Kay, Thrailkill take Run For Hope victories
By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
Oct. 31, 2004
A great crowd, good weather and fast times helped make the annual Run for Hope a success on Saturday morning at Bonita Lakes.
A field of 215 participated in the four events and even more people were there to support the event which benefited the Hope Village for Children.
"It went great," said Hope Village for Children Guild president Monte Royal. "This year we better than doubled our best year and the expansion took place in equal amounts between serious runners and families that came out for the walk and to support Hope Village. This was just a magical event."
The large crowd and popularity helped raise a lot of money for Hope Village.
"Overall, I thought it was excellent," said race director and founder Kim Monsour. "We had good participation and community involvement and overall we've raised more money this year even going into the race."
The event featured a 10K trail run, a 5K road race, a two-mile walk and kid's fun run.
In the 10K, Stephen Kay blistered the rough terrain in 41:43 to take first place.
"I felt pretty good," said Kay. "It was a good day for a run. It was nice and cool out here and the course was good."
Close behind Kay was John Brower, who finished in 41:55 and third place went to Brian Arnett with a time of 42:30.
For the females, Brandy Gamblin took first place with a time of 52:01 in the 10K trail race.
"This course never gets any easier but it's probably one of the best races around here because there's nothing else like it," said Gamblin. "I was happy with my time. As a runner, you always want to do better but I was pleased."
Second place in the female division was Staci Stanley (54:17) while Amanda Caperton took third with a 55:22.
Tim McCauley (44:56) took first in the male masters division and Ceil Bunyard (1:01:15) took first in the female masters.
Jim Quick (49:00) and Pamela Prather (1:28:38) took first place in the grand masters division.
In the 5K, Mike Thrailkill finished in 18 minutes to run away with first place. Rick Perry took second in 20:50 and Ken Houlditch finished third with a 22:03.
"I felt good," said Thrailkill. "There was good weather today. The course might have been a little long but it's a good course. It's pretty much the same course as the Bonita and Jingle Bell runs other than the start and finish are at different places."
For the females, Debra Kitchings came in with a 24:47 to pick up first place. Linda Glass took second with a 25:14 and Carolyn Birchett finished third with a 25:21.
Jimmy Gibson (22:22) and Jeanna Mars (28:39) took first place in the Masters division.
Jeff Peters (24:33) and Lillian Zamora (29:53) took first in Grand Masters.
Larry Sykes took first in the two-mile walk with a 19:40 while Johnnie Bradley (22:47) took second and Lora Blackledge (23:00) took third.
According to Royal, the event has been great for the community over the past four years.
"I think it's a great community bonding event," said Royal.
"It brings people of all walks of life together," Royal said. " For a brief time out here, we are all athletes and Hope Village supporters and we forget these other things that go on in our day to day lives."
