Alumni and their children returned to campus this past homecoming weekend to take on the Killer Bee 5k and Bumble Rumble. 

The race started bright and early Saturday morning with alumni and current students alike lined up on Ripley Street ready to run, jog, and stroll their way to the finish line. 

The first person to cross that finish line was Logan Keene at a speedy 18 minutes and 40 seconds. But for most participants, it’s not about the competition. 

“It’s kind of like what they were talking about yesterday, coming to the table,” Daniel Rairdin-Hale, a 2004 alumn, said. “Here’s a big table of all sorts of different people coming for one cause to run and raise money for the cross country team and see the neighborhood, and show them we’re still here.”

Photo courtesy of Carolyn Graham.

For many runners, this was a chance for alumni to come back to campus and reconnect with old friends. 

“I wanted to come back here and just kind of be a part of the Ambrose family again and be a part of the community again,” Mark Holloway, a 2000 alumn, said. “It means the world to me to be back here again.”

For many, this was a return to old running grounds, some more literally than others. 

“I ran it a couple of years ago I think this is my second or maybe third time but I love coming back on campus, I love this route through the neighborhood,” Father Tom Hennen, 2000 alumn, said. “When I lived here as Chaplin not too long ago I would run this route for my own run sometimes. So it’s a familiar route to me. It’s great to connect with alumni, I just ran into a classmate of mine in fact.”

After alumni and friends crushed the 5k, their kids stepped up to take on the Bumble Rumble. 

Youngsters were separated into four categories for their run up Ripley Street: 50 meters, 100 meters, 400 meters, and 800 meters. The crowd cheered the kids on from start to finish, and there were only a few minor wipeouts. 

Everyone involved earned their medals for crossing the finish line. 

Photo courtesy of Carolyn Graham.

For more in-depth race results, see the Killer Bee 5k’s Facebook page.