The 31st running of the Fourth of July Free Five-Miler went off with a bang Wednesday, shattering expectations for attendance. An estimated 800 to 1000 runners packed the River Park neighborhood for a brisk run on that fast, shady course. Aside from a few bugs--running short on bottled water and the sprinklers running on us the entire time--everything went as smoothly as could be expected.
Our major sponsor and partner this year was Sac Fit, and Executive Director Ken Press was there pitching in--including making a much needed last minute dash to the store for more bottled water.
We were also generously supported by Fleet Feet Racing, City Councilman Steve Cohn, and Assemblyman Dave Jones.
Novice race directors Ed Randolph and John Blue worked out last minute details on the fly and a host of Chips (including, but not limited to, Mark Lantz, John Nichols, Erik Skaden, Grant Carboni and Tony Lafferty) managed the course marshal efforts. Rena Schumann, Gina Adams, and Merie Paddeck ably ran the Chips booth. Tony Smith and Mario Sanchez did a bit of everything, as usual. Youth Chips and Youth Chips parents ran the aid station, hosted by former Chip Carl Dahl. (And thanks Carl for helping clean up and haul the aid station back to the finish line!) AJ Underwood took race photos (Which we'll post someday) and stepped up to start the race when John realized he didn't have a stop watch for the start.
The massive shopping and donation collection effort was provided by Jenny Hitchings who learned her car could carry a thousand pounds of water. And thanks to Dennis Scott for coming out the day before and touching up the mile marks, and to Lloyd Levine for leafleting his neighbors to alert them about an aid station we decided to move elsewhere. There were other Chips pitching in that I don't have names for, including a Chipette who did a significant amount of work at the finish line aid station. (Help!)
A special thanks to the FrontRunners for coming out and helping with registration and setting up the finish line aid station.
Thanks to all this years donors, including: Safeway, Trader Joes, Save Mart, Costco, and the 1011 12th Street Espresso Bar.
Oh! And there are Results:
Top (and only) Wheelchair Athlete finished in 24:34. He got away before I could get his name! (Who was that masked man?)
Top Five Men:
Tim Cannon 26:00
Dan Napieralski 26:35
Scott Donahue 27:28
Eric Greggory 27:46
Chris Haworth 27:46
Top Five Women
Elinor Yee 33:56
Cynthia Bosco 34:13
Sheri Opp 34:45
Theresa McCourt 34:56
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