The force was certainly strong with 739 participants at the 20th annual runBlossom 5K race on Saturday morning. The Arkansas Riverwalk was flooded with smiling faces and fast feet as participants, ages 4 through 83, completed 3.1 miles. Donning their “May the 4th be with you” tees, they descended on the start and finish lines like a fleet of Star Wars tri-fighters.
The morning’s first wave was started by the event’s first race director, Sarah Ley, who was inducted into the Blossom Festival Hall of Fame this year. Since 2005, when the race ran through downtown, it has moved to the Riverwalk and grown to include a districtwide youth running program – the Youth Exercise Training Initiative. This year, 275 students signed up to run through the month of April and participate in the 5K. Plenty of friends and family members signed up to run alongside their competitor.
Head Coach and program organizer Marcy Epperson has seen the program grow from just 56 students in 2012.
“It’s great to see the community embrace what has become a tradition of getting out and being healthy,” said FAR’s current director and race organizer, Brian VanIwarden. “There’s so much going on during the Blossom Festival, and we love being a part of these traditions. This year we saw a 25% increase over last years’ number of participants, and we are just so excited to see this many people out.”
Blossom Royalty were present to hand out awards to competitive participants. David Reynolds, who has run every runBlossom race since its inception, received first in his age group.
The overall winners of the Competitive Wave 5K were: Alexi Till of Cañon City (22:19), Kindra Hardy-Johnson of Buena Vista (23:07), and Christian Ley Mathews of Erie (24:15). In the men’s category, winners were Maxwell Hughes of Nashville, TN, (17:52), Griffin Weiner of Colorado Springs (18:40), and Tabor Stevens of Cañon City (19:02).
The overall winners of the YETI wave were: Miranda Benoit of Westcliffe, age 13 (26:44), Gabrielle Malebranche of Cañon City, age 10 (27:15), and Emily Nordyke of Pueblo (27:36). In the boys’ category, winners were Jack Howard of Cañon City, age 9 (22:36), Ramsey Lama, Jr. of Cañon City, age 9, (24:27), and Tate Richardson of Cañon City, age 9 (24:42).
“We really could not do this without our volunteers,” VanIwarden said, “who give up their whole morning on a busy weekend.” The event is staffed by more than 25 volunteers and is supported by Bank of the San Juans, Florence Family Dentistry, Southern Colorado Runners, Natural Grocers, the Cañon City Daily Record / Shopper, and Cañon City Schools. The Cañon City High School Mountain Bike Team offered their services as bike lead and sweep to ensure safety on the course.
Results for the race are located at: joinFAR.org/runblossom. For more information on other events being held in the area, including the upcoming Dino-rific 1-Mile Kids’ Fun Run on May 18, visit joinFAR.org.
