FARMINGTON — Getting out and being active wasn’t a tough sell on a see-your-breath Saturday morning for people who like to run, judging by the turnout for the fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot and Kids Fun Run.
Thirty-one children ages 3 to 10 participated in the half-mile to one-mile Fun Run around the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center. The adult 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) run around town drew 217 adults and youths.
But one runner, who ran the Boston Marathon in 2008 after qualifying in the 2007 Sugarloaf Marathon, wasn’t participating.
Instead, Brian Berkemeyer, 49, of Freeport, handled the timing end of things for the 5k run with his computerized ITS Jaguar chip timing and race registration services system.
In previous years, Leah Brackett, UMF coordinator of youth programs, intramurals and recreation, had done the registration, timing and results compilation by hand. But this year, she hired Berkemeyer after learning about him from a UMF student teacher who went to Freeport High School for math, Berkemeyer said.
“We just hooked up and she was like, ‘You’re a godsend!'” he said.
Brackett agreed.
“I’m just chillin’ out today,” she said as the 5k race got under way and after she compiled and posted the results of the children’s race.
“I’m out to offer quality events for the small races like Leah’s,” Berkemeyer said. “I couldn’t believe how Leah did it before. She’d lock herself in a room and figure out the results. I’ve been there. I know what she’s doing. This makes it a lot easier.”
Berkemeyer, a California native, teaches math at Freeport High School and is the cross-country and indoor and outdoor track coach. He also runs with Joan Benoit Samuelson and other well-known Freeport runners. Benoit Samuelson won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Berkemeyer and his wife Holley started Run In A Race LLC, a race registration services and timing business, last year. Its website, www.runinarace.com, was created by Brian’s sister, Karen Kettell of Virginia.
He credits his wife with jump-starting their weekend business.
“I used to play video games every evening,” Brian Berkemeyer said. “I did that for like five years, a little game my son got me on. So Holley’s like, ‘Can’t you do something better? Make some money?’”
So he did just that, investing about $18,000 in what he calls his “weekend hobby.” The Jaguar equipment itself cost about $11,000; the other $7,000 was used to purchase equipment like the system’s “clock,” a large, flat-screen TV mounted on a PVC pipe and attached to a large tripod.
So far, Brian Berkemeyer said they’ve made back more than $5,000 toward the investment. He said he charges $450 for races with up to 299 runners and $1.50 a chip.
Runners get a computerized one-time-use chip on the back of their race bibs that records their number and the time they cross the finish line, he said. The computer associates this information with their names.
After the information is collected, the system sorts it out by overall winners. Berkemeyer can also determine age-group winners and print out results at any time in the race.
But it’s not about making a lot of money. For the Berkemeyers, it’s about giving back to the community and helping out with good causes.
Holley Berkemeyer said they did one race for free this year for their church, Pathway Vineyard of Brunswick and Lewiston. The church will be meeting next week to plan another race for charity in 2013.
“So, we’re not about the money, although we’ve got to pay the bills,” her husband said.
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- Race-timer Brian Berkemeyer, left, of Freeport watches Ashley Parlin, 10, of New Sharon, win Saturday morning’s 1-mile Kids Fun Run in seven minutes and 41 seconds. The race was part of the fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center. Parlin credited her activity in all sports as training for competitive running.
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- Race-timer Brian Berkemeyer of Freeport, left, with assistance from his wife, Holley, keys in registration information for Saturday morning’s fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot, held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center. The couple started a weekend race-timing business called “Run In A Race LLC” last year.
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- Bailey Smith, left, of Kents Hill, asks race-timers Brian Berkemeyer, right, and his wife, Holley Berkemeyer, both of Freeport, where the starting line was for Saturday morning’s fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot. The race was held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center (background). It was Smith’s first time running the Turkey Trot.
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- More than 215 runners head up Quebec Street on a 30-degree Saturday morning during the fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center.
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- Josh Horne, 16, of Farmington wins Saturday morning’s 5k Turkey Trot race in Farmington, posting a time of 17 minutes and 13 seconds as he crosses the finish line in front of race-timer Brian Berkemeyer, left, of Freeport.
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- Race-timer Brian Berkemeyer of Freeport keys in data for Saturday morning’s fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center.
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- A laptop screen reflects the hands of race-timer Brian Berkemeyer of Freeport as he enters the registration data of runners who competed in Saturday morning’s fifth annual 5k Turkey Trot held by the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center.
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- Thirty-one children, ages 3 to 10, dash from the starting line at Saturday morning’s Kids Fun Race at the University of Maine at Farmington Fitness and Recreation Center. Seven of the children ran a mile; the rest did half a mile.
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