Sellers Wins Annual Paul Revere Fun Run

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

More than 150 people signed up for Paul Revere Middle School’s fourth annual Family Fun Run on Saturday morning, November 2. P.E. teacher Paul Foxson sent the enthusiastic field on its way for a three-lap route around the campus, starting and ending on the athletic field, and breaking the tape in the 5K race was 32-year-old Ripley Sellers, who clocked 19:24.

“Under 20 [minutes] was my goal,” said Sellers, a Los Feliz resident who runs daily and was encouraged to enter by his girfriend Esmeralda, whose little brother Matteo is a sixth-grader at Revere. “I got a little tour of the school and got to see some normal folks on their morning runs and walks. What do I get? Coffee and a donut would be great!”     

Greeting Sellers at the finish line was his 9-year-old boxer/chihuahua mix Ziggy. Sellers grew up playing AYSO in Burbank and grduated in 2010 from Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, where he ran cross country and played on the soccer team. “I like the mixed terrain with the gravel, rock, grass and pavement,” he said. “I know the Palisades… I have friends who live here.”

Sellers went to Vassar College in New York and is the associate editor of A Blog to Watch, a podcast that reviews and discusses wrist watches.      

The first Revere student across the finish line was Alessandro Prilusky, who was third overall in 20:47—six minutes faster than his debut time last year. Shortly after, fellow eighth-grader Mikael Khani finished fifth in 21:08. It was his first time participating in the Fun Run, which he described as “confusing but fun.”    

Prizes were awarded to the top four runners and the best individual costume and best family costume. Val Ward won for his head-to-toe Hot Dog outfit; Alyssa Scott Webster and Laura Scott ran as a Troll & Mom; Lilou Kahle donned a Cookie Monster suit and Maxine Fields dressed up as a clown.

Ward, who turned 15 three days before, was fourth in 20:50. “I ran it last year as a student here,” he said. The school recordholder in the 100 meters (11.44), Ward is now a freshman at Pali High, where he plans  to run the 100, 4×100 relay and long jump in the spring.