Runners take on Olga footrace

Aug 21, 2023

Melinda Bard, right, and her daughter race together during Saturday’s Olga Memorial Footrace in Saranac Lake.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

SARANAC LAKE — The annual Olga Memorial Footrace was held on Saturday in Saranac Lake. More than 80 runners and walkers of all different ages turned out for the event.

The footrace featured three divisions — a 5-kilometer walk, a 5K run and a 10K run. Most participants typically take on the 5K distance and this year was no exception. Around 60 people completed in that distance on the run course that started at Berkeley Green and finished behind the Hotel Saranac.

While participants traveled from all over the area to take part in Saturday’s footrace, there was a large group of Paul Smith’s student-athletes who raced. Most of the Paul Smith’s College students who competed on Saturday are on the school’s cross country team and their experience showed. The student-athletes claimed at least one of the top three spots in men’s 5K and 10K and women’s 5K.

Nathaniel Byrnes was the first Paul Smith’s College student to cross the finish line, winning the men’s 5K race with a time of 19 minutes, 44.21 seconds. He was trailed by Daniel Edelstein (20:28.07) and Todd Mulhorn (20:42.30).

In the women’s 5K race, Saratoga Springs native Jillian Zick took first place in 21:59.72. Paul Smith’s College students Ellen Haas and Brooklynn Shumway claimed the next two spots. Haas finished in 23:26.38, while Shumway, of Bloomingdale, finished in 24:26.18.

Nicholas Machia, of Fayetteville, won the men’s 10K race in 35:11.13, while Lake Placid native Elizabeth Izzo won the women’s race in 40:17.74.

Paul Smith’s Ethan Parrish (35:31.63) and Peru native Jason Amoriell (39:03.68) rounded out the men’s 10K podium. Katherine Kalaris of Saranac Lake finished in second place on the women’s side in 49:15.62 and Jennifer Starrett of Saugus, Massachusetts, was third in 49:57.53.

The Olga Memorial Footrace was hosted by the Rotary Club of Saranac Lake and the Saranac Lake Youth Center.

The race began in 1998, to help Olga Figueroa, a Saranac Lake native, pay for her cancer medical treatments. Figueroa was a fitness enthusiast and a National Race-Walker for many years. She participated in dozens of national and local races for the benefit of many individual and not-for-profit organizations.

She died in 1999 and the event now raises money for local youth programs. Proceeds from this year’s race benefit local youth through increased programming at the Saranac Lake Youth Center and enhancement of the Rotary’s literacy program that intends to put a book in the hands of every child in the elementary school.

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