With the first shovel of dirt already turned and construction on the new church expected to begin this month, the name of the St. John Neumann Catholic Church’s sixth annual Cornerstone 5K took on a literal meaning this year.

By this time next year, the actual cornerstone of the new branch of the church in West Lake Hills will have been laid and construction will be more than half completed.

“It’s always going to be called the Cornerstone,” race director Joanne Senn said of the event originally intended to raise money for the new church. “The cornerstone isn’t really a rock in the ground, it’s the community.”

More than 300 people registered to run the Halloween race, with 157 completing the 5K and 88 children participating in the kids’ 1K. Among them were St. John Neumann Catholic Church clergy members Father Bud Roland, associate pastor Jim Evans and seminarian Jim Garcia, sporting the names of those who had sponsored them on the backs of their T-shirts.

“We told parishioners that it was the one day you could get on father’s back,” Senn laughed.

West Lake Hills Mayor Dave Claunch and City Councilman Andrew Schwartz also put the rubber to the road for the event.

While Claunch said he ran because the race “coincided nicely with my fitness goals,” Schwartz said he came out because, “it’s the only time I’ll ever want to run against the mayor.”

The overall men’s winner was event Runtex trainer Josh Selfridge, 31, with a time of 18:45.5. Selfridge only eked past the second place finisher, parishioner Peter Huff, 39, by 2.3 seconds. Chaparral track star Ashley Maton, 15, led the women with a time of 20:46.4.

The men’s masters’ winner was 54-year-old Chris Gunter with a time of 21:17, and 59-year-old Linda Metrick took the women’s masters’ category with a time of 30:23.3.

The Chick-fil-A cow was on hand to congratulate finishers and the gymnasts of the Champions Academy in Westlake put on a demonstration.