Mission: Take Back 5K (Bruceton, Mills,WV) challenges, inspires

Mission: Take Back (Bruceton) challenges, inspires
Elite runners encourage a new set of superstars

Results Photos Full Video Coming Soon

By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com

BRUCETON MILLS, W.Va., Aug. 15 – Perhaps for the first time in his life, Steve Wotring was running toward something.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done!” he exclaimed with the finish line still about a half mile away in the inaugural Mission: Take Back 5K run and 2-mile walk.

But he did it – and so did 48 other 5K runners Sunday evening, the co-pastor of Pisgah United Methodist Church in Bruceton Mills. Another 44 participants ranging in age from 0 (Shelda Wotring) to 65 (Elsie Walls) completed the shorter but still hilly 2-mile walk.

“During the last several years, the population of the Bruceton Mills area has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the church attendance in the area has not grown at the same rate. Consequently, this community has experienced the works of Satan, as gambling facilities are robbing elders of their life savings, drug dealers are making our youth their preay and many of the teenagers and young adults are falling into the temptations of alcohol, drugs and sex.”

As a member of the Bruceton-Brandonville Volunteer Fire Department, “I have witness many of these challenges first hand,” writes Tim Wotring on the church website, www.missiontakeback.com. “I have responded to calls involving domestic violence, suicides, drug overdoses, vehicle accidents caused by drunk drivers and other calls relating in criminal nature.”

Steve Wotring shares that after “years of my excuses, prayer and finally, submission, God has shown me once again that you can run, but not hide. Today, I embrace my calling and am excited about the challenge that God has placed before me.”

Neither Wotring was first to the finish line. That honor belonged to Justin Simpson, 26, of Morgantown. His clocking of 18 minutes, 36.9 minutes easily outdistanced runner-up Kyle Benson, 16, of Bruceton Mills. Benson finished in 20:12.7, about 34 seconds ahead of fellow 16-year-old Nick Robertson, also of Bruceton Mills. Robertson finished in 20:46.8.

Julie Friend, 15, of Markleysburg, Pa., was the top female finisher and took fourth overall in 21:32.6. She edged James Work, 41, of Fairmont (21:33.8), who finished as top masters runner.

Karlie Ridenour, 16, of Bruceton Mills, took second in the women’s standings (22:28.1) while Heather Parks, 35, of Bruceton Mills, finished 10th overall and third female in 23:36.

Michelle Hamric, 46, of Bruceton Mills, was the top female masters finisher with a time of 29:10.6. Hamric and husband Ron (who also won an age group award) were co-race directors and pleased with the turnout of this first-year event.

The course was a double out-and-back. That is, runners and walkers in a combined 6:30 p.m. started headed west on Pisgah Road before bearing left onto a country road with rolling hills for about 1.25 miles.

At the turnaround, runners retraced their steps and passed the start line to head east for a little more than a quarter of a mile – and one last incline – before coming to a ridge, turning around again and enjoying a downhill finish at Pisgah United Methodist Church.

Physically, Wotring might have been accurate. To a man, Wotring knows he’s lacking in personal physical fitness. But it was clear to everyone Sunday that Wotring’s walk on Earth is a spiritual one, and a determined one at that. In fact, the challenge he has accepted might make Sunday’s 5K someday seem like a walk in the park.

Wotring and co-pastor Tim Wotring have received God’s calling and are working to improve the quality of life in Bruceton Mills. Crimes against fellow people are top on their collective lists to help resolve - through Jesus Christ. The task is accepted but both know it will not be an easy road.

According to mission statement on the event website, Mission: Take Back was formed to reach the area’s on behalf of Jesus Christ.