Local Runner Wins Back In Shape 5k by a Hair
Posted on June 15, 2009
Two runners were neck-and-neck as they crossed the finish line in Northwestern Health Sciences University’s Back in Shape 5k race June 13, 2009. Josh Moen, age 27, of St. Louis Park, Minn., won the race, and Sammy Malakwen, age 31, of Two Harbors, Minn., came in second. Both men recorded chip times of 14:09.
Moen was running the Back in Shape for the first time. “I thought I had a good shot at winning,” he said. “It’s a tough course, but I enjoyed the whole event.” Moen won $1,000 for winning and $500 for being the top U.S. male finisher. Malakwen received $400 for the second-place finish. The winning time was a mere 5 seconds off from the course record of 14:04 set in 2007 by Matt Chesang.
The top-finishing female was Frashiah Waithaka, age 31, of Edina, Minn., finishing in 16:51. “I am very happy!” she said with a smile at the awards presentation. She received $1,000 for being the top female finisher. Last year’s winner, Amy Lyons of Mounds View, Minn., finished second this year with a time of 17:23. Lyons won $400 for being the second-place female and an additional $500 for being the top American female finisher. “Northwestern puts on a really nice race,” she said.
The Back in Shape event logged a total of 270 5k finishers; and 60 people participated in the Patrick Holmes Memorial Walk. The event also included a kids’ 1/4-mile and 1/2-mile race, with 45 children taking part, and a mascot race where Northwestern’s mascot, Vinnie the Vertebrate, beat out four other local mascots.
The event is a family affair for many participants. Father-daughter team Bob and Abby Dahlof of Bloomington ran together celebrating his 60th birthday. The Hendricks family including Calvin, age 39, sons Justin, 15, and Jeremy, 12, and his sister Rachel, 21, came as a group but finished at their own pace. Northwestern alumni Kimberly Swanson-Buffie, DC, and Perry Buffie, DC, both 1991 graduates, also did the run with their kids Alex, 18; Hannah, 15; and Lydia, 14. Other families started and finished together including Mark Zeigler, DC, president of Northwestern, his daughter Maiken, and son Gabriel. Nearly 60 runners were competing in their first 5k race.
The Back in Shape boasts one of the largest prize purses in the state of Minnesota, with $6,500 in prizes for the top five finishers in each age category. The event also offers participants race-day perks such as a post-race buffet, free health screenings and sports massages; indoor restrooms; open swimming in the University’s pool before and after the event; and access to locker rooms and showers.
Runners and walkers could also raise pledges and make donations to Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People, an organization dedicated to providing assistance to low-income people in Bloomington, Richfield and South Minneapolis; Cornerstone, an organization working to prevent domestic abuse, and the Patrick Holmes Memorial Scholarship Fund, which was created to honor former Northwestern employee Patrick Holmes, who died in the I-35W bridge collapse in 2007. Pledge totals for each group and VEAP food donations are still being tallied and will be released in “Northwestern Today” at a later date.
Photos, from the top: First female finisher Frashiah Haithaka; winner Josh Moen; runners prepare to start the race; the Buffie family; the Hendricks family; future 5k runners take off in the kids' run.
