By John Mackey
The Mansfield Mayor’s 5K Race is in its second year of existence. For the second consecutive year, one of Mansfield’s most decorated long distance runners was again the winner.
Southeastern Oklahoma State University sophomore to be, Megan Rose, ran the city streets of her hometown in 22:34 for the victory on Saturday, June 29. The cross country and track runner previously won last summer’s event about a month and a half after her 2018 graduation from Mansfield HIgh School.
“My training is fairly light right now,” stated Rose after the race. “I’m only going about 25 miles per week this month. I just used this race as one of my training days. I’ll do a long run of seven miles tomorrow. In July, the training schedule intensifies.”
Rose was one of several Mansfield products entered in the race. In fact, the majority of the runners had Mansfield roots. Booneville and Russellville had registered runners along with one female racer that hailed from Malibu, California.
The second place overall finisher was 2009 MHS graduate Adam Sanderson. Sanderson was a decorated football and track star for the Tigers while in high school. He also was a competitive cheerleader in college. Most recently the 29 year old enlisted into the Army and used the Mayor’s race as a workout for his upcoming basic training.
Current Mansfield students Hope Rainwater and McKenzie Griffin finished third and fourth respectively in the overall standings. The soon to be high school sophomores are members of the MHS Lady Tiger cross country and track teams.
Sponsors for the event awarded top runners with plaques and medals. A pancake breakfast cooked by Mansfield school board member Trent Hayslip was provided for runners and workers after the race.
As the morning festivities wound down, Rose was caught for one more conversation before heading off to do a cool down run.
“Glad to run a race in my hometown,” spoke Rose of her experience being back running among friends. “This community has always supported me and my sports.”
