Wilderness Run History
Wilderness Run History
History
submitted by George Blume
The first Wilderness Run was started under my Chairmanship. Actually the
year before, we kicked off Parks Day. As part of the original Parks Day we
offered guided tours of the Hamilton Greenbelt II Primitive Trails and the
Smith Greenbelt on Saturday morning, later at Saturday noon, we kicked off
the original Parks Day. At that time the Primitive Trails were really
primitive, not suited for any type of organized run.
The next year the primitive trails were improved to the point that we could
sponsor a run. The purpose of the original Run/Walk was to promote the new
primitive trails and promote the organization. We held the first official
Wilderness Run on a Saturday morning, followed by Parks Day at Saturday
noon, the same day. The first years event was only 7K length because all the
primitive trails had not been completed.
The following years, the primitive trails had been completed to the point
you see today; we separated the two events, moving Parks Day to a Sunday,
two weeks following.
Almost every year involved a lot of work getting the trails ready for the
event. Many years there was a lot of rain ahead of the event, thus we spent
a lot of time laying down mulch on the wet spots.
The routine hasn't changed much, we always used a mountain bicycle rider to
lead the pack, to survey the route ahead of the event and to sweep the
course after the event. We started with three (3) marshals, today, I believe
we use seven (7) marshals.
We have always tried to be conscious of safety, we always had a police
officer there in case of emergency, we always promoted water consumption for
the runners. Fred and Judy Hazen have been there from the beginning. The
original marshals were Fred Hazen, Tom Smith, and Jessie Gutierrez.
Somewhere I have one of the original posters for the event.
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