McCrum

Ella McCrum made her first appearance in the Blair Regional YMCA’s Angie Gioiosa Memorial Fourth of July 15K women’s road race a smashing success last summer.

After graduating from Juniata Valley High School, where she earned all-state distinction in PIAA meets in both cross country and track, McCrum blistered the women’s field in the 2025 Fourth of July Race that covered 9.3 miles through the streets of Altoona –pacing all women’s runners with a time of one hour, one minute, and six seconds that placed her nearly five full minutes ahead of the second-place women’s finisher.

“I had been doing a lot of higher mileage (runs) last summer in order to prepare for the college cross country season, so I kind of just went out (in the Fourth of July Race) and decided that I was just going to use it as a workout, and build my endurance,” McCrum said.

“I felt really good at the start, so I felt that I would just try to go out and stay as close to the top people as I could,” McCrum added.

That is an understatement if there ever was one, as McCrum easily fronted the women’s field last year in crossing the finish line, and placed 16th in the overall men’s and women’s 15K field combined.

Kelly

McCrum enters the 53rd annual running of the race, which is set for early this Saturday morning, as the women’s favorite in the 15K, which will begin in front of the Mishler Theatre on 12th Ave. at 7:30 a.m. and wrap up at the Heritage Plaza on 11th Ave.

The men’s and women’s 15K will again kick off the racing in this year’s event. It will be followed by the 5K (3.1-mile) race at 8 a.m., and the 2-mile walk at 8:02 a.m.

This year’s race will be held in conjunction with the nation’s 250th lndependence Day anniversary, adding another special touch to what is a great community holiday extravaganza that annually draws hundreds of runners from across and outside the state to Altoona.

McCrum is currently a nursing student at Juniata College, where, as a freshman runner last year, she established women’s school records in the 5K indoor season run and the 10K outdoor season run.

McCrum — whose mother, Krista, was her coach in both cross country and track at Juniata Valley — is embracing the same even-keel approach for Saturday’s 15K race that she took into last year’s Fourth of July Race.

“It’s a really fun race and I really enjoyed doing it last year,” McCrum said. “Before last year’s race, I had never competed in a road race of that length, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel doing it.

“I’m still in my summer training program now,” added McCrum, who said that she runs anywhere from 50 to 65 miles a week over the summer months. “I’m really excited to run this race again, and if I feel good, yes, I will try to stay with the top runners again.”

Besting the time that she registered in her debut in the race last year has become one of her goals for Saturday.

“I’ll just try to make a good workout of it again,” McCrum said. “There are a lot of good runners around here, so I’ll definitely be pushed. I’m just going to try to beat my time from last year.”

McCrum may appear to be a prohibitive favorite in the women’s 15K race, but the men’s field this year seems to be more wide open.

That’s because both of the top two finishers in last year’s 15K men’s field, Alex Monroe of Lewistown and Hollidaysburg native Kenny Goodfellow — who now resides in Rochester, N.Y. — have both confirmed to the Mirror that they won’t be running in this Saturday’s race.

That’s good news for veteran distance runner A.J. Kelly of Altoona, who has won seven Altoona 15K men’s titles in the 20-plus years that he has been competing in the event.

“I know that I only finished sixth last year, but they were the two that I was most worried about this year,” Kelly said of Monroe and Goodfellow. “The competition will still be good, but without those two there this year, I should definitely have a good opportunity to get the win — if I have a good day and if things work out for me.”

Now 44, Kelly said that he hasn’t won the men’s championship in the 15K here since 2019, but he has usually been among the race’s top five finishers during that time. Returning to the winner’s circle for the first time in seven years will provide him with strong motivation on Saturday, he believes.

“I’d say that there is definitely some extra incentive for me this year,” Kelly said. “The older that I get, the harder that it is to win, and every year that I don’t win, I feel like it could have been a missed opportunity to ever win again.”

Kelly — a 2000 graduate of Altoona Area High School who went on to graduate from, and compete in both track and cross country at, Indiana University of Pennsylvania — already has one 26.2-mile marathon and two 13.1-mile half-marathons under his belt this calendar year.

Kelly expressed disappointment in his second-place men’s finish in the God’s Country Marathon in Potter County back in early June.

“I had won that the last two years and I was hoping to go back and make it three in a row this year but I didn’t have my best day and I ran into another real good runner,” Kelly said. “My time was two hours, 51 minutes — definitely one of my slowest (for a full marathon). I’m typically in the 2:40 range, so I was a little disappointed.”

Kelly finished the Pittsburgh half-marathon in a time of 1:16 in May — which he said was good for “about 50th place in a field of about 50,000 runners” — and he finished fifth overall in the Atlantic City, N.J. half-marathon in April, with a time of 1:16.

Kelly is quite familiar with the Altoona 15K course — a fact that will certainly help him on Saturday. With a heat wave hitting the area this week, Kelly also knows how important it will be for runners in Saturday’s 15K to stay adequately hydrated and maintain a steady pace throughout the race.

“Surviving the heat and humidity (is vital),” Kelly said. “The hills on the course are not too difficult, but the times in the race are slower-paced than even the times for the half-marathons, even though the half-marathons are about four miles longer.

“So the heat definitely plays into this race,” Kelly said.

Fourth of July Race

When: Saturday

Where: Both the 15K and 5K men’s and women’s races begin in front of the Mishler Theatre and finish in front of the Heritage Plaza downtown.

Sponsor: Blair County Regional YMCA.

Race honoree: This race is held in honor and memory of the late area marathon runner and former Altoona High School cross country coach Angie Gioiosa, a Blair County Sports Hall of Fame inductee who was one of the driving forces behind the start of this event back in the early 1970s.

Race times: 15K race begins at 7:30 a.m., with the 5K race to follow at 8 a.m. and the 2-mile walk to start at 8:02 a.m.

Registration fees: $35 for individuals and $30 each for families with two or more members registering until Thursday, July 3. Race day registration is $40 for both individuals and families. Ages 5-and-under can participate free of charge.

Notable: In recognition of America’s 250th Independence Day anniversary, race packets for pre-registrants will be available only on the stage of the Mishler Theatre on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and for day-of-the-race registrants in front of the Center City Church at the corner of 12th Ave. and 13th Street on Saturday before the races begin. No race packets will be available for the race at the Blair Regional YMCA.