{"id":32872,"date":"2025-09-22T15:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T15:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=32872"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:00:31","slug":"inaugural-memphis-international-airport-runway-5k-draws-900-participants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/news\/airports\/inaugural-memphis-international-airport-runway-5k-draws-900-participants\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural Memphis International Airport Runway 5K Draws 900 Participants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>More than 900 people participated in the inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/flymemphis.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/flymemphis.com\/\">Memphis International Airport<\/a> (MEM) MEM Runway 5K on Saturday, September 20. The event allowed runners to experience a race on one of MEM\u2019s runways, providing rare inside views of an airport that serves nearly 5 million passengers annually and ranks among one of the busiest cargo airports in world. One of the highlights of the course was that participants were able to run under a FedEx aircraft that was parked on the runway. A Tennessee Air National Guard (TANG) aircraft was also parked nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"310\" src=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Photo-Sep-20-2025-8-11-09-AM-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32874\" style=\"width:432px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Photo-Sep-20-2025-8-11-09-AM-edit.jpg 600w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Photo-Sep-20-2025-8-11-09-AM-edit-300x155.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Participants ranged in age from four to 92. Top finishers were presented with a special award that featured a runway light, and certificates were given top three finishers in various age categories. The post-race festivities included the awards ceremony as well as a drawing for two roundtrip tickets donated by Breeze Airways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proceeds from the race will support the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority\u2019s Community Foundation. The foundation focuses on civic engagement, education, sustainability efforts, health, and community initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/250932-1166-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32875\" style=\"width:222px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/250932-1166-edit.jpg 600w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/250932-1166-edit-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur first annual Runway 5K was a huge success and we thank the hundreds of participants that came out to support a great cause today,\u201d said Terry Blue, president and CEO of the Memphis Shelby County Airport Authority. \u201cIt\u2019s our goal to make this an annual event that celebrates aviation, fitness, and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall Male                                                                                                                                          Michael Donnelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall Female                                                                                                                                        Kaitlyn Ambueh<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Master (Ages 45-49): Male                                                                                                                            Ira Strange<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Master (Ages 45-49): Female                                                                                                                  Amber Fournier<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grandmaster (50-54): Male                                                                                                                      Robert Lyles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grandmaster (50-54): Female                                                                                                             Margaret Williams <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full results can be found at <a href=\"https:\/\/results.raceroster.com\/v2\/en-US\/results\/ah59rturfde2updr\/awards\">https:\/\/results.raceroster.com\/v2\/en-US\/results\/ah59rturfde2updr\/awards<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 900 people participated in the inaugural Memphis International Airport (MEM) MEM Runway 5K on Saturday, September 20. The event allowed runners to experience a race on one of MEM\u2019s runways, providing rare inside views of an airport that serves nearly 5 million passengers annually and ranks among one of the busiest cargo airports [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,116,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airports","category-front-page-slider","category-tennessee"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/250932-3033-edit-2-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32876,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872\/revisions\/32876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}