By Chase Woolner

On the morning of Saturday June 20, Quicken Loans team members gathered at Walled Lake Northern High School to participate in the 16^th Annual Julie Run, a benefit run to support the Open Door Outreach Center in Waterford, Michigan.  There were two distances available for participants to choose from, a 5K (3.1 miles) and a 10K (6.2 miles).

We were running for a noble cause, The Open Door Outreach Center provides emergency services to families in need, such as food, clothing and referral services for emergency-related transportation and medical needs.  The run is named after Open Door trustee Julie LeBlanc who has been organizing this event for the past 19 years.

Along with the leisurely runners and walkers at the event, the day was also a competition between friendly rivals - Tony Nuckolls of Quicken Loans and Pat McInnis of Fathead -going head to head in the race for the second year in a row.  As team members arrived and registered for the event they also chose if they wanted to run for Team Pat or Team Tony.  Racers went to the starting positions and as soon as the starting pistol fired the race was on!

Runners started off strong running down the driveway of the high school and into the surrounding neighborhoods.  Each runner had a plastic tab clipped to their shoe that tracked their pace and made sure they stayed on course as they passed race checkpoints.  Soon runners started streaming back to the high school to finish the race.  The very first person completed the 5K race with an impressive time of 17:41.0 which is an average pace of 5:42 a mile.  Putting that run in perspective, the world record for the 5K race was recently run by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at a time of 12:57.82.

As the race concluded and runners crossed the finished line, they were greeted by the cheers of spectators offering complimentary water, fruit and ice cream sandwiches.  When every runner had returned and crossed the finished line, times were announced and trophies and medals were awarded.

The first annual Quicken Loans Chili Cook-off was also held in support of Open Door Outreach Center and was the precursor to the inter-office competition.  The cook-off featured over 14 contestants anxious to share their best crock pot of chili while other team members tasted and voted on the best chili for a donation of $5.

To See More Pictures From the Run: Click Here! 

Team Members Run Times

Male

Steve Marcero  - 5K Run

                Time:  19:02.1

Kevin LeBlanc  - 5K Run

                Time:  19:59.1

Jaime Rasmussen  - 5K Run

                Time: 20:31.5

Tony Nuckolls  - 5K Run

                Time: 26:25.0

Pat McInnis  - 5K Run

                Time: 31:10.3

Jason Freeman  - 5K Run

                Time:  48:13.4

Female

Allison Snell  - 5K Run

                Time:  25:54.1

Kelli Surma - 5K Run

                Time: 33:05.4

Summer Khoury  - 5K Run

                Time: 27:18.0

Angela Cini  - 5K Run

                Time: 33:28.5

Tabitha Treber - 5K Run

                Time: 47:20.3

Dana Gold -10K Run

                Time: 56:53.3

Jessica Kangas - 10K Run

                Time: 59:55.0