Honor Run Spirits High

The runner who crossed the finish line first in Saturday's Gold Star Run for Honor embraced the whole experience.

Spirits were high, the morning was bright and Max Freiert, 27, a web designer from Salem, was happy to embrace the pain of running hard over three miles in a race that honors sacrifice.

"I was happy," said Freiert, a triathlete who ran the 3.1 mille course in about 20:12.

A few hundred men, women  and children left the starting line at Clarke School under blue skies.

The race honored Swampscott soldier, Army SPC Jared Raymond, who was killed while on activity duty in Iraq in 2006.

The race raised money for a scholarship fund in his name.

Some runners ran for Jared Raymond. Some ran for other military members.

"It's just keeping his spirit alive and other service men and women," said Brandi Dion, an event organizer from B&S Fitness Event Management.

The runners included a contingent from the 16th Massachusetts Policy Academy.

They ran in formation from beginning to end with a flag bearer, stopping at  on Essex Street to show respect to the soldier.

The group's members did 16 three-count pushups plus one for good luck at the Square, said 16th MPOC physical fitness instructor Kevin Reen of the Swampscott Police Department.

Jared's family was at the Square, accompanied by Swampscott Selectman David Van Dam.

The academy group's stop at the Square was emotionally stirring, Van Dam said.

Spirits were high at the finish line as spectators cheered runners cruising to the end.

The school court yard was also alive with cheers from the nearby baseball game.

The field's grass had been cut recently and was deep green from recent rain.

Music played over a sound system. Family, friends, neighbors and strangers chatted.

The air was sweet with the smell of fruit trees in blossom. 

Some of the runners included parents and their children.

Emily and Anna, 11, Cilley of Swampscott, ran the race.

Anna's friends, Sierra Inzana and Morgan McBurney, also 11 and from Swampscott, ran the race, as well.

Jared Raymond's mother, Jacki Raymond, greeted runners during the award ceremony, shaking hands and hugging them.

Some of them she knew.

"A lot of my son's friends from high school — it was really good to see them," she said.