Root, Krasa win Freedom Celebration 5K

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CHAMPAIGN — Tina Ammerman’s objective for the Champaign County Freedom Celebration 5K was to eclipse 500 participants.

The race director’s goal was met during Thursday morning’s race — which played out under a steady downpour — as Ryan Root and Laura Krasa pulled ahead of the pack to win the men’s and women’s flights.

“We as runners kind of know that even though it’s raining, as long as there’s no thunder or lightning, it’s usually a go,” Ammerman said. “We are so blessed with all of our volunteers. We had people even bring tents this time, because of the rain and everything.”

Root’s 11th Independence Day victory didn’t come in dominant fashion.

Lessons learned from previous races informed the Centennial graduate to conserve his energy for the late stages. He was fifth in the pack after the opening mile and trailed Nick Bonn for much of the race’s first half before pulling away for the win in 15 minutes, 28.31 seconds.

“This year being a little older, a little wiser and having run this probably close to 20 times, I’ve had a reckless streak and I thought I’d let the kids go out hard and kind of work it down later,” Root said. “Within the first quarter-mile, everyone was sopping wet. I didn’t wear a shirt because during the warmup it was probably five or 10 pounds heavier than what I wanted it to be.”

Cooler weather also allowed Root’s wife, Kaylin, to try and defend her 2023 women’s title.

Now 10 weeks pregnant with the couple’s first child, Kaylin settled for fifth place in the women’s flight at 20:04.59, trailing only Champaign’s Sam Mabry (20:01.94) in her age group.

“Usually the weather is just crazy hot,” Kaylin Root said. “The weather was actually really nice. ... This might be the last race of the year for me, but it’s always such a great time. It’s a fun race, and we’ve just really enjoyed it.”

Instead, the women’s title went to 2018 Judah Christian graduate Laura Krasa, who bested the field with a time of 17:37.99.

“It wasn’t my best time, but I’m still very happy with how I did considering the conditions,” Krasa said. “At first when I was going into the race, I was thinking the rain might be an advantage because it would help cool me down. But as I was running, I realized it was actually not really that beneficial.”

Krasa — a frequent winner of the 5K race that kicks off Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend and a former standout high school distance runner with Judah Christian — can now call herself a Freedom Celebration race winner.

Ranking the races, though, is a tougher task.

“Every race has something to offer and every race is its own special, unique experience,” Krasa said. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities to race in the local community this year, which has been really great because I really love Champaign-Urbana as a community and there’s really a great running culture here.”

Among the other competitors were a group of former Urbana cross-country runners, led by current assistant coach Justice Carter, who placed fifth overall with a time of 16:30.76.

“It was just a fun race,” Carter said. “It was fun to have everyone out here. ... Definitely a bigger (turnout) than last year. It’s always more enjoyable when you can do what you love but also have the people you love doing it with.”

Carter’s effort led strong outings from recent Urbana graduates like Sam Lambert (16:21.36, fourth overall), Park Mitchell (17:13.17, seventh) and Hudson Coady (17:14.66, ninth), along with Tigers’ cross-country coach Zach Boehmke (17:33.68, 13th).

Coady considered his first time competing in the event a success.

“I was just going out here and just trying to have fun,” Coady said. “I was just relying on the fitness from track and cross-country of past years. I went out and was able to pace with some other Urbana alums, which was nice, and just tried to close hard.”

Among the perks runners received after crossing the finish line were free t-shirts from previous years of racing, which paired with the watermelon traditionally afforded to the race’s competitors.

Root and Krasa also received gift cards for their triumphs.

“We run in the snow, we run in the ice,” Ammerman said. “I think they had a really good time. No injuries, no need for any EMTs, which was nice. ... I’m very appreciative of all my friends and volunteers.”