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Mooo Run attracts 190 runners and a Strider Cow is born

September 26, 2017

The inaugural Udderly Fun Mooo Run, billed as the Ultimate Farm 5K, shortened here to Moo Cow 5K, attracted 190 runners and walkers to Hopkins Dairy Farm and Creamery Sept. 23, with the proceeds going to Grassroots Rescue. Runners were jazzed about cows and puppies along with sausage and ice cream.

The course was pretty whack, snaking through feeding cows, a couple of rescued race horses, a gang of goats, and moats of you don’t want to know. Every udder and moo joke was exhausted by the time the race was over.

“Runners are really nice people. We’ve always wanted to do something like this, so we hope to stay on the schedule and watch it grow into a big event,” said Burli Hopkins, aka “Cow Guy,” who runs the place.

The white roads reflected a hot sun. The course was a challenge, but the milk was free.

Joey Andrisani, 35, outkicked his buddy Francisco Puac to the finish line. Each was awarded the same time of 17:43. Rounding out the top 5 were Martin Rodriguez in 18:40, Moiber Rivera in 19:23 and Nathan Sneller, a Sussex Academy cross country runner, in 19:31.

The women’s race was won by Katie Kuhlman, 12, in 22:56. Katie runs for the Mariner Middle School cross country team. Women who followed Katie were Mardiny Ung in 23:18, Kim Geyer in 23:26, Holly Scott in 23:46 and Mary Beth Evans in 23:51.  

The day seemed to belong to the children. There were nine boys in the 9-and-under division with Mikey Thompson in 23:18 and Gage Hall in 25:49 leading the way.

There were also nine girls in the 9-and-under, with Lily Noonan winning in 25:50, followed by Mia Gordon in 26:55 and Mia Thompson in 28:46.

“Burli agreed to name a calf born Saturday ‘Strider Cow,’” said runner Linda Chi. “Maybe next year she can be an official starter.”

The cows are numbered, then the first name is always Henlopen followed by a computer-generated name. “We’re not clever enough to name 10 cows a day,” Hopkins said.  

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