Hobo’s Heartbreaker 10K set for Saturday

* Event page

STRINGTOWN, Pa. — The Hobo’s Heartbreaker 10K run/walk is scheduled to return to Stringtown in southern Bedford County on Saturday, Feb. 16.

The event starts and finishes at Cooks Mill United Methodist Church on Cooks Mill Road in Londonderry Township, approximately three miles north of Ellerslie, Md. The out-and-back 6.2-mile road race was first contested in 2009 and brought back in 2010 but took a two-year hiatus. After the 10K there is a free half-mile run for kids 14 and under.

“When the Potomac Highlands Distance Club dropped the event from its calendar, there were starting to be other competitive racing opportunities in the area and we didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” said club officials. “Those events seem to have gone by the wayside, however, and it allows the PHDC to bring this low-key 10K run back.”

This year’s 10K projects to be bigger and better than ever. Still with a low-key entry fee of $5 per person — and free for PHDC members — there will be performance-based awards for the top male and female overall, as well as the top male in female in both the masters (40-plus) and grand masters (50-plus) divisions. In addition, there will be random prizes distributed, including one for a couples massage class in McHenry the day after the race. The awards are sponsored by Heavenly Prints Digital Media, a LaVale, Md.-based web marketing company. Hobo’s Restaurant, where runners are invited to dine after the race, is back for a third year of event sponsorship.

Jim Jordan, of LaVale, set the overall and men’s masters course records with a time of 40 minutes and 1 second in 2009. Mary Jane Baniak, of Short Gap, W.Va., holds the women’s course record (50:09) set on a snow-covered course in 2010. Karen Young, of Boyds, Md., established the women’s masters record (53:00) that same snowy year.

Race-day registration begins at 9 a.m. at the church. The 10K will begin promptly at 10 a.m. For more information, visit the Potomac Highlands Distance Club online at www.PhDispatch.com or call 304-209-8981. The PHDC is an affiliate of the Road Runners Club of America.