More than 1,500 Runners Join Coronado Love Stride

Runners, walkers and romantics alike came together this week for the Valentine’s Day 10K in Coronado. The race, which was the first ever in the community, attracted 1,562 participants, including City Councilman Mike Woiwode and longtime Coronado High School water polo coach . 

Of the participants, 282 were couples that decided to spend the heart-filled holiday running the 6.2-mile course.        

Profits from the race will be donated to Islander Sports Foundation and the Foundation.

"Overall, it was a huge community effort,” said Ben Vaughan, the race director. “Coronado really came out to support the event.”

Volunteers from the Islander Sports Foundation and Coronado High School came out to ensure the race’s success. The CHS boys baseball team showed up at 4:30 a.m. to help with the heavy lifting of cones and barricades. 

“That's an early morning for teenage boys!” Vaughan said.

The CHS cheerleaders were there to cheer at the start and at the finish lines, along with the girls volleyball team, which handed out finisher medals to all the participants who finished the race. The boys and girls tennis teams worked the water stop.

“They had a great time and were complimented by many runners after the race as being a lot of fun,” he said of the students.

The race drew people from various areas and sports teams, including professional runners from the Adidas-Movin' Shoes Team. While some were there to compete, others took the course at a slower pace. Some parents even brought their babies and pushed them in strollers.

The warm weather and the landscape at provided the perfect backdrop, as the high school’s Kristin Sabesky kicked things off with the national anthem at 7:10 a.m. Then Mayor Casey Tanaka officially started the race with a siren.

The winner was Paul Wellman from the Adidas-Movin' Shoes Team with a time of 31:28, a 5:04-mile pace. The top woman was Dianna Chivakos, also from the Adidas-Movin' Shoes Team, with a time of 36:12, a 5:50-mile pace.