The charity race, organized by Luke Tresuague, had both excellent turnout and energy.
Pi Kappa Alpha hosted a five-kilometer charity race on Saturday, Sept. 12, benefitting the Tulsa Boys’ Home. The event began at 9 a.m., with the pre-registered runners signing in, volunteers from various sororities and the PKA house getting in position with encouraging signs and water stations and organizer Luke Tresaugue checking in with contestants and coordinating with his brothers. The event totalled 86 participants, all of whom donated a minimum of $20 to the Boys’ Home to participate, with $2,434 raised in all.
The energy among participants was humming before the race: “I’m excited to run a well-organized 5k,” said sophomore Andrew Altman. Will Gonsior agreed, stating, “I know Luke will put on a good event.” More runners came in from outside of the university to enjoy the race and support the boy home. The 5k even turned into something of a presidential race, when both University and Student Government Presidents Stacy Leeds and Bruce Bigler arrived to participate. Bigler commented, “I don’t run … I’m not good at running.” He was nonetheless cheerful throughout the event, in spite of his decision to neither eat nor drink anything the morning of the race.
President Leeds (middle) awaits the beginning of the race with the self-proclaimed “over 30 crowd” (The Collegian is unable to verify if this figure is accurate, and finds it somewhat hard to believe) Aiden Hoogstra | Collegian
At 9:28 a.m., the runners were funneled into position by a megaphone-wielding Tresaugue. At 9:31, they were off. The course began at the PKA front yard, looped up around Lorton Performance Center, down sorority row, around Dietler Commons and back up between Sharp Chapel and Kendall Hall to the house again. Runners traversed the route for three laps before crossing the finish line, passing cheering Pike members at every corner, including near McFarlin and their fraternity house where they handed out water bottles and gatorade to passers-by. At the house, a crowd of various sorority sisters waved creative signs and cheered as runners completed each lap.
The course was fairly pleasant: generally well shaded, with minimal wind and plenty of chalk decorations and cones to direct competitors and distract them from the fact that running truly is a miserable ordeal. While the heat was definitely noticeable — everyone left the race fully drenched in sweat — the timing could not have been much better, with even the very last finishers crossing the line only about 30 minutes before rain began to drizzle in the late morning.
The fraternity gave out four awards: trophies for first female and male finishers went to run club president Moira Wahl, a junior with a time of 23:51, and Carson Royse, a fifth year senior and former Tulsa track athlete who ran a 16:39, which he claimed was “one second faster than I was hoping for.” When asked for a comment on his win, Royse responded, “Work hard, play harder and praise God.” Awards for highest fraternity and sorority turnout went to Beta Upsilon Chi and Delta Delta Delta respectively.
Royse and Wahl pose with their first place trophies, adorned in their top 20 finisher shirts rpd4057
The event was capped with a group photo, followed by a picture of the top 20 finishers, who sported shirts given as a prize for their placing. Tresaugue, who put the event together, thought the fundraiser “went really well.” As to why he chose this particular charity, he explained that PKA “always support[s] the Boys’ Home for our philanthropy week,” but that this was their first time hosting the 5k outside of that time. “But I think it was a fun event — we’ll probably do it again next year since we’ll have done it before and have more experience.” he said.
The success was apparent even to less frequent partakers of cardio like President Bigler, who admitted to having “way overestimated my ability to run.” When The Collegian’s representative responded by conceding that “that first mile is hard,” the president firmly corrected them, saying, “all of the miles are hard.” In spite of their physical discomfort, though, the throng was graced throughout with perspirant smiles for having done some good in the world — or perhaps just for not having to run anymore.
