A Frenchman won, hundreds of people had fun and Damien's Food Pantry came away $5,000 richer.

The sixth annual Rochester Road Race, sponsored by Covanta SEMASS Energy, brought in over 300 runners and walkers Saturday morning to take part in what was described by many as a fast, cool and shady 5K (for non-runners, that's close to three miles). Event co-organizer Scott Muller believes close to $5,000 was raised for Damien’s Place Food Pantry in Wareham along with a trailer full of canned goods and shelf-safe food items.

Five friends including Muller, Chuck Kantner and Kevin Cassidy started the event after questioning why Rochester didn’t have a race of its own. This year was especially geared toward more family involvement and a wider demographic turnout, so the race committee adjusted entry fees. In the past five years close to $17,000 has been raised. All proceeds have gone to Damien’s Place Food Pantry except for the first year, which resulted in a donation to the Old Rochester Regional School athletic department.

The race began at 9 a.m. along Dexter Lane and eventually ended at the Congregational Church Green as the crowd cheered and supported those racing. Overall winners Julien Di Maria and Jennifer Almeida were awarded large trophies.

“This is my fourth straight win,” said Di Maria, who also runs for the French national team. He clocked in at 15:57, just a few seconds behind his 15:34 last year. “I have family here and am on vacation, so I take a few days to run for fun. I like the ambiance here. It’s very toned down. It’s local and very small compared to what I do in France.”

Yet the race wasn’t just about speed. For some, it was about family.

Rochester residents Kevin and Gretchen Woodward, along with their son Jamison, took part to be together and keep in shape.

“Jamison did pretty well,” Gretchen said. “It’s a small race and when you keep doing ones like this it just comes natural. You want to keep running and exercising.”

Kevin agreed.

“As parents we like to model that. Sometimes in life things can be difficult, but there’s an end to the difficulty. And a 5K sums that up well.”

Chuck Kantner though the turnout was great.

“It’s a flat course, relatively shaded,” he said. “It tends to be a little bit cooler and a little bit faster, so [participants] have good times. It’s also a family event, and that’s what we wanted, where anyone can come out and participate.” Kantner said a large portion of the people in the race were from Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester and is a tremendous community event.

Scott Muller agreed.

“People and families can hang out on the Church Green and wait,” he said. “Anybody can do this course too. We had people with pushcarts even. But this is all about the donation. If it wasn’t something that had a worthwhile cause, nobody in their right mind would do what we do!”