Run Tosa Run grows, gives back
Hundreds of neighborhood residents and East Tosa visitors turned out Saturday, May 14, to make this year's Run Tosa Run our biggest and best yet, with more than 300 registered runners and thousands raised for Ronald McDonald House Charities Eastern Wisconsin.
The Tosa East Towne Neighborhood Association on May 16 approved a donation of $5,500 from the race's proceeds, up from $3,000 donated from last year's race.Not bad for a chilly spring morning that at one point even included a few snow flurries.The cool weather didn't seem to bother the runners, several of whom were overheard bragging about getting PRs (personal records). One of them was our women's winner, Amy Schlotthauer, who finished in 18:53. She was a repeat winner, as was men's champion Brice Cleland, who won our 5K race for the third straight year. Cleland's time: 16:11.
In addition to the 285 or so runners and walkers who signed up for the 5K, we had more than 60 young runners enter our kids' run. And several teams and groups brought dozens of new runners to the race, with the group from Graef taking home our first team champion trophy.The race is a true neighborhood-wide effort. Dozens of residents volunteered to help at the starting line and at the course intersections. Wauwatosa police helped block streets and lead the runners through the course. And Mayor Kathy Ehley served as our grand marshal, sounding the horn that started the race.
A big thanks to our lead sponsors, BelAir Cantina and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, for their generous support. Our other top sponsors were Lutheran Home, Camp Bar and Hue Vietnamese. Our list of financial sponsorships was rounded out by Ultra Fidelis, O'Gorman's West Towne Auto, Johnson Cycle & Fitness and Shine Salon.Promotional awards were donated by BelAir, Camp Bar, Hue, Cranky Al's, Rocket Baby, Rosebud Cinema, Tosa Yoga, WauwaTiki and Performance Running Outfitters.Timing for the 5K race was provided by Absolute Race Timing. Our race shirts were produced by Jim Phillips. We also had vendors for the first time this year: Gilson Design T-shirts, Legacy Gym MKE and New Balance-Milwaukee.We're so proud of our neighborhood for turning out in big numbers to help such a great cause, and we hope to see everyone on the course again next May!
Additional info, photos
You can view results from the race here.We have three Facebook galleries with photos from photographer Mindy Mays:Kids' run | 5K race | Festivities and awardsA special thanks to our race committee members: Mary Raebel, our volunteer coordinator; Jason Broadwell, who oversaw equipment and setup; race packet coordinators Adam Devins and Kelly Scheidemantel; Allison Corrao, who headed up our kids' festivities, and Mindy and Ku Mays, who provided photo and video coverage of the event.If you have any feedback on this year's race, good or bad, email it to runtosarun@gmail.com. And anyone interested in joining our race committee, drop us a note and we'll keep you in the loop when we start this fall planning for Run Tosa Run 2017.