Category Archives: races

Running to Fight Cancer

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Local runner and cancer advocate Matthew Flory recently created a Facebook group entitled 5Ks that Fight Cancer (Minneapolis/Saint Paul).

In the group he lists 10 5ks that benefit cancer research within the Twin Cities metro area.  In the group’s description he say:

Cancer is the number one cause of death in Minnesota, but there are many organizations and causes joined in the fight to defeat this disease. Many have 5k races as fundraisers.

We all know that most races have some charitable benefit to them.  Some of the best known national charity running events revolve around cancer research.  Almost everyone has been touched by this nasty illness.  The Team in Training group is a nationally recognized fundraising machine.

Flory limited his list for this group to just 5k races – they are the most common and most accessible for average people. Here is his list:

Get Your Rear In Gear, Minneapolis, April 19, 2009
http://www.getyourrearingear.com/
Proceeds benefit the Minnesota Colon Cancer Coalition

Twin Cities Race For the Cure, May 10, 2009
http://www.racecure.org/site3.aspx
Proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen Foundation

Brian Kraft Memorial 5k, May 25, 2009
http://www.usatfmn.org/brian-kraft-memorial-5k
Proceeds benefit University of Minnesota

Challenge Cancer 5K, Saint Paul, June 6
Proceeds benefit Charities Challenge

Twin Cities Lung Walk 5K, Saint Paul, June 7
www.lungwalk.org
Proceeds benefit the American Lung Association

Time to Fly Walk/Run, Saint Paul, June 27th
Proceeds benefit Child Cancer Research Fund

American Cancer Society 5K, Bloomington, August 15th
Proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society

Silent No More Minnesota Ovarian Cancer September 13, 2009
Proceeds benefit the MN Ovarian Cancer Alliance

The Hartford Pace Case Run/Walk for Prostate Cancer, September 26, 2009
Proceeds will benefit the Prostate Cancer Education Council.

ACS Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Minneapolis, October 10, 2009
Proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society

So if you like to run for specific causes this might be a helpful group to check out.

[tags] Running, Cancer, Charity [/tags]

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World No Tobacco Day 5K

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Want to help low-income children who suffer from persistent asthma? While running a fast 5k?

Check out the World No Tobacco Day 5K Run to be held on May 31, 2009.  Smoke Free Dakota County is hosting this first-year event that will run along the Big Rivers Regional Trail starting in Lilydale.  The 5k starts at 8am or take part in the group stretching event at 7:40.  Registration begins at $15 before May 1 and tops out at $20 for race day entry.

Their will be prizes for the top 3 male and female finishers along with a Sprint cellphone give-away that is open to all runners.

Diane Tran, race director, summarized her thoughts about the race for me:

We’re so excited to celebrate World No Tobacco Day 2009 with a 5K race on a beautiful trail in northern Dakota County! The course overlooks the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and will be a lot of fun for the runners. Also, our t-shirts are pretty rad!

From their website:

Join Smoke-Free Dakota for the World No Tobacco Day 5K Run on Sunday, May 31, 2009! The run will benefit low-income children with persistent asthma to attend Camp SuperKids 2009, a weeklong summer camp sponsored by the American Lung Association in Minnesota. Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness in children in the U.S. and is the number one cause of student absences related to chronic conditions. Campers will learn to better manage their asthma and gain confidence through building relationships with their peers to ensure a future of better health!

The USATF-certified 5K Run (Certification # MN-09010-RR) will start at the eastern end (in Lilydale) of the Big Rivers Regional Trail, a nearly flat paved trail built on an abandoned railroad bed overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississppi Rivers.

Check out their “rad” t-shirt design:

[tags] Dakota County, Smoke Free, 5k, Asthma, USATF [/tags]

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USATF-MN Team/Championship Schedule

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The 2009 USATF-MN Team Circuit and Championship Race Schedule was voted on awhile back.  Here is the schedule:

I recognize at least two races are missing from the schedule which is good! Last year I ran the 5000m championship on the track and that wasn’t very exciting. The Earth Day Half Marathon was also on last year’s circuit.  It was the weekend before Boston last year and I imagine that is why it got left out of the schedule this year. It is a little odd that there isn’t a half-marathon on the schedule at all though.

Here is an interview with USATF Minnesota Long Distance Running Competition Chairman Ed Whetham from Down the Backstretch about the 2009 circuit.

[tags] USATF-MN, USATF, Championship [/tags]

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A Monumental Marathon

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The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon has officially opened registration. The inaugural event will take place on November 1 and will highlight

a number of great buildings and features in our beautiful and convenient Indianapolis downtown including: the Indiana State Capitol, the Arts Garden, Lucas Oil Stadium, Circle Center Mall, Monument Circle, a number of federal monuments, the Cultural trail and the Mass. Ave. District. We are also happy to showcase several interesting and lovely neighborhoods including the Old Northside, Fall Creek Place, Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington and Broad Ripple.

The event is being organized and hosted by some of the best in Indianapolis racing. The official management company is Ken Long & Associates who have an excellent reputation in the community with support from the likes of Bob Kennedy.

Billed as a flat and fast course, this would be a good marathon. If I still lived in Indiana I would probably sign up for this one. The Indianapolis Marathon is a few weeks earlier and is also an excellent event that is well-established. The IM is a little hillier but also provides more natural scenery, while the new IMM is flatter and showcases some of the history of the city.

If you are undecided about a fall marathon I would recommend either!

[tags] Marathon, Indianapolis, Monuments [/tags]

Are You Tough Enough?

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You can run a marathon but can you finish the Tough Guy 7 mile race?

That is the question everyone wants to know at the beginning of what sounds like a very brutal race. You thought the last few miles of a marathon were agony – try battling hypothermia, climbing to the top of a tower, plunging into an icy lake and swimming 30 meters to cross the finish line.

Martin Dugard, an acclaimed author and sports junkie I’ve written about before, just wrote a review of the Tough Guy that will make you itch for more than an urban run down the Greenway.

This is my life after Tough Guy, a seven-mile odyssey of pain, suffering, and freezing-water immersion. The title is tongue-in-cheek, but the cruel severity of the competition is not. Since its inception in 1986, Tough Guy has become an increasingly worldwide phenomenon, beckoning otherwise sane men and women to the British West Midlands in the dead of winter to sprint through pastures, scramble through thorns, jitterbug through electric cattle prods dangling like Portuguese man-of-wars from ropes strung above knee-deep mud, climb and descend acres of cargo netting, and swim underwater through an icy pond.

If you can imagine an endurance race that combines the absurd best of Monty Python with the punishing numbness of Navy SEAL training, then you can comprehend Tough Guy. To go one step further: If you are the sort of person who doesn’t just imagine such a race but also hears an irrational voice in the back of your brain as you read this copy of American Way (which you plucked out of the seat pocket randomly but now wonder if it’s part of some act of fate) asking if you are indeed Tough Enough , then I am almost positive that one January very soon, no matter the status of your marriage or career or credit card balances, you will not consider your life complete until a Tough Guy finisher medal hangs around your neck. You know who you are.

So I leap. The free fall is short, and the seconds underwater are far too long. I sputter to the surface, swim to shore, and then fling myself down into the mud to low-crawl beneath barbed wire as part of an obstacle named for the Battle of the Somme. There is much more hardship to come (yes, more icy water), but finally crossing that finish line and sipping my cup of hot tea with shaking, hypothermic hands is a most amazing moment of happiness.

Excerpts taken from the American Way Magazine published for American Airlines. Did I mention Dugard got paid to compete in the race and write the story?

[tags] Tough Guy, American, Martin Dugard [/tags]