Front Royal Kiwanis 5K

Front Royal, VA, May 19, 2007

Race Report

There are currently five active running races held in Warren County, Virginia each year, and in 2007 it turned out that two of those five fell on the same date for the first time. On Saturday 19 May, a few hours after the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club's rugged Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run got started in the western part of the county, forty-two less masochistic (some might say "smarter") runners showed up at Warren County Middle School in Front Royal for the seventh running of the Front Royal Kiwanis 5K. These folks were treated to pleasant 60° temperatures under beautiful blue skies as they strode past the almost-dismantled Avtex Fibers plant and up the hill to the campus of Randolph-Macon Academy overlooking the town. One could gaze west towards the Massanutten Mountain ridge and think, Glad I'm only running 3.1 miles today instead of 100!

As 9:00 AM arrived and the race got underway, Warren County High School's Andrew Turner dashed out into the lead, followed closely by Warren County Junior High's Blake Sheffler. Patiently trailing them down West 15th Street was 33-year-old Karsten Brown, making his fifth Kiwanis 5K appearance. Brown snuck past the 13-year-old Sheffler at the half-mile mark, but the other teenager proved much more difficult to track down. Turner, 15, sped through the largely downhill first mile in a blistering 5:20 and betrayed few signs of letting up on the long straightaway up Kendrick Lane. It wasn't until the climb up to Randolph-Macon's north gate that Brown finally managed to catch Turner, near the halfway point.

Quickly opening up a comfortable gap, Brown huffed and puffed his way down to the turnaround on Chowning Hall Drive and back out of the campus, finally reaching the finish line back at WCMS in 17:11. Turner hung in to take second overall, setting a personal best of 18:01 and breaking the event record for males aged 15 to 19. Last year's runner-up, Mike Meadows of Martinsburg, overtook Sheffler to finish third overall and earn the male Masters honors with an 18:51 finish. Considering that Meadows recently turned 50 years old, this was actually one of the best performances in race's history. Close to half a minute later, Sheffler had to hold off his father, Loren, to finish fourth in 19:17, setting a new 14 & under event record in the process. The elder Sheffler crossed the line just a few steps behind.

Just ten women participated in this year's 5K, with only Colleen Snyder of Linden having run the race before. But Winchester's Vicky Krossman has been a regular on the Shenandoah Valley running scene for years, and it was no surprise to see her leading the women's field in her first visit to the Kiwanis 5K. The 38-year-old easily outpaced her competition to finish first in 23:36. Second overall went to the top female Warren County finisher, 16-year-old Ashleigh Pryor, who ran a 25:19. Amy Youmans, an eighth grader at Daniel Morgan Middle School in Winchester, was third in 26:59. The battle for the female Masters award came down to two youthful-looking Charlotte DeHart Elementary School staffers, Peggy Fishel and Susan Gano. The duo entered the middle school parking lot together, but as they came down the final stretch, Fishel, 49, leapt ahead of Gano, 48. The two crossed the finish line in 30:16 and 30:17 respectively.

Other notes: Front Royal's Sue Cobb became the Kiwanis 5K's first-ever finisher in the women's 60 & over division, setting an event record (obviously) of 38:56... The race director split the advertised men's 60 & over age group into 60-69, 70-79, and 80 & over divisions in order to recognize the three oldest participants. 69-year-old Joe Waltz of Front Royal ran the second fastest time for anyone 60 or over in the event's history, finishing in 24:38. 72-year-old Terry McCarthy's 27:22 was easily the best Kiwanis 5K performance by a runner in his seventies. And four-time participant Bob Atkins, 81, became the race's first-ever finisher in his eighties... Of the seven participants who also ran the poorly-attended 2006 race, Colleen Snyder showed the most improvement, dropping close to a minute and a half off her '06 time to finish in 34:52. Stephen Armstrong's 23:42 performance was 36 seconds faster than last year, and Kenneth Morris ran a 21:17 this year to better his '06 finish by 32 seconds... Jim Shaughnessy, meanwhile, followed up his 21:41 finish in '06 with another 21:41 finish... Snyder, Brown, and Myron Kremer each finished their fifth Kiwanis 5K, joining Neal Riemenschneider (absent this year) as the only runners with five finishes under their belts. Atkins and Fred Franklin both have four finishes to their credit... Thirty of this year's forty-two participants were running the race for the first time.

Race director Terry Leckie, hosting the event as a fundraiser for the Front Royal Kiwanis Club, did his usual excellent job. (Thankfully the "Leckie Curse", which brought rain to the first three editions of the 5K, has long since been broken!) Assisting with the race were various volunteers from the Kiwanis and the Shenandoah Valley Runners, including Tammy Batcha, Jim Cobb, Ed Greco, Mike Laing, Candy Lang, Brandi Leckie, June Newcomb, and Alexander Snyder. Also providing financial assistance were race sponsors Harry A. Dean Jr. of the Crawford Insurance Agency, Richard L. Mason of Edward Jones Investments, local dentists Harry H. Heard III and Craig A. Zunka, and State Farm Insurance agent Bill Powers Jr. Many thanks to all involved, and hopefully the race will return in May 2008... and maybe some of those 100 mile runners will come to their senses and choose the shorter race next year!