Published: March 01, 2008 02:11 pm      

Everything’s a go for today’s Moe’s Better Half Marathon

Running with Moe

Today is the ARA - Moe’s Better Half Marathon and the Speak Up For Kids 5K and the 1K Fun Run for Kids out at the Tanger Outlet Center. The schedule calls for the Half Marathon to start at 7 a.m., the 1K kid’s run will follow the runners for the Half about 7:15 a.m., and when the kids finish, the 5K runners will head out down Center Point Road around 7:30 a.m.

Runners will start showing up about 6 a.m. to pick up their packets or to register to run one of the races that morning. This means the volunteers had to show up at 6 a.m. to get the tables ready, the shirts laid out, the registration material ready and other duties that need to be done. A few of us have to arrive about 4:30 - 5 a.m. to set up the course and pound in the mile markers, set up aid station tables and get the water coolers filled and taken out on the course.

Most of the runners will show up today and enjoy a great run in the countryside east of San Marcos on some of the hilly county roads that we ride and run every day. The run should go smoothly as we have some great race organizers.

Tricia Schneider from CASA of Central Texas is sort of the driving force of the races and has done a tremendous job of getting people, material and everything in order for this morning. What goes on behind the scenes is missed by runners in many cases but if this work is not done the race does not take place.

David Alexander handled the online registration and sent the artwork to the printers of T-Shirts and awards companies. Jim Moyle from ARA here in San Marcos ordered the logo mugs and pens for the finishers of the Half Marathon. Tricia helped round up volunteers and organize small details such as from where will the cups for the runners come, who orders the food for after the race, where do the volunteers go when they show up and where to set up the registration tables that morning. I had the easy job of making sure we had T shirts and awards for the runners.

Things started about four months ago in meetings with Michelle Carswell, the manager of Tanger Outlet Center, to get the date cleared from her, what help do you need from them and a detail map of where to go on that morning. The people out at Tanger have been great at offering help from their staff and allowing the race to be hosted out there. As the race date got closer the pace picked up as far as tacking down the details. The logo on the Half Marathon shirt was drawn by Jill Pankey, an art instructor at Texas State, and since, we added ARA as a sponsor of the race we had to do a little change in the original art but it is still her design except for that small detail.

We did have a few tense minutes early in the week. The last week seems to be like a NASCAR race with everything picking up speed and not much else gets done outside of race details. We closed registration on Wednesday to allow the pre-race packets and chip timers to get numbers and things ready. I had ordered 250 shirts for the estimated 200 runners. On Wednesday, we already had 211 runners signed up and numerous phone calls, emails and requests for registering during the week and day of race.

The 250 shirts were not going to be enough for the expected crowd on Sunday. A quick call to Ron Cauble out at KC Sportswear to see if a rush order for more shirts could be placed. Ron got on the phone and by Friday afternoon had some more shirts ready to go. The 5K run expected close to 100 runners and the pre-race total was already at 100 runners signed up. Victory Cleaners handled the shirts for the 5K race and they had to do a rush order also as more shirts had to be ready for today. Both shirt print companies came through and we hope it will be enough for all of the runners.

More medals are needed. Another quick call was made to Bo out at Hill Country Trophy to see if he had some spare medals. He also came through with the extra awards as we have some entrants in wheelchair race this year and we needed some awards for that category.

Other than that, the only problems now will happen on race day but with the volunteers we have at critical areas things should go smoothly for the runners. A very big thank you to all of the volunteers working behind the scenes that will make this race a success. If you get a chance this morning come out to Tanger Outlet Center and cheer the runners as they cross the finish line.



Dr. Muarice Johnson is an instructor in the Deprtment of Sports and Exercise Science at Texas State University. His column appears every Sunday in the Daily Record.