2022's the year Ron Stitt is becoming his own man.
He always was in the physical sense, of course, but from the event producer perspective, the Vintage Park New Year’s Day Classic 5K and 10K was the first where the buck stopped with him.
After having left the company that acquired the Run Houston Race Series and the Bayou City Half Marathon Series, as expected, Stitt’s first event under his new HTX Events brand was a smashing success.
Prior to the pandemic on New Year’s Day, Stitt was the caretaker of the Run Houston! Sam Houston Race Park event, which debuted with 823 finishers in 2015, hit a high of 1,700 in 2017 and had settled in with 1,110 in 2020 (352 in the 10K, 722 in the 5K and 36 in a Kids 1K/1M).
Observers were waiting to see how many Stitt would be able to carry with him to his new company – and, apparently, nearly half, even though it still seems that those who raced regularly before the pandemic haven’t completely returned to live racing.
The brand-new Vintage Park New Year’s Day Classic saw 156 cross the finish in the 5K, including four in the wheelchair division, 255 in the 10K and another 19 in the Kids’ 1K.
Spring’s Tyler Blackburn, 27, and Cypress’ Martina Dujic, 37, were the initial winners of the 10K with respective winning times of 36:12 and 42:59.
A pair of master’s runners – Spring’s Patrick Wills, 41, and Tomball’s Brian Gray, 55 – rounded out the men’s top three as they followed in times of 37:45 and 39:10.
The ladies followed suit as Houston’s Tuongvi Cao, 46, and Katy’s Yan Liu, 51, were second and third overall for the women in 45:10 and 47:30, respectively.
In the 5K, Hockley’s John Brown, 24, and Houston’s Daniela Castillo Sabido, 21, captured victories wih efforts of 18:17 and 19:36.
Brown held off 43-year-old Cypress native Curtis Hale by 15 seconds as he crossed in 18:32 followed seven seconds later by Tomball’s Mark Coalmer, 51, in 18:39.
Sabido, who finished fifth among all competitors, was never challenged by the rest of the women in the field.
Second place overall went to former Cypress Creek HS athlete Rachel Goebel, 19, from Houston, who finished in 22:43 – 15 seconds in front of former Houston Cougar Erika Sampson, 48, who stopped the clock in 22:58.
Michael Saldivar, 24, of Houston and Spring’s Chelsea Stein, 18, won the wheelchair division of the 5K in times of 19:30 and 35:34, respectively.
Enzo Nunez, 9, and Houston’s Launa Flore, 10, were first in the kids’ 1K in 3:46 and 4:11.
HTX Events’ next event will be on Sunday, April 10, 2022 with the Vintage Park 13.1 Half Marathon.
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