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W&L Faculty and Staff Lace Up for First-Annual 5K In total, 89 members of the W&L community ran the race.

KRR_9555-600x400 W&L Faculty and Staff Lace Up for First-Annual 5KW&L’s first annual Live Well 5K.

During spring break, Washington and Lee University faculty and staff put on their running shoes and slid on their sweatbands to run the university’s first-annual Live Well 5K.

Mary Main, executive director of Human Resources, came up with the idea for the campus 5K, and preparations for the race started in December 2017. Everyone in Human Resources pitched in to plan the event.

In total, 89 members of the W&L community ran the race and 33 volunteers —Human Resources staff— helped make it happen. There were 26 course marshals on the running path.

“It was challenging to fit 3.1 miles on campus and stay off the streets,” said Anne Remington, work/life coordinator. “We focused on a course that led participants through different areas of the campus, yet we wanted to make sure it was safe and well-marked.”

The course began on Cannon Green and circled around the law school, with lots of stairs and Colonnade crossings along the way. Remington said everyone seemed to enjoy the course but it may change next year in order to remove some of the stairs.

“I believe that everyone who came to the 5K had a great time. I saw a lot of big smiles and people were cheering one another across the finish line,” said Remington. “Everyone who was there came because they wanted to be a part of the event, whether it was running, walking, volunteering or simply cheering on colleagues.”

Blake Shester, technology integration specialist, won the men’s division with a finish time of 23:56:1 and Helen MacDermott, office manager in the Center for Global Learning, was the first woman to cross the finish line with a time of  24:28:9.