It was a battle to the finish line in the men’s five-kilometer race at the sixth annual Rio Grande SUN Fun Run as two runners dueled to become the first two-time men’s winner of the race Aug. 2 at the Española seventh grade school.
Last year’s winner of the Fun Run and 2008 Pojoaque Valley High School graduate Michael “Bo” Martinez faced off against 2004 winner,33-year old Scott Valdez of Dixon. They battled down the final stretch through the bosque along the Rio Grande and onto Hunter Street as they headed toward the finish line.
Martinez held off Valdez’s challenge and became the first two-time winner of the race, crossing the finish line in 18:31, just four seconds ahead of the hard-charging Valdez.
“Good race,” Martinez said to Valdez.
Valdez did take home a first place medal for having the best time — by nearly four minutes — in the 30 to 45 age group.
The women’s five-kilometer race saw a new record time. It was turned in by Koby Jeschkeit-Hagen, who hails from Minnesota and is interning with the Seeds of Change at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Jeschkeit-Hagen ran cross country for Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., she said. Her time of 20:08 broke the previous record of 21:14 set in 2006 by Amy Roybal.
Martinez and Jeschkeit-Hagen received pieces of Nambé Ware for their victories.
The highlight of the race, however, may have been the flip performed by Roger Montoya at the end of his one-mile run.
Montoya is the director of Moving People Dance Española, this year’s beneficiary of the charity run. The multi-talented Montoya teaches dance and tumbling to youths, and is the artist who painted the picture, “El Rio del Norte”, which appeared on the T-shirts for this year’s Fun Run.
“I wanted to cross the line in a unique fashion,” Montoya said. “I’m not a runner, I’m a dancer and acrobat.”
This year’s race attracted a record 112 participants, breaking the previous record of 98 which was set last year.
“We were amazed by the amount of people who came,” Montoya said. “It was truly fun.”
This year, the Fun Run raised XXXX for Moving People.
In the one-mile run, Gino Brazil of Gino’s Gym was the first runner to cross the line in 7:09. He had donated several one-week memberships to his gym that were given away at the post-race drawing.
Kendra Gallegos was the first female runner over the line in the one-mile run, turning in a time of 8:09. Gallegos is just 12 years old.
El Centro Family Health was well-represented with over 20 entries. Health Education manager Tana Beverwyk-Abouda had six members of her family entered. She and husband Kamel both crossed the line in 34:15 in the five-kilometer race. Her 5-year old son, Malik, took third in the one-mile run in the 9-and-under age group, Her father, Jim Beverwyk, took second in the 55+ age group in the one-mile walk, while his grandson Elias, walking with his grandfather, was the only competitor in the one-mile walk in the under 19 division and subsequently took first place. Elias Abouda and Asia Tafoya, both 3,competed in the one-mile run and were the youngest runners in the race.
That is if you don’t count the youngsters pushed along in strollers by parents Blake Nolen, Monica Naranjo and Christy Vigil.
The oldest runner was 70-year-old Robert Jenkins.