RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
Great Pumpkin Challenge overcomes the weather
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Nearly 1,000 runners, walkers, and riders braved dark skies, cool temperatures and an intermittent drizzle Saturday to take part in Saratoga Bridges’ Great Pumpkin Challenge, a 5K and 10K fundraising race through Saratoga State Park.
This was the 18th year for the challenge and though some participants stayed away due to the inclement weather, those that took part were in a happy, festive mood.
Saratoga Bridges holds this race each fall as a way to raise funds for the organization and to make people aware of its longtime service to individuals with disabilities. It has been in operating for 60 years.
The Great Pumpkin Challenge, which includes a Kids Fun Run, is not the largest grossing fundraiser for the organization, but it does hold the distinction of having the most volunteers. And, as with other years, they were out in force, smiling through the raindrops.
Saratoga Bridges Communications Specialist Pamela Polacsek said the organization views itself as a resource.
“The word, ‘Bridge’ in our name is symbolic of the opportunities to provide connections or links between individuals we support and the communities in which they live, work, volunteer, socialize, and recreate so that there’s a better mechanism for them to achieve their own potential and volunteer,” she said.
The proceeds from the day will go to programs that are unfunded or underfunded.
Two people who took part in the race were Dan and Deb Brown. They are members of the Saratoga Striders running group and run or snowshoe all year long. As big believers in the benefits of exercise and wellness in general, the two came out for both, as well as to support Saratoga Bridges.
“We want to help them,” Dan Brown said as the couple walked to the Columbia Pavilion pre-race registration area. “We know Jane Mastitis, the CFO, plus, we have a daughter who works for a similar organization in Auburn.”
“Our motto is keep moving,” added Deb Brown.
Waiting for the couple in the pavilion was a warming fire, about 500 other runners in a variety of running togs, a children’s table filled with a wealth of activities, a pumpkin judging contest, boxes of bananas, and urns of steaming coffee.
Gathered in one corner was a smaller than normal contingent from Ainsley’s Angels-Albany Adirondack chapter. The group is part of the larger, Ainsley’s Angels of America, an organization that aims to build awareness about the nation’s special needs community through inclusion in all aspects of life.
To do this they promote awareness, provide education, and participate as active members in local communities. They are the people who spectators and runner see pushing young, special needs riders in three-wheeled chariots for road races like the Great Pumpkin Challenge.
The local group’s leader, Ambassador Jill Burwell, admitted they would only have four chariots in the day’s race due to the weather.
“We’re all about inclusion for people with disabilities in endurance events that are 5K or longer,” Burwell said. “We do that by partnering our Angel riders in their ‘jogging chariots’ with Angel runners who push the chariots. There could be anywhere from one to three pushers.”
Despite the frivolity going on around them at the pavilion the riders were extremely quiet.
“They become active one the race begins,” Burwell said. “They are happy from the time they start to the time they finish. They tell us they want to go fast and feel the wind in their cheeks and when people cheer along the route they just light up.”
The two runners who would push Hunter Ripley, 10, in his Team Hunter chariot were Colleen Breen and Toni Howard, two experienced runners unfazed by the weather.
“I’ve raced enough for me,” Breen said. “The running is not about me anymore. It’s all about Ainsley’s Angels.”
Because Halloween is not far off, runners in costume were to be expected. This year saw fewer than in past years, but one stood out by the number of accoutrements included with his costume. Scott LeFebre was preparing to run dressed as Boba Fett, a bounty hunter from the Star Wars movies.
Joining him was his wife Vickie, dressed as an X-Wing pilot and their youngster MacKenzie dressed as Sabine Wren, a rebel. Both costumes would be familiar to anyone who watched all the Star Wars movies.
“I made this costume in college,” said a chuckling Scott LeFebre. “I’ve never run in it so we’ll see how it goes. I enjoy this race with all the costumes and I also know it’s for a good cause.”
As the 9:30 a.m. start time drew near the runners were told to head to the starting line. After a short delay the starter turned the runners loose with one final bit of advice to follow the bicyclist dressed as a pumpkin who would lead them through the park.
“OK runners, go out and chase down that pumpkin and don’t get lost,” he said.
The first to cross the finish line in the 5K was Matt Conant of Ballston Spa with a time of 18:03. The first 5K female finisher was Elizabeth Predmore of Ballston Lake with a time of 18:18. Predmore finished third.
The first finisher in the 10K was Jack Vite of Clifton Park with a time of 34.16. The first female finisher in the 10 K was Brittany Pfaff of Saratoga Springs with a time of 20:49. She was the seventh to cross the line in the 10K.