In 2000, Mike Callor took first place overall in a time of 35:05. Sara Nathan, Callor's fiance at the time and a 1996 graduate of Homer High School, took first place for the women in 41:14. In 2002, Sara improved her time to 40:42, again taking first place among the women runners and 17th overall. Mike Callor placed third overall that year, in a time of 34:01.
Saturday, Mike Callor reclaimed his 2000 Spit Run lead, taking first place in a time of 34 minutes. Sara Callor was once again the first woman to cross the finish line and 13th overall finisher, with a time of 40:57.
The night before the run, Todd Boonstra, 46, of Ninilchik had his eye on the age factor.
"I'm getting older and there's a lot of young guys that are pretty quick," said Boonstra. The four-time Mount Marathon champion was no newcomer to the Spit Run. In 1996, he took first place overall; in 2002, he took third overall; and in 2003, Boonstra pushed his way back to first place.
Saturday, he claimed second place overall and first place in the men's 40- to 49-year-old category with a time of 35:57.
Boonstra's wife, Kelli, also has a Spit Run history. She came in 29th overall in 2002, finishing in 43:25. In 2003, she was less than three minutes behind the first place women's finisher, with a time of 43:06. This year Boonstra finished in 51 minutes, just a step behind the stroller she was pushing that carried the couple's daughters, Jayna, 2, and Tania, 1.
This was Jonathan Dionne's first Spit Run, but not his first test of physical endurance.
"We came for the mountain," Dionne, a firefighter from Quebec, Canada, said of what brought him and two friends to Alaska. The "mountain" in question was Mount McKinley, whose 20,320-foot elevation the threesome climbed a week ago. Asked if his friends also were in the Spit Run, Dionne laughed and said, "They're still sleeping."
Dionne crossed the finish line in 49:12
For Wayne Grossman of Cottonwood, Ariz., the 10-K run offered a special kind of challenge. Little more than a year ago, Grossman had a heart attack and, because of that, was unable to participate in the 2007 Spit Run. This year, Grossman was back in the action, making Saturday his eighth time in the race.
When Kevin Hobbs of Alabama and his friend Leighton Reid of Virginia signed up for the Spit Run, it meant adding one more day in Homer to their five-week bicycle tour of Alaska. It also meant adding one more memory before the next chapter of their lives begins.
"This is our last hurrah," Reid said of plans for the summer before the men enter graduate school this fall. Reid's finish time was 51:44; Hobbs ran the course in 57:33.
The Chapple family is well known among Homer runners. This year, four generations were represented in the Spit Run. After firing the starting gun, John Chapple Jr., 86, joined the event with other family members that stretched in age from his son John III, 60, to great-granddaughter Megan Chapple Pitzman, 9. Prior to the run, John III wondered if this was the year he would be left in the dust by his granddaughter, Megan. However, Megan's decision to enjoy a slower pace with some friends saved her grandfather that indignity. John III finished in 57:09; Megan in 1:12:14.
It wasn't just the front-runners or even those in the middle of the pack that had stories of personal victory. Sources of inspiration stretched all the way to the back of the pack, where Van Stogsdill, 73, and Ruby Stogsdill, 62, were red-lantern finishers. The couple was part of a five-member team from Soldotna that was representing the international weight-loss club TOPS, Take Off Pounds Sensibly.
"I'm sore," Van Stogsdill said Monday morning. "It's the first time I've ever walked that thing, but when you're 73 you'll try anything."
The Stogsdills crossed the finish line at 12:20 p.m., more than two hours after the start.
The Homer News Spit Run is co-sponsored by South Peninsula Hospital and Homer Senior Citizens Inc.
The 2008 run is scheduled for June 27, leaving athletes plenty of time for training.
McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.
For Mike and Sara Callor of Centennial, Colo., it meant staying ahead of the crowd. 
"I got a little short of breath about the five-mile mark," Grossman, 56, said at the end of Saturday's run. He kept going, however, finishing the course in a time of 55:34. 
Besides just finishing the race, Ruby Stogsdill had another reason to celebrate. "About 16 months ago she had her hip replaced," Van Stogsdill said. "She's been trying to work up for something like this." 
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Homer Alaska - Outdoors -
Story last updated at
9:13 PM on
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Spit Run finishers share tales of personal victories
By McKibben Jackinsky
Staff writer
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