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Runners and walkers of all ages and genders came to Agawam Park in Southampton on Saturday morning for the second annual Christopher’s Run 5K.
The run raised money to combat Hunter’s Syndrome, or MPS, the disease that took 5-year-old Christopher Lesta’s life in December 2007. But more than that, it was an outpouring of love for a little boy and his memory.
Christopher’s mother, Kendra Lesta, and Krista Debler, an occupational therapist who cared for him, put the 5K together after he died. The race had a successful debut last year, but Lesta said it did even better this time around. “I think we had a few more than last year,” she said of the turnout Saturday.
“It’s actually really amazing,” Lesta went on to say. “Christopher touched a lot of people’s lives.”
She said that many of the more than 200 runners and many supporters of the event were affected by her son. “A lot of people here knew him,” Lesta said, adding that the event benefits a number of organizations, including the Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Program at Duke University Medical Center, MPS Society, Make-A-Wish Foundation, CaringBridge, the Center of Hope and the Special Education Program at the Southampton Elementary School.
The race raised about $9,000 and was sponsored by numerous local businesses, including Hampton Jitney, Hampton Coffee Company, Water Mill Irrigation Inc., Southampton Village Photo and Debler’s company Out East Therapy, among others, but Lesta said the event was much more than a fund raiser.
“Today is really a day to remember Christopher,” she said, noting that Christopher’s Run is a celebration of her son’s life.
Lesta said she hoped everyone involved would think of him throughout the day, no matter where they went or what they did after the race. “He was so full of life and laughter, and his outsized personality, courage and perseverance touched everyone he knew,” she said.
Christoper was diagnosed with the fatal Hunter’s Syndrome disorder in October of 2004. The condition is very rare and those affected by it lose the ability to produce an enzyme that breaks down and recycles cellular material. As cells store the material, they can no longer function properly and the affected person suffers damage throughout their body.
Christopher was given treatments, including an umbilical cord blood transplant in November 2005, and later he had regular therapy with Debler in Southampton and Center Moriches. The boy was improving and began kindergarten at the Southampton Elementary School in September of 2007, but he developed an infection within a short time and eventually succumbed to it.
Lesta said her son’s therapist had been so taken with him and saddened by his death that she approached her with the idea for Christopher’s run.
The race began on Pond Lane, alongside Agawam Park in Southampton Village, and runners and walkers went south toward the ocean, eventually looping around and finishing where they started.
This year’s winner didn’t know Christopher, but he’s friends with Debler and was moved by the boy’s story.
“Sometimes it’s the cause,” 35-year-old Southampton resident Jason Hancock, the winner, said, explaining his motivation for running in certain races. “I do a variety of local races,” he added. Hancock teaches sixth grade at Amagansett School and finished in 17:46 on Saturday, his personal best time for a 5K.
He placed third in the Mind Over Matter 5K in Sag Harbor on May 12 with a time of 18:10 and he placed second in the Bonac on Board to Wellness 5K in East Hampton on May 20 with a time of 18:06.
Along with the worthy cause, the teacher said Christopher’s run was special because his two children, Cadie, 4, and Brigham, 6, were able to compete in an earlier quarter mile race at the same event. “It’s rare to get to do both,” Hancock said.
Shirley resident Bobby Cameron, 37, placed second in 18:43 and East Hampton resident Jorge Flores placed third with a time of 19:13. Flores, 38, also ran in the Mind Over Matter 5K in Sag Harbor last month and he placed sixth in 19:31.
The top female finisher on Saturday was 41-year-old Westhampton Beach resident Laura Brown, who finished in 19:19 and placed fourth overall. She was the top female finisher in the Run to Remember 5K just one week prior at the same location, but Brown ran that race in 19:09.1 and placed fifth overall.
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