At 41 years, people have been running, walking and focusing on the Seal Beach community every spring for the annual 5K/10K and the last few years, the 1K kids fun run. This year, Seal Beach’s Centennial, Run Seal Beach successfully completed an incredibly smooth and enjoyable race.
“Our registration was smoother than ever this year. We were down some runners, but overall, nearly 5,000 people ran, walked or strolled our courses,” said Elizabeth Kane, one of the three Run Seal Beach directors. “We also had a wonderful group of experienced volunteers which made this so easy.” The run takes a full year of planning and execution from the day after this year, to the date next year.
The operational team led by Marc Loopesko, race director, said, “we had 37 teams representing 1,100 runners. Additionally, there were 21 states and 2 other countries represented in the race this year. Our youngest participant in the 5K/10K was four years old and the eldest an even 90.”
Run Seal Beach is one of the largest grant giving organizations in the region. Funds go to a variety of non-profits, via the director’s awards and the grant process. The grant application is open now and completed grant applications must be in by April 30 for consideration for funding. At the date of publication, there was not a determined total amount available for the grant process, though it will likely exceed $100,000. In general, grant recipients range in awards from $500 to just over $8,500. Please make sure that if your non-profit wishes to apply you do so as quickly as possible.
Run Seal Beach awarded the William T. Ayres “Fastest Seal Beach Resident” awards on Monday night. The perpetual plaques hang outside the Parks & Recs office through the year. These were presented Monday night at the City Council meeting by race directors Marc Loopesko and Elizabeth Kane. Fastest overall 5K was Corey Martin at 16:58 for the men and Natalia Gaerlan for women, two minutes later at 18:58. In the 10K, men were lead by Daniel Evora 35:55 and women Lindsay Carter with a time of 40:23. Seal Beach resident Kathleen Phair was only .12 seconds behind Lindsay. For more results visit www.racewire.com.
Marc Loopesko said, “We are very thankful for our participants, particularly our teams, corporate sponsors, the City of Seal Beach and our volunteers. It is through great collaboration that Run Seal Beach is successful, so many thanks all around.”
For more information on race results, volunteer opportunities, grant applications, and general information go to www.RunSealBeach.com.
