On a soggy Saturday morning that brought out hundreds of participants and volunteers into one of the poorest neighborhoods in Austin, Pflugerville resident Joshua Keena took the tape as the overall champion of the inaugural St. John 5K. The 34-year-old got out early and never looked back, coming in over 45 seconds ahead of his closet competition with a 15:18. No stranger to the Austin racing scene, Keena took the crown for the Rogue 30K Trail run in ’08 and finished second overall in last year’s Turkey Trot.
University of Texas graduate Raul Garcia finished second at 16:05, and Texas Iron tri-guy Donne Martindale rounded out the top three with a 17:00.
Top male master’s honors went to Pete Rauch in 17:09, who happened to do a 10 mile warm-up from his house over to the race site. Rauch was on hand to represent the Gazelle Foundation, for whom he currently serves as President. The foundation is rounding out their first water well in Burundi, Africa, but also underwrites initiatives to keep Central Texas children moving and healthy. Their grant was responsible for the Kids Mile race that gave over 1,500 children the opportunity to participate in the event.
On the female side, Gilbert’s Gazelle Tessa LaManna ran away with the event in a time of 20:11. Three minutes later second place finisher Laura Rifkin crossed the line, and Rachel Helmer trailed closely on her heals to take third.
The race was a fundraiser for an affordable housing initiative in the St. John Neighborhood backed by the For the City Network. Currently, over 90 percent of students at the three neighborhood schools are on free and reduced lunch and face serious poverty issues. The mobility rate for children moving in and out of schools in a given year is close to 40 percent, partly because of housing issues. For more information or to get involved, visit www.forthecity.org.
And in case you were wondering, Rauch also ran another 10 miles home.
