Initial 5k winner celebrated two big events same day
By Brett Turner
Skywrighter Staff, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
September 26, 2003
Gunnar Shogren came to the area to celebrate a certain event. He left with twice as much to celebrate.
The Morgantown, W.V., resident was here for a friend's wedding Saturday and decided to join two other wedding party members for the first-ever 5k run at the Air Force Marathon. He emerged the first finisher of the event in an unofficial time of 17 minutes 16 seconds.
The bride's brother, Fred Schauer, who works here for Air Force Research Laboratory, came in just five seconds behind Shogren for second place overall. The maid of honor and Fred's sister, Betsy Schauer, was either overall in 18:40 and was second overall for women.
"We'll all go down in the annals of history for this one," Shogren said jokingly. "Weddings take a long part of the day and we're not going to get to do anything else while we're here, so this started out early."
Shogren said he is more of a bicycle racer than a runner, so he was somewhat surprised to find himself the winner, another first for him. Coming from West Virginia, he said the course was quite flat terrain compared with what he's used to, but he also enjoyed the support on the course.
Betsy Schauer had run in the full marathon previously and was familiar with the marathon. She suggested doing the run. The trio considered running on a relay or a longer individual run, but they decided the 5k was the best option after all. Shogren said he wasn't sure whether he would come back to defend his title next year or move on to bigger things.
"I don't know - maybe I'll try to do the half-marathon next year," he said. "It was fun and really well run."