Damien’s Run for Recovery 5K
Damien’s Run…June 9th 2013
A time, a place, a memory, a cause, good music, great food, old friends, new friends – all the things that bring people together to share an experience. These things are what makes Damien’s Run a great success every year. The simple act of giving and receiving underscore all the hard prep work of our volunteers and the joy it brings to the participants in this – the 15th annual running of Damien’s Run.
Damien’s Run has raised tens of thousands of dollars over the years to help teens in and around Howard County.
We had a robust field of over 300 runners and a gang of walkers to round out the participants enjoying a slightly cool Sunday morning, just keeping ahead of the arriving humidity.
Takele Gebreljul 15:16.15 burned a ring around Gateway to take first place but didn’t break the course record. Jess Ivy 18:39.65 took women’s overall with an excellent time.
Special thanks to our Master winners Chris Chattin and Robyn Humphrey. Robin has run in every Damien’s Run from 1999. This year like every other year Robin gave back her winnings to Damien’s Recovery to help raise awareness for teens who suffer from substance abuse. Arleen Dinneen is a local legend for community service and running, who – year after year – runs Damien’s, and one more time won her age group…
Special recognition to Betsy Blom, a teacher at a Bellows Spring Elementary School, who started a running program for her students called the Chasing Cheetahs. Betsy showed up with 25 Cheetahs and parents to steal the hearts of the participants..
Every race director can tell you: you never know what can happen when planning and executing an event. I’m happy to say that every year we seem to have wonderful surprises that help the event be a success. This year the US Navy came to the rescue. We were critically low on volunteers, many of our regulars, including Volunteer Coordinator Tom Lewis, who had conflicting commitments out of the blue. I received an email from Amber Porter who is stationed at Fort Meade. Amber has just finished boot camp training and asked if she could volunteer at the event. I said, “We’d love to have your help”. She said, “Oh, I have some friends who want to volunteer and run”. First thing this morning Amber and 8 of her comrades worked the set up, ran and cleaned up….And by the way Amber won her age group with a screaming time 22:55.15… Thank you Amber and friends and of course our Navy…
Thank you Howard County Striders, all the participants, volunteers and sponsors.
See you next year!
Race Director
Ralph Massella
