ST. CHARLES – Kirsten Pond, owner of Dick Pond Athletics, said she never thought the running specialty store would get recognition from a national contest.

So Friday – three days after she got the call that Dick Pond Athletics was one of five winners in the nationwide Big Break for Small Business contest – she still couldn’t wrap her head around how far her 500-word-or-less entry got the business.

Out of 12,000 applicants, judges selected Dick Pond Athletics as one of the 10 finalists. Winners were chosen by a 12-day voting poll at American Express OPEN’s Facebook page last month.