Photos by SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today
Kris Hersom and her son Sam pray with runners and volunteers at the Fourth Annual Sam Strong Run 2 End Duchenne 5K held in Newberry on Sept. 19 at Newberry Elementary School.
NEWBERRY – At 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, Newberry father Matt Hersom made a post on his Facebook page.
“God please be with us and make the 4th Annual Sam Strong Run to END Duchenne be a success and lots of fun. Months of work, all for the next 6 hours. We love you Sam!!!!”
By 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, 275 runners had registered for the 5K that started and ended at Newberry Elementary School. The Newberry High School drum line and cheer team were rowdy and loud, Emcee Josh Taylor was getting ready to sing the National Anthem, Destiny Community Church Pastor Rocky McKinley was getting ready to bless the event and offer a prayer.
Dan Monteau of Gainesville, who won the first Sam Strong 5K in 2012, was stretching out. “I compete on a national level,” he said. “I just want to be a part of this. When you know you’ve been blessed yourself, it’s fun to come out and show support.”
Getting her playlist queued up was Amy Hogue of Gainesville. “I started off with older ones,” she said about her running music choices that included “Geronimo” by Australian indie pop band Sheppard. Hogue attends church with the Hersom family and she was there training for a 10K and decided to “Do this to support them.”
Sam Hersom is 14 years old and is an eighth-grader at Oak View Middle School in Newberry. He loves superheroes and that’s why the Hulk, Batman, Thor and Superman were all at the race. Sam is the hero behind Sam Strong at the yearly event. He battles Duchenne muscular dystrophy and he and his family raise awareness and money through the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy organization the pledges to lead “the fight to end Duchenne.”
“On your mark, get set,” and pop the start was in motion.
The drummers created the beat. The kids and strollers were the last to cross the start line.
The antics began as the last runner left the school driveway. Before you knew it, Thor was rocking out with his hair flying. The volunteers were at their stations. Allyson Trimble, a student at the University of Florida, said she volunteered because “Dr. (Matt) Hersom is one of my advisers.”
Twenty volunteer high school students were cheering on runners at the corner of SW 255th Street and SW 15th Ave. According to Sam's mother Kris Hersom, 62 Buchholz students said they showed up because their teacher Mr. Gallagher asked them to.
Twenty six NHS, two Oak View Middle, one Gainesville High and six UF students were helping out waving signs and waving runners onward.
As the athletes approached the finish line, Taylor was escorting them in with words of encouragement.
“Come on, bring it in,” he said over the mic. “Don’t let that girl beat you! First dog to cross the finish line,” Taylor announced as a cocker spaniel arrived.
Harlan Borton, 68, is Sam’s grandpa. He said he has participated in every race for Sam. “I walked every foot of that mile for Sam,” he said.
Couple DJ Pabst and Bri Zayas were sprinting elbow to elbow to the finish line. “We just always sprint across the finish line,” said Zayas. They admit that they are both very competitive, and this was their second year racing. “He did,” Zayas said about who came in first. “I won last year too,” Pabst reminded her.
Leighann Skurupey, 31, said she was surprised that doctors cleared her to run a week after she had ablation surgery on her heart in June. She has run in every Sam Strong race and wasn’t going to miss this one. “I got first in my age group,” she said.
And then, the final contestant rounded the corner and headed up the parking lot. NES student Elijah Essex suddenly had an entourage surrounding him. More than a dozen escorts, in fact, hanging around and towering over the 38-inch tall kindergartner.
And he ran and he ran and the crowd gathered at the finish line. He jumped over it and everyone erupted.
Then Essex, 5, received his medal from Sam. “Well, I’ve got to tell you,” Elijah who was born with Metaphyseal Dysplasia of the Schmidt Type and had surgery on his legs in December 2014 said. “It’s hard to run, but it’s no matter. Only just have fun.”
In the end, $13,000 was raised for further research for a cure for the disease that only affects 1 in every 3,500 males. Top runners according to the results posted at start2finishracemanagement.com were Jeff Armstrong for males with a time of 19:44 minutes and Alex Stanojev clocked in as the first woman at 20:88 minutes.
Sam said his favorite part of the event was judging the costume contest and dancing with the superheroes.
Drew Hill, aka Thor, won for a second year in a row. “It is hard to beat his energy and excitement,” said Kris Hersom. The next day, on Sept. 20 at 11:20 a.m., Sam’s mother posted a photo of superhero costumes in the washer ready to get washed. “Even superheroes have to do laundry!” she wrote.
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scook@alachuatoday.com
Photos by SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today
Kris Hersom and her son Sam pray with runners and volunteers at the Fourth Annual Sam Strong Run 2 End Duchenne 5K held in Newberry on Sept. 19 at Newberry Elementary School.
NEWBERRY – At 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, Newberry father Matt Hersom made a post on his Facebook page.
“God please be with us and make the 4th Annual Sam Strong Run to END Duchenne be a success and lots of fun. Months of work, all for the next 6 hours. We love you Sam!!!!”
By 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, 275 runners had registered for the 5K that started and ended at Newberry Elementary School. The Newberry High School drum line and cheer team were rowdy and loud, Emcee Josh Taylor was getting ready to sing the National Anthem, Destiny Community Church Pastor Rocky McKinley was getting ready to bless the event and offer a prayer.
Dan Monteau of Gainesville, who won the first Sam Strong 5K in 2012, was stretching out. “I compete on a national level,” he said. “I just want to be a part of this. When you know you’ve been blessed yourself, it’s fun to come out and show support.”
Getting her playlist queued up was Amy Hogue of Gainesville. “I started off with older ones,” she said about her running music choices that included “Geronimo” by Australian indie pop band Sheppard. Hogue attends church with the Hersom family and she was there training for a 10K and decided to “Do this to support them.”
Sam Hersom is 14 years old and is an eighth-grader at Oak View Middle School in Newberry. He loves superheroes and that’s why the Hulk, Batman, Thor and Superman were all at the race. Sam is the hero behind Sam Strong at the yearly event. He battles Duchenne muscular dystrophy and he and his family raise awareness and money through the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy organization the pledges to lead “the fight to end Duchenne.”
“On your mark, get set,” and pop the start was in motion.
The drummers created the beat. The kids and strollers were the last to cross the start line.
The antics began as the last runner left the school driveway. Before you knew it, Thor was rocking out with his hair flying. The volunteers were at their stations. Allyson Trimble, a student at the University of Florida, said she volunteered because “Dr. (Matt) Hersom is one of my advisers.”
Twenty volunteer high school students were cheering on runners at the corner of SW 255th Street and SW 15th Ave. According to Sam's mother Kris Hersom, 62 Buchholz students said they showed up because their teacher Mr. Gallagher asked them to.
Twenty six NHS, two Oak View Middle, one Gainesville High and six UF students were helping out waving signs and waving runners onward.
As the athletes approached the finish line, Taylor was escorting them in with words of encouragement.
“Come on, bring it in,” he said over the mic. “Don’t let that girl beat you! First dog to cross the finish line,” Taylor announced as a cocker spaniel arrived.
Harlan Borton, 68, is Sam’s grandpa. He said he has participated in every race for Sam. “I walked every foot of that mile for Sam,” he said.
Couple DJ Pabst and Bri Zayas were sprinting elbow to elbow to the finish line. “We just always sprint across the finish line,” said Zayas. They admit that they are both very competitive, and this was their second year racing. “He did,” Zayas said about who came in first. “I won last year too,” Pabst reminded her.
Leighann Skurupey, 31, said she was surprised that doctors cleared her to run a week after she had ablation surgery on her heart in June. She has run in every Sam Strong race and wasn’t going to miss this one. “I got first in my age group,” she said.
And then, the final contestant rounded the corner and headed up the parking lot. NES student Elijah Essex suddenly had an entourage surrounding him. More than a dozen escorts, in fact, hanging around and towering over the 38-inch tall kindergartner.
And he ran and he ran and the crowd gathered at the finish line. He jumped over it and everyone erupted.
Then Essex, 5, received his medal from Sam. “Well, I’ve got to tell you,” Elijah who was born with Metaphyseal Dysplasia of the Schmidt Type and had surgery on his legs in December 2014 said. “It’s hard to run, but it’s no matter. Only just have fun.” 
In the end, $13,000 was raised for further research for a cure for the disease that only affects 1 in every 3,500 males. Top runners according to the results posted at start2finishracemanagement.com were Jeff Armstrong for males with a time of 19:44 minutes and Alex Stanojev clocked in as the first woman at 20:88 minutes.
Sam said his favorite part of the event was judging the costume contest and dancing with the superheroes.
Drew Hill, aka Thor, won for a second year in a row. “It is hard to beat his energy and excitement,” said Kris Hersom. The next day, on Sept. 20 at 11:20 a.m., Sam’s mother posted a photo of superhero costumes in the washer ready to get washed. “Even superheroes have to do laundry!” she wrote.
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