| Damien's Run For Recovery 5K |
24 June 2007 |
Gateway Industrial Park Columbia, MD |
| Results - 5K |
| Women's Overall |
| Men's Overall |
| Awards |
| Photos |
24 June 2007
“Too” brothers from New Bedford, NJ, heard that Damien’s 5k offered cash prizes with a special bonus prize for breaking the course record of 14:36 set in 2006 by Chris Seaton. That’s right, Daniel and Solomon Too descended on the Columbia Gateway 5k course, bolted away from everyone from the very start, and wound up racing each other for victory. They rocketed through the first mile in 4:32 and left local favorites Izudin “Izzy” Mehmedovic and Tom Williams in the dust. “I saw a lot of their backs,” Tom remembered. Daniel and Solomon ran stride for stride for most of the 3.1 miles, and Solomon pulled away to win in the final quarter mile. Alas! His 14:43 was a few seconds short of the record. “He is younger than me,” explained Solomon. Both are training for fall marathons in the Midwest and were using Damien’s as a tune-up sort of thing.
The women’s race also a very fast field. Cara Wettlaufer outraced 2006 Strider Runner of the Year Feng Sun for the victory, although Cara admitted she didn’t see many other women. “I was running with the guys,” she said. A former teammate of Mr. Medmedovic at UMBC, Cara ran a 4:52 mile in college and also won the Run for Remembrance on Memorial Day. “But there was a lot more competition here today.” Together with Melissa Tanner, Cara and Feng all broke 18 minutes, making Damien’s one of the fastest womens’ fields in the county.
Noted master runner Dave Berardi claimed first among all runners over 40. “I was running with Izzy until the start,” Berardi joked, although his time of 16:30 was no joke at all. With Robyn Humphrey still recovering from an ankle injury, Vanessa Cox blew open the master women’s race with a 19:27. “Stick a number on Vanessa and she’s gone,” said one of her competitors.
Among other notable performances were those in the grandmaster (50 years and older) category. Recently entering the half-century club, John Chall (18:27), Bobby Gessler (18:53), and Karen Harvey (24:07) all amazed the other rivals in their age groups. Gessler and Harvey have won something in just about every race they’ve done this year, and John has won his age group in all the races he’s done since he turned 50. “I’ve only done two races, though,” he cautioned.
“The story was the weather,” said race director Ralph Messalla. Low humidity and temperatures around 60F encouraged the runners to do their very best, and some of them actually set personal records. To accommodate traffic entering and exiting the new Lifetime Fitness complex, the course around the Columbia Gateway was altered somewhat from previous years, with runners starting from the parking lot rather than in the street. The top three in each gender category received cash prizes, while age group winners received digital watches. The post-race party featured pizza, subs, massages from Howard County Chiropractic, face-painting and live music from the group Thin Air.
Damien’s 5k Run and Damien’s Recovery, Inc, raised over $10,000 last year for teens recovering from drug addictions. Over $100,000 was contributed in the last nine years, with 20 scholarships of $1000 each awards to Maryland High School seniors pursing careers in health, social science, or education.