Goblin 5K draws a few garbed runners

Youngsters bolt to the lead at the start of  St. Martin School's first Goblin 5K race on Sunday. About 200 people registered for the Halloween-themed race, which the school hopes to make an annual fundraiser fot the Home and School Association.
Youngsters bolt to the lead at the start of St. Martin School's first Goblin 5K race on Sunday. About 200 people registered for the Halloween-themed race, which the school hopes to make an annual fundraiser fot the Home and School Association.

St. Martin School supporters are known to be loyal, and on Sunday around 200 of them proved it again by braving temperatures in the mid-80s for a Goblin 5K fundraiser race, some running the 3.1 miles in Halloween costumes.

Mr. Incredible (Jared Steele) and wife Elastigirl (Carinda Steele) presumably used their super powers to counteract their puffy, heat-trapping costumes. In the end, Elastigirl stretched to the finish before Mr. Incredible, who was spotted dutifully pushing a stroller along the route.

They brought their two kids, Raelynn, 6, and Brettley, 3, as well as Carinda's mother, Josette Schulte, who went as a bearded Forrest Gump running cross country.

"He ran across the whole country and didn't have a reason," Schulte said. She, on the other hand, did: "We like to support the school, and thought it was a great event."

She's not as much of a runner as she used to be, and she met her goal of simply finishing.

Event co-chair Dawn Holt, a member of the Home and School Association, said the organization hoped to raise $4,500 for the first-ever race and make it an annual event.

"We are a growing school, so we have greater needs," she said.

Some of the money could go toward helping teachers attend the National Catholic Educational Association conference in St. Louis next April, or buying more Google Chromebooks for students and teachers, she said.

Recently, the school has used such funding to built a new playground for pre-K and kindergarten students, she said.

Dawson Schulte, who attends Simonsen 9th Grade Center, is a recent St. Martin graduate who came back to take part of the event and support his old school. 

And he would have won with a time of around 23 minutes (a casual pace compared to his typical sub 18-minute performance) had he entered and not side-stepped the finish line.

Schulte runs cross country for the Jefferson City Jays and can't compete in outside races during the season, so he ran unofficially. He was coming off an injury and using the race as a tune-up for the district meet this weekend.