ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
THE U.S. MARINE CORPS' 5K MUD RUN gave the athletes a good time, and helped Toys for Tots and Camp Roanoke.
For the final few yards Saturday morning, men, women and children taking part in the U.S. Marine Corps' 5K Mud Run discovered what hog heaven must feel like.
To reach the finish line for the charity race, held at Roanoke County's Green Hill Park near Salem, participants had to get down on their hands and knees and crawl through a pit of foot-deep mud.
They seemed to love it.
The runners came out of the mud hole whooping and screaming, even though it's usually the spectators who are doing all the yelling at the end of a race.
They sloshed across the finish line, some carrying mud-sucked shoes in their hands, and into the embrace of a cold-water spray courtesy of the Roanoke County Fire Department. Here the whooping and yelling took on a higher pitch.
"This is fantastic," said Bill Charlton, a Norfolk Southern welder from Salem, as he watched the Swamp Thing wannabes covered with brown, sticky ick from head to toe. Charlton had just finished a few minutes earlier.
"I've done three marathons, but this was the most fun," he said. "This is what running ought to be all about."
Charlton, who said he'd like to do it again next year, was happy to hear that the Marine Corps plans to make the race an annual event.
Company B of the Marine Corps Reserve's 4th Combat Engineer Battalion in Roanoke staged the race as a fund-raiser for its annual Toys for Tots campaign, which provides Christmas toys for needy children. Sgt. Michael Thomas, the local Toys for Tots coordinator, said the idea for the race came from a similar one held each year at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Marines will split Saturday's proceeds with Roanoke County's "Save Camp Roanoke" campaign, an effort to restore an old summer camp near the county's Spring Hollow Reservoir.
Nearly 350 people took part, paying roughly $4,200 in entry fees to the two charities.
The race began in Green Hill Park and followed a route into the county's adjacent horse park. The course followed a horse trail with waist-high obstacles across it up a hill and down the other side to the Roanoke River. A portion of the course passed through a short stretch of the river before leading back into Green Hill Park for the muddy finish.
The first person to navigate the five kilometers (roughly three miles) and cross the finish line was Joe Edwards of Blacksburg, in 19 minutes, 10 seconds. The top team was from the Seven Hills Hash House in Lynchburg.
Edwards, 24, a former member of Virginia Tech's cross country team, said he led the pack most of the time. A few people who sprinted out at the start "just died," he said.
When he hit the river portion of the course, Edwards tried to swim but his shorts kept coming up. So out of modesty and consideration for spectators on the bank, he waded through that stretch, he said. The river wasn't that tough, and actually gave him a chance to rest a little, he said.
The hilly horse trail was the hardest part, most agreed. Among them was Ricco Espinoza of San Diego, a member of the Semper Fi Society, Virginia Military Institute's Marine Corps club. "That [hill] sucked it out of me," Espinoza said.
Several VMI cadets took part in the race. Unlike most runners, who wore shorts and running shoes, they ran in battle fatigues and combat boots.
Finishing not far behind them, also dressed in fatigues and combat boots, was a team from the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Staunton's Mary Baldwin College.
Students from William Byrd Middle School in Vinton were the final group to finish. The first among them waited for stragglers, and all crossed the finish line holding hands in a time of roughly 50 minutes.
Hot showers, provided by a Marine Corps field unit, food and commemorative T-shirts awaited everyone after the finish. Some took home medals, too. All took home smiles, it seemed.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. 1. Ray Newton, a runner for team Zetaby CNBPsi in the Marine Corps 5K Mud Run at Green Hill Park in Salem,
slogs through the mud pit to the finish line. Racers had to crawl on
their hands and knees under ribbons in the mud pit to finish the
race, which benefited the Toys for Tots and "Save Camp Roanoke"
campaigns. 2. Five cadets of the Virginia Women's Institute for
Leadership hold hands as they finish Saturday's run as a team. The
women had just emerged from the mud pit.