The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
More than 1,100 runners, from children to adults, turned out Aug. 23 for the second annual ZMud 5K Run for charity on the grounds of Zarephath, off Weston Canal Road.
Proceeds from the run will go to the Joy of Living Orphanage in Haiti, which houses children with HIV, said race coordinator Andrea Ruta.
Ruta said on the afternoon of the race that she did not know how much money they’d raised, but last year the event raised about $30,000.
“We almost doubled (turnout) from last year,” she said.
She said that about 1,000 adults signed up and about 175 children were signed up for the new “Z Mini Mud” run.
Participants ran slightly more than three miles through a course comprised of various obstacles, including “stump jumps,” climbing walls, net crawls and hill climbs.
And, of course, mud. And plenty of it.
This year the run organizers partnered with Star 99.1 radio, also headquartered at Zarephath, The radio station brought the Star Family Festival to the event, similar to one it put on three years ago in the OCwean Grove section of Neptune, in Monmouth County.
“We partnered with the ZMud Run so we could bring some entertainment,” said Lorraine Shaw, 99.1’s sales manager. “We have inflatables for the children, we have some arcade games. We also have some vendors so they could come and talk about their different products to the mud run people and the people who came to watch.”
“It turned out great,” Ruta said.
ZMud Run 2014
