Update: As of October 18, the Runyon 5K has raised $720,000!

New York, NY, August 8, 2011 — On August 7, 2011 thousands of avid runners, passionate baseball fans, cancer survivors, and supporters of cancer research took part in the third annual Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium, the only charitable run/walk that uses the legendy ballpark as its course.  The event sold out two weeks in advance, with 4,000 participants raising $615,000 for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, which provides today’s best young scientists with funding to pursue innovative cancer research.

On a warm and muggy summer day, fans – from 5 to 76 years old and traveling from 30 states – ran their own victory laps around the famous field in support of cancer research.  Cancer survivors and patients were joined by exhuberant baseball fans and the Foundation’s own scientists.

Former New York Yankees left fielder Roy White, who helped the team win two World Series Championships in 1977-78, kicked off the 5K along with special guests Michael Gargiulo, co-anchor of NBC4’s “Today in New York,” and Thomas Werner, Chairman of the Boston Red Sox.

Werner came at the request of Damon Runyon Board Chairman Alan Leventhal, a personal friend. “He is here because even one of the oldest rivalries in baseball can be set aside to support the fight against cancer,” Leventhal said.

While official results will be released later in the week, this year’s fastest time is estimated to have been nineteen minutes and twelve seconds.  Most runners and walkers, however, opted for a slower pace to enjoy the scenery and take photos in the Great Hall and on the warning track that surrounds the field. 

Carl Ressa, a cancer survivor and three-time Runyon 5K top fundraiser from Rockville, Maryland, won the event’s MVP Prize Package for raising $10,000 by July 29.  He and his wife Jennifer won a private flight to Boston with Leventhal and Werner, two premium tickets to the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park that evening, and a night at the Boston Harbor Hotel.  The Ressas know what it means to bat a thousand, having used tickets they won as part of last year’s top fundraising prize to attend the July game during which Derek Jeter his his historic 3,000th hit.

More details can be found at www.damonrunyon.org/yankeestadium.

SPONSORS
In addition to the generous support of the New York Yankees, other event sponsors included MetLife Foundation, Unilever, White Rose, C9 by Champion, NYSID, 24 Hour Fitness, NBC4 New York, New York Daily News, SiriusXM Radio, Poland Spring, and Utz.

> View photos from the event.

> Watch Runyon 5K videos on Youtube.

> View NY1 coverage.

> Read NY Daily News coverage.