A picture perfect race day for the Running Bear

From staff reports

The fifth annual Running Bear Run on July 26 was another huge success with a picture perfect day and 700 runners in attendance. There were 555 runners in the 5K and 145 kids in the half mile Kids’ Run. A great time was had by all.

Congratulations go to Matt VanEgmond from Grosse Point Woods, Mich., for winning the Best Overall Male title with a time of 16:19.

The Fischer-Daly Family had a fantastic day with Sabine winning Overall Best Female with a time of 19:27 and her husband Matt winning first place in his age category, 30-39, with a time of 16:58. The two of them are seasoned runners and have even done the Boston Marathon and other big races. They hail from Brooklyn. They are here visiting Matt’s parents Dick & Molly Daly. They had five from their family in the Run and Megan Daly also placed second in the 30-39 age group with a time of 23:18. She’s from White Lake, Mich. They all love to run and do it whenever they can. They thought today was a perfect race day. Their dog, Mika, is a runner too but unfortunately didn’t bring enough money for the registration fee and she had to watch from the sidelines.

The Chari and Dave Binstadt family from Glen Arbor had a wonderful time with 13 family members attending the run today. Their kids came from California, Minnesota, and Indiana to be with their parents. Chari, the Mom/Grandmother, said “It was just a great day and to have all our kids together was really special.”

Both these families did well in the raffle department too. This year’s run gave out 100 raffle prizes. This was an all time high for the amount of raffle prizes given out and the Glen Arbor Women’s Club wants to thank all the local merchants for their generosity.

They also want to thank their major sponsors, Boone Docks, Cherry Republic, Crystal River Outfitters, The Homestead/Manitou Passage Golf Club, Leelanau Vacation Rentals, The River, and Riverfront Pizza and Specialties for all their contributions.

A successful Run means one thing to the Glen Arbor Women’s Club and that is more scholarships can be given out to the talented students at Glen Lake High School. We would like to thank all the runners for spending this day with us. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.