Hundreds of people ran with Blue Angels flying overhead

Hundreds of people ran or rode their bikes on Saturday morning, under a clear blue sky, with music blaring, and the Blue Angels flying overhead.

Naval Air Force Officer Kay Steele said, “Today I ran a 10k with the blue angels flying over me. And it was an awesome run, and I’m very sweaty.”

Some started the 8th Annual Blue Angels 10K Run and Half-Marathon at Sunbeam Lake, others at I.V. Mall. Everyone crossed the finished line at NAF.

NAF Commander Adam Schlismann said, “We open up the base to the general public. We have a route out in town. We cooperate with the CHP and local police to block it off to make it safe. And people come out and run and have a good time. We got the blue angels practicing overhead during the entire run.”

It’s not every day you can run with the Navy’s top flight demonstration squadron flying over you.

NAF Captain Brant Alfonzo said, “I had a great experience. It’s a great course right through some farm runs down here. And we had the blue angels flying overhead. It was a great morning. Great event. It’s great to see so many participants here today.”

The event brings navy and community together.

Navy officer Lucas Trachsel said, “We get to get involved with the community, and the community comes out. We do this every year. And they applaud us. They film us. They wave at us. I love it.”

It promotes great principles.

“It encourages a lot of things that the navy stands for: physical fitness, integrity, commitment,” Alfonzo said.

It was the first 10K for the El Centro sector border patrol as a group.

El Centro Sector Border Patrol Officer Ryan Scudder said, “We just thought this would be a great opportunity for us to participate in the uniform and show the community that we’re here for them as well.”

With music blaring from the group Pop-Gun – not to be confused with the movie Top Gun – runners high-fived each other and talked about maybe doing it again next year.

“Absolutely! It was fantastic!” said Christy Ann Jones.