger community, jobs, education, and most of all: hope.
Your race registration directly funds building water systems in one of the poorest countries in the world. One Race. A Lifetime of Change.
For 19 years running, the Gazelle Foundation has organized a crowd-pleasing race appealing to runners of every ability, allowing them to transform lives of people in Burundi with the gift of clean water. Each November, over 5,000 runners and walkers take to the streets of downtown Austin for the annual Run For The Water 5K, 10-Miler, and Kids K through our beautiful West Austin course along Ladybird Lake.
The race benefits the Gazelle Foundation, dedicated to providing clean water to the people of Burundi. Clean water provides a path out of poverty, bringing access to better health, stronger communities, jobs, education, and most of all: hope. For those who prefer to participate in a virtual event or for those outside Austin, our Global Run is available.
Race Date: November 9, 2025
Downtown Austin, Texas
5K & 10-miler | 7 am
Kids K | 9:15 am
Registration is OPEN
If you haven’t signed up for Run For The Water yet, what’s stopping you? You can recruit your own team to train together plus the official Training Plan will come out in late August 2025. See you at the starting line!