On the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 20, the Spielman Tough Cookie 5K raised over two thousand dollars for the Spielman Breast Cancer Fund at the Ohio State University Cancer Center. 130 students, faculty and members of the Ada community participated in the race.
The course started in the Dial-Roberson Stadium parking lot and looped around a section of the ‘green monster’ trail twice.
“I expected about 100 people, so I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout,” P3 Kappa Epsilon sister Kaitlin Bova said.
Kappa Epsilon and the SSHP (Student Society of Health-System Pharmacists), both made up entirely of pharmacy majors, sponsored the event.
This was the 15th annual Spielman race, although it was the first year that the ‘tough cookie’ theme was used. Bova credits Shannon Kraus, Kappa Epsilon president-elect, for the cookie idea.
Runners ate six cookies (provided by Sodexo) halfway through the race, or three cookies per person if runners were participating as a team. If runners did not complete their cookie quota, they would not be eligible to receive an award at the finish.
“We wanted to bring a new and exciting 5K to campus this fall and hoped to get more people excited to participate and support the Spielman fund,” Bova said.
The race is a spin-off of the ‘Krispy Kreme Challenge,’ a North Carolina State University tradition which requires participants to consume 12 original glazed donuts halfway through a five-mile race.
The team (and overall) winners of the race were the duo of Sam Hoffman and Greg Krasnoschlik, with a time of 24:23 minutes.
Both are senior runners on the men’s and women’s cross country teams. The duo won an ONU mug and a Road ID gift card.