Saturday morning outside the Elam Center, the UTM S.H.A.P.E. Club held its eighth annual 5K.
S.H.A.P.E. stands for Sports, Health, Athletics and Physical Education from the Department of Health and Human Performance at UTM.
With pleasant spring weather and sunshine for an early morning run, runners began showing up at 8 a.m. to register and prepare for the race. At 9 a.m. Cody Lemmons, President of the UTM S.H.A.P.E. Club, shot the starter gun and the race was soon underway.
About 60 runners ran around the UTM fitness trail two times and then ran down to Skyhawk Park. They continued back from Skyhawk Park and finished with cheering volunteers at the Elam Center. S.H.A.P.E. Club members had post-race snacks and water for the participants.
After the 5K was complete, there was a Kids’ Fun Run. It was a race about a mile long for any child who wanted to run it. All of the Fun Run participants were given “winner” ribbons after crossing the finish line.
There were awards given out to the top three participants in each age group. Also, S.H.A.P.E. Club members held a raffle and handed out free UTM T-shirts and coupons from Hibbett Sports. All participants received bags of goodies from the S.H.A.P.E. Club, which included T-shirts, koozies, cups, and pens.
All of the proceeds of the 5K are going towards the Martin community. The goal is to build a new sand volleyball court is the city of Martin for the community to use freely.
