Green Spears of Death!!
June 14, 2013
Freestyle Computer Raging
July 12, 2013
I have to attend a funeral in Denver tomorrow, so I’m posting this latest essay on my blog today in anticipation of not being able to take care of this tomorrow. This is an essay that I want to have published in the local newspaper next week. Here’s to the glories of summer!!
Word Count 752
The Coveted
Plastic Monkey
Last year while milling around at the starting line in a valiant attempt to wake up the morning of the Blue Ribbon 10K, someone asked me just how the race has changed since its inception. Immediately I smiled when recalling what things were like in those halcyon early days of the run.
The annual Silverton 4th of July 10K had a rather inauspicious start. The guys who began putting on the foot race wanted to have some sort of running contest that wasn’t as deadly serious as the Kendall Mountain Run. Something not quite as challenging, more laid back, and definitely not requiring as much pre-race training. As a college buddy of mine likes to put it, “Not necessarily as much of a bust ### situation” either.
One of the early pioneers of the 4th10K adamantly declared the first race should not be advertised as the 1st Annual Blue Ribbon 10K. Defiantly stating that you aren’t a year old the day you’re born, therefore the inaugural run shouldn’t be billed as the first annual either. Instead it should be declared the 0th Annual in keeping with its rather quirky beginnings.
Also in keeping with the organizers desire to have a race around town, early incarnations of the classic integrated a route that circled the valley in a number of strange ways. Passing through or by all sorts of notable landmarks. These included the sewer plant ponds on the south end of town, the road above the cemetery, and one year snaking the course directly through the center of the Hell’s Angels 4th of July Campsite. Passing so close to the previous night’s bonfire that you could still feel the heat from the smoldering embers. If you were lucky enough one of the Angel’s would even offer you a glass of fermented hops as you blazed by while sucking for air.
Those first few races didn’t require an entrance fee either. Anyone and their cousin who wanted to semi-challenge themselves could enter, and it wasn’t until the second year of the race that organizers started charging a fee to enter.
Even then it was just some sort of White Elephant. Organizers recommended that since most runners had more T-shirts from other running races than they their dresser draw could hold, garments from another contest were asked for.
Then race year #3 was a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, followed by race year #4 entry fee-which was old LP’s you had lying around the house collecting dust. This rather eccentric entry fee resulted in some interesting solutions. To this day my father probably still lies awake at night wondering whatever happened to those old Ray Coniff Singers albums in his collection.
In those early years the winner received a highly coveted plastic monkey statue. This was a traveling trophy, and to my recollection that was the only time you ever saw front-runners putting any sort of effort into winning the race. No one knows whatever happened to that monkey trophy and this will remain one of the great mysteries of Silverton historical lore.
As the years passed things got more serious. First you had a few hotshots show up just so they could test themselves by running a 10K at altitude. A lot of this had to do with the fact that the course was changed to a downhill route where the runners were bussed up to Gladstone. From there you ran back into town. Sort like a casual morning jaunt, only not so much.
Then the route got altered again, and finally you have your out and back path that organizers have used for the past eight years. A serious entry fee is now required, which makes for some quiet grumbling from the original guard.
This year’s classic is devoted to a local youth who passed away last fall. Since I really liked him, this’ll be the first time I’m ever going to take this thing seriously and not stop twenty feet from the end. Exclusively so I could casually walk across the finish line.
The 4th of July 10K is a great way to kick off the holiday. You’re barreling along with the reassuring knowledge that it’s relatively short and sweet. Also dreaming about the past when I didn’t have to wear a baseball cap every time I walked outside. I also wonder about those bygone days when I used to viciously push my fellow competitors in order to win that plastic monkey statue.
