Published: November 02, 2009 12:06 pm      

Palko hustles to finish line

Standing at the starting and finish line of the Halloween Hustle Fun Run is an interesting place to be. As the crowd rumbles out of the gate and then returns to the finish line at their own pace, you see youth, adults, kids, dogs, baby strollers and teams.

The 13th annual Halloween Hustle, a 5K run and walk that benefits the North Texas Medical center (NTMC) Foundation, brought in participants from all over the area Saturday.

The Halloween morning event began with a community warm-up orchestrated by a roof-top trainer.

Participants then moved to the starting point to line up and get out of the gate.

The race started at NTMC at 9:30 a.m. and runners and walkers headed to Highway 82, where they turned right and headed for Fair Barn Road. The race started and ended at the hospital.

There were lots of firsts that finished at the Halloween Hustle Saturday morning as participants were put into a variety of groups to receive awards.

Schools participating in the Fun Run included Lindsay, Era, Valley View and Pilot Point.

Coach Robin Hess of Lindsay High School Cross Country team said, “This is an annual thing that they like to do. It’s kind of a tradition to run in the race.”

Hess said the team participates in a lot of competitions and this is their fun run. “They wanted to dress up and run.”

Each year the girl’s Lindsay High School cross country team dresses up in Halloween costumes and run the hustle as a group. This year they were attired as vampires.

Pilot Point High School’s girls and boys cross country teams not only participated in the run, sophomore Mike Palko finished first in the race. “Awesome” is how Palko described finishing first.

Coach Jeff Price said this is the first year their Pilot Point teams have participated in the Halloween Hustle.

“We had an opening so we decided to come as a team,” Price said. “I think the kids had a good time here. They did a good job with the race.”

Well-known celebrities in the Fun Run included Fred Flintstone, Pebbles, Fat Albert and Devil Dog. Participants wore all kinds of Halloween attire and had hair of every color. Even some of the dogs dressed up.

The first 500 people that registered wore their Halloween Hustle tee shirts.

This year the hustle also included a Halloween Costume Competition which included all age groups. The costume competitions took place after the run.

The winners and times of the Halloween Hustle Fun Run will be published in Tuesday’s Register.