About 1,300 runners and walkers crowded the Hollis Brookline Middle School parking lot waiting to start the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club’s eighth annual Hollis Fast 5K on June 14.

“We started eight years ago with 400 runners and now we’re at 1,300. It’s gratifying because it hasn’t always been a money maker,” said George LeCours, the Rotary’s event director. “The first year was a break-even situation, although we still had sponsor money coming in. Now this race itself will generate about $10,000 profit from the race operations.”

The race ran through Hollis and ended at Morin’s Landscaping. While it is listed as “one of the fastest 5K courses” in the country according to Running Times Magazine, the entire race continuously slopes by 224 feet, making runners not able to qualify for an official time.

The Rotary registered 1,291 runners, including 244 from Hollis and 99 from Brookline, who paid $25 to participate.

The Fast 5K runners were not only from New Hampshire, but 16 different states, including
Nevada, Illinois and Utah.

Stace and Fay Chronopoulos, of Wilmington, Mass., ran with their two children, Konstantine and Elliana, in a stroller. The couple ran in last year’s Fast 5K, too.

“My cousin lives in Nashua and she invited us up because she did her first one last year,” Stace Chronopoulos said. “We did it last year for the first time to cheer her on.”

Another runner, Damian Carlson, dressed up in a brown dog costume with a bone collar reading “Puddles” and ran as a mascot for Hollis Veterinary Hospital. It was his first race and he did not train for it.

“I love to run. It’s supporting the community so far as what the donations and charity go to, so certainly we want to be involved civically, but no specific motivation other than the broad umbrella of wanting to be involved with the town,” Carlson said.

Runners of all ages also ran for the Rotary Club. Students from Captain Samuel Douglass Academy in Brookline participated in the race along with their parents and friends.

Three such friends, Elsa Eiane, Abigail Zimmerman, and Megan Burgher ran together. It was Eiane’s and Zimmerman’s first 5K, but Burgher ran in last year’s Fast 5K.

“It was hot,” Megan said. “I did have fun but I got a lot of cramps.”

Abigail said, “I like running and I wanted to run my first race. I just wanted to do it with friends.”

Eisa agreed, adding, “I want to go really fast and I want to beat my math teacher.”

Many students wanted to compete against their teachers this year, and Greg Snoke, a sixth-grade teacher at CSDA challenged his students to beat him.

“Some of these sixth-graders, they keep talking to me like they’re going to beat me,” Snoke said. “They can talk a lot of smack.”

Although no current students beat Snoke, he said “many former students crushed” him. Along with challenging his students, Snoke wanted to give back to the Rotary Club.

“I won a grant through them a few years back and I just kind of want to repay it,” Snoke said.

The Rotary is part of an international organization and gives to the community through such grants, high school student scholarships, soup kitchens, and children’s homes. The money the 32 members of the Rotary Club raise from the Fast 5K, Cow Patty Bingo at Old Home Days, and the Super Bowl Brunch goes to their charitable efforts.

“I think it’s a good way to serve the community, both locally and worldwide in service projects,” said Rotary member Peter Bennett of Brookline, who has run the race every year except this year due to scheduling.

However, he volunteered time pouring water for runners before the race. “It’s a good community event, it’s a healthy thing. Frankly it’s a good fundraiser for us.”

The Rotary Club meets every Wednesday morning from 7:15-8:30 a.m. at the Brookline Auction Gallery at 32 Proctor Hill Road in Brookline.

“It’s an organization that gives a lot back to the community,” LeCours said. “It’s just a wonderful organization that helps where there’s need and a great group of people.”

For more information on the Fast 5K or the Rotary Club, visit www.
hollisfast5k.com.