Gate-to-Gate race highlights Memorial Day

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Stuart Camp
  • 16th SOW Public Affairs
A herd of Hurlburt Field runners ran in Eglin Air Force Base's Gate-to-Gate Run Monday.
This was the 21st consecutive year Eglin conducted the run to honor fallen service members on Memorial Day.

More than 1,700 runners, walkers and wheelchair racers from around the country participated in the certified race course, which took them past the All Veterans War Memorial on Eglin Boulevard.

Air Force Special Operations Command's four-person team took third place in the military team category. It was led by Richard Sumrall's 26 minute, 26 second finishing time in the 4.4-mile race.
The average finishing time for the quartet was 30:05 after combining the scores of teammates Richard Gugliemino (28:08), Jeff Sherwood (28:46) and Lisa Bickham (36:57).

The AFSOC team was immediately followed by Mailes Maggots, another group of Hurlburt runners – Ralph Nehring, Richard Bollinger, Andrea Deangelis and Barry Lott – who averaged a 32:23 finishing time.

"It's a blend of elite runners and people out here to celebrate Memorial Day with a little fitness twist," said Joe Walker, a civilian Office of Special Investigations agent and the race scoring director.

The race started late and the temperature and humidity weren't ideal conditions for a fast race.

But Tom Lutz, 16th Operations Group deputy commander, was pleased with his 39:40 time.
"Anything under 40 minutes is good for me," he said.

The youngest runner for the full 4.4-mile distance was 7-year-old Jeffrey Engle, son of Hurlburt Field's Clay Engle, who said he's been training with his parents for a couple of months.

The children of Tech. Sgt. Michael Chastain, 10-year-old Ivy and 14-year-old Ben, brought home age-group awards, taking third and fourth respectively.

But it wasn't just the children bringing home hardware from this race; Ricardo Rivera finished fourth in the men's 20-24 year old division with his time of 28:20. Danny Young's 30:51 finishing time was fast enough for fourth in the men's 50-54.

Full results are at www.run-results.net/

(First Lt. Kristen Duncan, 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this article.)