Published: July 02, 2008 02:28 pm            

Tenth Firecracker Run-Walk set

By CHARLES PENDELL

Sports correspondent

McLEANSBORO — The 10th annual Hamilton County Chamber of Commerce Firecracker Run-Walk will begin 7:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July behind East Side Grade School.

Irene and John Biggerstaff are the organizers of this annual event.

“This event actually started when we started it with the Hamilton County Merchants Association, and along with Bernadine Drone, who was also on the Merchants board," John Biggerstaff said.

When the Merchants Association folded, the Chamber of Commerce stepped in to help, he said.

“When Irene and I joined the Chamber, we asked them what they wanted to do with the money, and they said to do whatever we wanted to with it," he said. "So the first run raised money for the Christmas parade, but they don’t have that anymore, so now all the proceeds go to the high school cross country teams."

The first race attracted about 20 runners, with a former Foxes track and cross country standout and Rend Lake College cross country ace winning the race.

“The first two or three years, I believe Justin Crain was the first-place finisher," Biggerstaff said. “He has won it at least four times. I told folks one year, jokingly, that if anyone could beat Justin, we would pay them $50. He was just blowing everyone away in the races.”

#This 5-kilometer run-walk attracts runners as young as 5 years old and as old as their late 70s.

Besides Crain, other area runners who have been a fixture for a few years are Sam Wilson, a longtime marathon and former Foxes cross country runner and coach; Marcie Sentel Clark, a former Lady Foxes cross country runner and coach; Tom Prendergast, a 1958 McLeansboro High School graduate and retired doctor; and Lori Drake, a 1984 McLeansboro High School graduate.

Coach Roger Lee and the Foxes and Lady Foxes cross country runners participate, and runners from Enfield, Norris City, Carmi, Benton and even Harrisburg make the trip to run in this race.

“We have a lot of people that come home for the Fourth of July that come out to run," Biggerstaff said. “Longtime Fox fan Norman Kirsch used to run this race. My family, Jeremy, Nathan, Becca and Kara, all help out as spotters, and many of their friends help out as well.

"Tom Prendergast, one of our very competitive runners and hometown resident, told us one time, 'Only in McLeansboro can you tell the runners to head down Hancock Street and hang a right at Brenda Wilson’s house or turn left at Gary Reynolds' house or Bobbi Oxford's house. Everybody knows the course pretty well.

"Last year, I think, was the first time we used a gun to start the race," Biggerstaff said. "Roger Lee set up a chute for the runners to run into at the finish line. They would hand out popcycle sticks as they finished and they would put the runners name on the sticks.

"We started one race one year when my youngest daughter, Kara, who was about 4 year old, started the race by blowing a duck whistle. We try to get the kids from other communities and schools more involved.”

#Now the annual event has about 50 runners and walkers take part; one year, the race topped out at 63 runners.

“Roger Lee is one of the few coaches I know that has been running a long time, and he gets his runners to go out and run and he goes out and runs with them," Biggerstaff said. "I truly believe that our track and cross country teams here in McLeansboro don’t get the recognition that they deserve. That is one of the reasons we do this run."

Participants may register for the race on July 4; the top 50 will receive a T-shirt. The first three in each age division will get medals, and the overall male and female winners will get $50 each.

“The course has some hills to run, and a lot of the race, especially the last mile, is pretty much shaded and flat," Biggerstaff said.

“The real reason we do this race is for the kids," he added.

One year, Biggerstaff said, the race didn't have a start sign or a finish sign.

"But rather we put up signs that said 'Git-R' at the start and 'Done' at the end."

        

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