Skeletons, princesses and Mario and Luigi sped around the Loop Road and Center Trail Oct. 28 as part of Enter Stage Left Theater’s Wicked 5K, the third annual. The final finisher, Denise Antaki, won the costume contest for third straight year, outdoing herself with a detailed, ingenious outhouse costume, which surely slowed her but likely garnered the most attention and applause. The runners and generous sponsors helped the event to raise more than $10,000 for ESL, the resident theater company at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, the race’s start and finish point.

“It was a Halloween party and a road race in one,” said race director Ilana Casady. “Runners enjoyed beautiful, picturesque scenery. Everyone was really happy and there was a positive energy. It was a super fun event.”

As well as the 5K with mini pumpkins for each finisher, participants enjoyed a kids’ costume parade, pumpkin decorating, face painting, food, and a raffle of elaborately carved pumpkins.

The top three men and women each received passes to ESL shows. ESL puts on up to a dozen productions per year and offers theater education for all ages. The race itself featured many theatrical aspects with the ESL’s own Treblemakers chorus singing the National Anthem then dispersing out to the course to volunteer by handing out water, directing runners, calling out times, and supporting runners along the way.

Top finishers included Kevin Ryan, Steve Levandosky, Brian Schneider, Colby Michaud, and Wyatt Ruff for the men, and Angele Meyers, Kylie Skiba, Kayla Sawyer, Autumn Tumbleton, and Maureen Tumbleton for the women. 123 finished the race. Numbers were a little down from last year, with some likely deterred by the cool, damp conditions from the Nor’easter that blew through the previous day. Weather cleared by race time and treated runners to a beautiful, crisp fall conditions. Full results are available at https://my5.raceresult.com/111270/#1_7AAEAD

UniBank served as the event’s gold sponsor, with Hillers Pizza also a major sponsor. Healthy Paws Vet, Hopkinton Vision Center, Middlesex Savings Bank, Platinum Physical Therapy, PT Innovations, REC Hopkinton, LLC, Solect Energy Development, Southfield Properties, Startline Pediatrics, and Webster Credit Union also sponsored the fun-filled local event helping to support theater and the arts for all in Hopkinton and surrounding communities. ESL’s next production will be youth musical “A Year with Frog and Toad” on Nov. 10 and 11. For more information about ESL, visit https://www.hopartscenter.org/home