By Caroline Cluiss
Amid the sound of crunching gravel and jumbled footsteps, junior Samantha Sturgeon ran straight toward the clouds of blue and yellow powder, hoping not to run into any fellow racers.
This Saturday, Sturgeon and over 500 other racers from the Richardson-Pearce community ran from the student parking lot, along the surrounding neighborhood streets, up Mimosa, and into the Eagle-Mustang stadium for the annual Eagle Mustang 5K. When racers signed up, they designated which school, Richardson or Pearce, received their portion of the entry fee, which was $15 for students and $30 for adults. The designated funds went to the Pearce Excellence in Education Fund and to Richardson’s Eagle Fund, which benefitted their academic programs.
The race also featured food trucks, a live DJ and the Golden Eagle Band. Junior Lily Luu decided to volunteer because she thought it would be a fun way to earn volunteer hours for National Honor Society.
“I thought it was really fun actually,” Luu said. “It was really cold, but fun to watch people running and really giving it their best. Especially the old people, they’re amazing and so inspiring. Little kids seem to have a lot of fun running. I saw this guy who was running with a stroller, pushing his two twins, that was cool.”
There were nine different divisions, from under eight to over 70, and a trophy was given to the first place male and female winners in each division. Runners could also choose if they wanted to run barefoot, or to run “colorful,” where runners were showered with the colorful powder.
“I liked the color,” sophomore Jaylyn Hall said. “It didn’t taste good, but it looks good in my hair. It kept going in my mouth because I never close my mouth when I run, I get so tired, and I ended up inhaling a lot of the powder.”
Runners like senior David Yaqubian opted out of the colored powder.
“The colors are cool and everything, but I was more focused on my time,” Yaqubian said. “It was fun – I liked the energy of the run, and all the people, but I didn’t get color myself because I didn’t want to lose time. I felt like I kept a good pace, I didn’t stop, I sprinted through most of the end, and I got pretty close to my goal.”
Junior Bryton Haggerty ran the race to both have fun and avoid running laps in tennis.
“My coach said if we didn’t run or volunteer at the race, we would have to run during practice,” Haggerty said. “But I did it for the run too. It was really fun, and I liked the competitive aspect. I didn’t do the color because I thought it would slow me down, and I would probably slip on the color.”
Even though Haggerty didn’t win an award this year, he said he plans to compete again next year.
“I didn’t feel that well, and my ankle was hurting,” Haggerty said. “I think I will do it next year, and hopefully I’ll get an award. I ran pretty averagely this year because I didn’t get a good breakfast. Bananas and nature valley bars don’t mix.”
Junior Asra Arif ran the race with her friends freshman Umaima Iqbal and Apollo Junior High 8th grader Saabiqa Iqbal.
“I was running with my friends, so that was my favorite part,” Arif said. “We don’t run a lot together because they’re both lazy, but I’ve been in cross country, and I love running. I like this race because they throw colors at you. The colors are fun, you get all this color on you, and you try to protect yourself, that’s fun.”