Saturday, August 18th marked the third running of the Ashland Anytime Fitness 5K. After a week of temperatures that had soared to 100 degrees, a light layer of clouds kept things cool on race morning and the conditions were ideal for some fast running. This years race was a benefit for the Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS). Since the race begins and ends at the Ashland Dog Park, it seemed natural that the race should help benefit our furry friends!
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| David Nelson, Kel Fox, and Ken Heywood are all smiles before the race! |
This year marked the first year that we had a hand cyclist participate. From what I gathered at our pre-race conversation, I believe it was Mark Towery's first race and I was happy he chose our race to be his first. We had him start one minute early to avoid the early race congestion on the bike path. After Mark was on his way, we had the rest of the participants line up. We gave them a countdown from 10 seconds and then they were on their way.
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| Mark Towery heading out on the course. |
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| The start of the runners. |
As we waited for a glimpse of the first runners, the sun made it's way out, and things began to quickly warm up. The first runner appeared all alone and it was Aaron Luksich, who finished with a time of 17:58. He was cruising and his time was the third fastest ever run on this race course. It wasn't until about a minute later that the next runner came to the finish. Joshua Wallace ran a 19:04, which is still very fast, but it was only good enough for second place on this day.
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| Aaron Luksich on his way to the 3rd fastest time ever run on this course! |
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| Joshua Wallace runs a fast 19:04 which is good enough for second place! |
The competition was a little closer in the female division, but Darci Mullin was able to hold off her competitors with a solid time of 26:30.
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| Darci eyes the finish line and pushes the pace up the hill! |
There was a pack of several runners that came in just under the 30 minute mark. The hill to the finish line may not seem like much as you head out on the course, but you definitely feel it as you make your way to the finish. I was impressed with how well everyone ran it.
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| Strong running up the hill leads to a sub 30 minute finish for these runners! |
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| Mark Towery working his way to the finish! |
The race isn't just for runners. I try to make it clear that walkers are also invited to be a part of it.
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| Joyce Ollman and Nasra Ali know that exercise is a great way to start off the weekend! |
As everyone was finishing up the race, we started raffling off prizes. At this race, we have never provided shirts or hats, but I have always worked hard to obtain great prizes, and a lot of them. My goal at this race has always been to send everyone home with some kind of prize for participating, and that's what I believe has made this race special. You don't have to be a blazing fast runner to win something, you just have to come out and participate in something healthy, and this year it also helped a good cause. One of my favorite parts is the raffle drawing and awards! Full race results can be found
here and Shahid Ali took great pics which can be found
here.
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| Ashland Anytime Fitness 5K 2012 Hand Cyclist Champion, Mark Towery |
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| Ashland Anytime Fitness 5K 2012 Male Champion, Aaron Luksich |
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| Ashland Anytime Fitness 5K 2012 Female Champion, Darci Mullin |
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| Last year's champion Tyrone Raber and Ted Darland showing off their ribbons! |
I have to say a big "Thank you" to all the great businesses in the valley that were willing to donate prizes. They are awesome for supporting our races. Another big thanks to
Ashland Anytime Fitness for sponsoring the run and supporting me in organizing the race. This race would never have been created in the first place without them. Thanks to the volunteers that help make the race possible, you are awesome for spending your Saturday morning to help out. Shahid Ali took some great
pictures and I always appreciate him coming to the race with his camera. I would also like to thank physical therapist
James Yang for making an appearance at the race and treating people. He was a great addition to the race this year and he is a very knowledgeable therapist, so hopefully you had a chance to interact with him. I also want to thank Eliza Kauder of
FOTAS for bringing out those cute kittens and reminding us of the great things that
FOTAS does. I would also like to thank all the participants in this year's race who made it possible to raise money for FOTAS. This year I had gotten a very late start on the management and promotion of the race due to the fact that I had just bought a house and moved, and I came on board with Rogue Valley Race Group to help manage Granite Man. Next year, we will get the race date set earlier so you can hopefully set it in your race schedule for the year. I am also considering adding a 10K.
Rogue Valley Race Group plans on adding new races to their schedule so make sure to connect with us on
Facebook. Let us know what kind of races you would like to see in the future and we take your input seriously. Now is also probably a good time to mention that we are in the process of purchasing race timing equipment, so in the near future all of our races will have chip timing and we can also provide this service for other race directors that are interested. Thanks for racing with us!
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| Chad (now an official Ironman) and Mike from Rogue Valley Race Group thank you for racing with us! |
