By David Freeze
For the Salisbury Post
“Absolutely one of the best races I have ever run,” Ed Frye said of the Dairy Dash 5K.
He knows a bit about running and racing after having completed over 80 marathons and several Ironman competitions.
“It was so much fun running those trails by those farm fields and through the woods. The trail was in good shape, no rough places and we could tell that care was taken to prepare it,” he said.
Frye’s thoughts echoed those of others who ran their first trail race on Saturday and those who had run many of them.
Frank Yanko of Concord was impressed.
“This reminds me of trail running back in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Real trails, and lots of fun!”
For the first time in Rowan County, not a single step of an open 5K race was run on pavement.
Buddy Hoffner wanted to showcase his farm and let others know how important the LandTrust of Central Carolina was to him and the rest of the Hoffner family.
“It just felt right to give back to the LandTrust,” he said. “We were able to let the runners and walkers see what the LandTrust has helped us preserve. They have been very good to my family.”
The LandTrust helped ensure the Hoffner Farm would remain in agricultural use and that the future generations of the family could continue to farm it. Hoffner and his family prepared the 5K trail, using some heavy equipment to pack the footing and clear brush through the wooded areas.
Josh Readling was the overall winner with a time of 19 minutes and 25 seconds. Nick Waldo was second in 19:46 with Andrew Burgess third at 20:18. For the women, Elizabeth Murphy won in 22 minutes and 18 seconds, Rebecca Julian was second in 22:48 and Acquawon Stallworth was third in 23:25. Master’s winners were Rob Holmes in 20:37 and Ellen Howard in 25:24.
Title sponsor Organic Valley provided refreshments afterwards. Runners enjoyed cheese and chocolate milk, plus other drinks from Papa Scott’s Root Beer and Cheerwine. Other food sponsors were Krispy Kreme and Chick-fil-A.
Additional sponsors were Rowan Regional Medical Center, attorney Andrew Abramson, Rowan Animal Clinic, Ron Horton, Farm Bureau of Mooresville, the Bread Riot, Carolina Farm Credit, Yadkin Valley Crop Insurance, Spinnaker Construction and Statesville Ag and Turf.
Phidippides Sports Center of Concord sponsored a “Worst Running Shoe” contest that had plenty of entrants, including some shoes that had just completed the race.
Steve Staley of Charlotte brought his 12-year-old son, Drew, to run the race.
“You just don’t get to do something like this often,” Staley said. “Kids today don’t know about farms or understand where their food comes from. This race will be even bigger in future years as the word spreads. I know I will be telling other runners about how beautiful it is out here. Thanks to the Hoffners for opening their farm to us to run.”
The Dairy Dash 5K was the kickoff for the “Know Your Farms” tour. Complete results can be found at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org