Monsters Dash on the Trail

Don Francis

Feb 52 min read

On October 19th, the PCA hosted the 5th Monster Dash 5K. Before the day of the Dash, numerous folks registered for this fun run/walk online. A few more signed up that morning, and we reached a total of 100 people registered.

Like last year, the whole course was on the Rountree Branch Trail. The start/finish was near the fish garden on Valley Road, which made the trail junction by the gazebo behind Menard’s the turnaround point. Across the street, the City Garage’s parking lot was used for vehicle parking.

The overall winner was Ryan Varoski, a 20-year-old man dressed as Buddy the Elf. He rolled in with a time of 18 minutes and 53 seconds, which beat his winning time from last year (20:34) by a lot. Note that since a 5K is 3.1 miles, he’s running just over 6 minutes per mile. Emily Miller came in second overall with a 20:52 time, leading all the women as well. Our 3rd place was grabbed by Aaron Carlson (21:56), also representing the 40-49 age range.

As you peruse the results for each age group, remember that the costumes are part of the fun. Several characters were recognized for their costumes as well, like Buddy the Elf, a lady in a box, a warrior, Waldo, chicken rider, unicorn rider, and Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Prizes for the runners and the costume winners were Culver’s gift cards, a gallon or a half gallon of apple cider, plus everyone could grab a mini-pumpkin.

This past year’s Monster Dash committee comprised Dianne Jentz, Bob Hundhausen, Brian Laufenberg, Dave Carnahan, Spider Fromader, Kevin Podstawa, Rob Serres, Clay Shaffer and Don Francis. The event was a successful fundraiser for the PCA by bringing in about three thousand dollars, but hopefully the priceless memories of the costumes will last a while.