Santee’s Aloha 5K Fun Run Walk

A tip for when you run with a kid in a stroller?  “Make sure they are still in them once in awhile” quipped Michael Blackwell, co-owner of F45 Fitness Mission Gorge, at Santee’s Third Annual Aloha 5K Fun Run & Walk held on May 13 at Santee Community Park.  Sage advice for any runners with strollers. Blackwell was borrowing fellow co-owner Nate Stieglitz’s 3-year-old son, Luke, for the run. 

A tip for when you run with a kid in a stroller?  “Make sure they are still in them once in awhile” quipped Michael Blackwell, co-owner of F45 Fitness Mission Gorge, at Santee’s Third Annual Aloha 5K Fun Run & Walk held on May 13 at Santee Community Park.  Sage advice for any runners with strollers. Blackwell was borrowing fellow co-owner Nate Stieglitz’s 3-year-old son, Luke, for the run. 

Karen Fleck, on the Aloha 5K committee said, “All the funds benefit the Santee School District Foundation.  We have over 400 runners this year.” Fleck said the committee bought over 800 leis to distribute, coordinated vendors, logistics, registration of runners, and managed over 50 volunteers that helped make all aspects run smoothly. =

Santee city council member, Rob McNelis, welcomed the runners and exclaimed “Give big applause to those representing their schools” and had the various Santee schools cheer on their schools such as Cajon Park, Carlton Hills, Chet Harritt, and Pepper Drive Elementary Schools to name a few.

The Sultans’ Cheerleaders, Sultans’ Leo Club, and the West Hills High School’s Key Club all showed up at the race that had participants arriving around 7:30 a.m. for the 8 a.m. start time.

Dance Scene in El Cajon provided hula dancers for the Aloha 5K. Melanie Hirahara, one of their representatives, noted the dancers, ages 5-50, made their own grass skirts, outfits, and headdresses.  The dancers set the tone with the Hawaiian music and various configurations of dancers to perform fast and slow Hawaiian numbers.

The runners were then released in groups by their anticipated time to run or walk the 5K starting with the fastest groups.

Vendors like Coffee Corner’s Susie Parks offered acai bowls with Parks citing “Acai bowls are good for pre- and post-workouts.”  YMCA’s site supervisor, Mary Slagle, manned a booth that had a spinning wheel that could stop on exercises such as “Balance on one leg,” “Do 15 calf raises,” or “Do 10 lunges” to name a few.

Fairies, karaoke, toes and heals, and band leaders were just a few of the warm up exercises for the winner, Cameron Bleyle, 17, who had an unofficial time of 16.30 minutes, and his team mates.  Bleyle is on the Santana High School track and field team.

Ely Rodriquez, with Clear Timing, noted for good measure all race participants’ bibs were implanted with two chips in case one chip failed. The chips, via computer, note the beginning and ending time of each participant.

Hawaiian outfits were encouraged.  Winners of the best Hawaiian costumes for adults went to Barbara and Laura Kabes, a mother and daughter team, and in the youth category Emily Carrillo.