Oakland University hosted the third running of the Brooksie Way Half Marathon and 5K Sunday, with the race starting off Walton Boulevard near Adams Road and finishing in front of Meadow Brook Hall.

The race was started in 2008 by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, in memory of his late son Brooks Stuart Patterson, or “Brooksie” as he was often called, who died in an accident in 2007.

Oakland has hosted the race in all three years of its existence and saw the largest crowd in race history — nearly 5,000 people — pour onto campus for the event last weekend.

“The Brooksie Way is growing in popularity and is evolving into an event that many Oakland County citizens now automatically put on their calendars every fall,” Oakland University President Dr. Gary Russi said. “It’s just another of the many ways that Brooks (Patterson) has helped to improve the quality of life for Oakland County residents.”

Patterson said he created the race to “promote healthy lifestyles” in Oakland County and is pleased with the development of the race.

“Its started to take root in the community,” Patterson said. “The first year (2008) we didn’t know what to expect and then 4,000 people showed up on race day. Oakland University has been a great host to us over the years and holding the race there lines up perfectly. They can handle the crowd and we get good support from the cross country teams at OU and the personnel there and then we give a donation as well.”

Dr. Russi also added that hosting the race at OU allows the university to showcase itself and become more involved with the community.

“Other than the obvious fact that our campus provides a picturesque setting for the start and finish of the Brooksie Way Half Marathon, it also demonstrates our deep level of support for Brooks Patterson’s commitment to encourage Oakland County citizens to become more physically active,” Russi said.

Winning the race this year was 29-year-old Howell resident Leo Foley with a time of 1:14:33. Foley ran collegiately at Aquinas College and starred in high school at Flint Powers Catholic.

“The hills are a lot better when you’re fit, which I’m not, so it was kind of brutal for me out there today,” Foley said between deep breaths after he crossed the finish line. “That first long hill on the seventh mile (on Tienken Road) was tough, I was kind of done after that and just tried to keep the pace and survive from there.”

Foley uses the Brooksie Way as a training exercise for the Philadelphia Marathon in November and said he plans on running in the event for years to come.

“It’s a good race, and they do a good job organizing it and I like the course,” Foley said. “I’ve run it all three years and it’s been fun so I mine as well just keep going with it.”

Among the biggest concerns voiced about the race in years past have been in regards to the numerous road closures it causes Sunday morning. Race director Deb Kiertzner and other members of the race team said they have taken continuous steps to improve traffic issues.

“Traffic issues have been the biggest concern for us in doing this and we’ve continued to work with the people living in those areas of the course,” Kiertzner said. “A major challenge has been with people trying to get to church Sunday morning and we’ve worked with every church on the course to find alternate ways for people to get there and the overall reception has been good. A lot of the churches on the course that were concerned about the event a couple years ago are now setting up water stations for the race, so the community as a whole has really bought in.”

Kiertzner also praised OU as a great venue for the event.

“I can’t say enough about our partnership with OU, the folks there have been wonderful to work with,” Kiertzner said. “So many people from the Oakland community get involved and do a great job. We have the cross country teams, sororities and the staff from the rec center all helping out. The finish line by Meadow Brook gives us plenty of room and it’s just the perfect setting to end the race.”

Oakland’s campus also hosted an expanded post-race celebration featuring a variety of food vendors, live music and family entertainment.

“We wanted to create an event with an atmosphere where families can come out and enjoy their afternoon instead of just coming for the race and then going home right after,” Patterson said of the expanded post-race area set up near Meadow Brook Hall.

“It’s expanding every year. We’ve added a lot to the post-race festivities where families can come out and enjoy live music, bring their kids to all the different carnival-type games we’ve added this year and enjoy the increased amount of vendors. This event is meant to be for the community so we’re always looking for ways to make it more enjoyable for people and I think the community has bought in big time. People are throwing parties in their backyards for this now and we’ve had great support in terms of volunteers.”

Patterson also set up the Brooksie Way Mini-grant Program, which takes the revenue generated from the race and puts it back into health and fitness programs throughout Oakland County.

“We set up the Brooksie Mini-grants as a way to find great fitness and health programs going on in the community and to generate funding for those programs,” Patterson said. “This whole event is about helping people in our community live healthy lifestyles and those mini-grants are designed to help better those opportunities.”

This year, a total of $10,600 was generated for 11 different fitness projects in Oakland County.