Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races 2026: Meet Chiron

Running the Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races on September 27? Dr. Oh Has a Few Things He Wants You to Know

On September 27, runners, walkers, families, and fans will take over Oakland

University’s campus for the Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races.

And if you’re tackling the 5k or the 10k, there’s one thing the course organizers what

you to know ahead of time:

Be ready for some hills.

That means the weeks leading up to race day are more important than simply tracking

your miles. Whether you’re chasing a personal best, trying your first 5k, or just hoping to

finish strong, this is a good time to pay attention to what your body is telling you.

Are you recovering well between runs?

Are you noticing pain that keeps showing up in the same place?

How does your body respond when the terrain changes or fatigue sets in?

And are you training for the demands of the course you’re actually going to run?

These are the kinds of questions we think about every day at Chiron Sports

Performance – which is one reason we’re excited to be a Golden Grizzy Level sponsor

of this year’s Festival of Races.

Meet Dr. Oh

A natural connection to Oakland University, Chiron co-founder Dr. Chibuzo “Casey”

Ohanaja is an OU faculty member in the School of Health Sciences, as well as a board-

certified family medicine physician with sports medicine training. And long before

medicine, he was an athlete himself, competing in football, basketball, and track and

field.

Today, his work at Chiron centers around helping athletes better understand how their

bodies are performing – and giving them medical, scientific, and performance support to

keep them progressing.

So when an Oakland University event brought together movement, wellness, competition, and

support for athletes – being part of it felt natural for us.

The Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races includes a 5k run/walk, a 10k, and a free kids race for children 10 and

younger, with proceeds supporting Oakland University Cross Country and Track & Field

student-athletes.

That means you don’t have to be an elite runner to belong there.

And you don’t have to be an elite athlete to belong at Chiron, either.

Who is Chiron?

Chiron Sports Performance is a physician-led, data driven sports medicine and

performance facility in Bloomfield Hills.

Any athlete of any age and skill who walks through our doors is evaluated, tested, and

measured to establish an exact picture of how their body is performing.

And for anyone preparing for a race, that bigger-picture approach matters.

Running isn’t just about whether you can put one foot in front of the other for 3.1 or 6.2

miles. Strength, balance, movement, recovery, previous injuries, and the way your body

responds to increasing demands can all become part of the picture.

At Chiron, evaluation and objective testing help our team understand that picture.

The information we gather is used to create an individualized Athlete Blueprint that can

guide training, recovery, injury-prevention and return-to-play decisions. As the athlete

progresses with our training, we reassess and adjust.

And if an athlete already has a coach or trainer helping them – we want them involved,

too.

Chiron is designed to work alongside the people already supporting an athlete – not to

replace them.

And recovery deserves that same attention, too.

As you prepare for the Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races, it’s worth thinking about what happens after you cross the finish line.

How are you feeling between runs?

Are you feeling ready for your next effort?

Or is the same discomfort or fatigue showing up again?

At Chiron, those experiences are part of the bigger picture. We consider them alongside your training demands, health history, and assessment findings to help guide an individualized approach to recovery.

Because understanding how you recover is part of understanding how to move forward.

So Come Find Us on Race Day

The Golden Grizzlies Festival of Races is more than who crosses the finish line first. It’s

for the runner chasing a personal record. The person walking their first 5k. The kids

discovering how much fun racing can be. The parents on the sidelines or the students

and alums coming back to campus.

And of course, for anyone who believes movement, health, and athletic opportunities

are worth supporting.

That’s why we’ll be there.

On September 27, come find Chiron. Tell us what you’re training for. Tell us how the

race went. Tell us what hurts, what feels great, or what you want to improve next.

Or just come by to say hello to Dr. Oh.

We’ll be there supporting athletes because that’s what we do. And this year, we’re proud

to do it alongside the Golden Grizzlies.