AIR Speaker Series: Doug Alred
October 19, 2010
 Doug speaks at the AIR social Oct. 19 |
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Doug Alred kicked off AIR's new series of guest speakers and socials with lots of great stories about the history of the Gate River Run and running in Northeast Florida. Doug recounted how he switched sports from basketball to running, thanks to a new race he decided to train for in 1978 -- the River Run 15,000. He also switched careers -- from a CPA to the owner of a specialty running store he opened in Orange Park. This in a time when such stores were a rarity, running shoes cost $29.95 and store owners sometimes sold shoes out of the trunks of their cars to make ends meet. After running the first few River Runs, he knew he'd have to miss the 1983 event because of an injury and so agreed to be its race director. Which launched another career of sorts, since he's been race director ever since. He's seen the event grow from a couple thousand finishers in its first year (when it started at 10:30 a.m., with a $3 entry fee) to the largest 15K in the country, with more than 15,000 participants. 1st Place Sports has also grown from one store to four, and its race-management operation is now involved in 60 races in 2010. Along the way, Doug also set a marathon PR of 2:29:29, and for decades has been a board member of the Jacksonville Track Club (now JTC Running), which presents the Gate River Run annually. One of the major changes Doug has seen is the increased popularity of running among women. In the River Run's first year, he said, "80 percent of the runners were men and 20 percent were women." Today, it's 50-50 -- and he expects that women will pull ahead. "Running has really grown, and women are the ones who have made it grow since the '90s," he said. "Oprah ran a marathon, and that was the start of the (women's) running boom." A race with the storied history of the River Run is bound to have some stories, and Doug shared some funny ones -- funny in hindsight, at least. He recalled that in one of the early races, he found that the scorers kept track by reading finishers' bib numbers into a tape recorder, and later transcribing them onto paper. "It took two months to get the results," he said. With the arrival of a computer and a scoring program, "we could reproduce the results on the same day." Then there was the River Run's pioneering leap into chip timing, in its 20th anniversary year. A European company was introducing its system at the River Run, one of the first races in the country to use the technology. Despite Doug's misgivings, the timers assured him that "it should be OK."It wasn't. Doug said he noticed that the computer operator's hands were shaking as he prepared the resuts -- not a good sign. The results list was a lot shorter than it should have been. "I noticed that they would have four or five finishers every second, and then they'd go 30 seconds with no finishers." Hundreds of runners' times hadn't been recorded. Fortunately, the organizers realized they had a backup -- race photographers had been taking the finishers' pictures, and their frames of film were numbered in sequence. "It took about a month, but we added about a thousand finishers." Thus it would be a few years before the River Run would use chip timing again. But then came the ChampionChip system, and "it's been a blessing," Doug said. Doug has also been witness to a boom in charity races during the past few years, which he said is a great thing -- but he said races and organizers should also give back to the sport itself. "Running should be its own best charity," he said. And when asked about the "equalizer" at the Gate River Run, which gives the elite women a five-minute headstart to provide an exciting battle of the sexes at the finish line, Doug made some news. Next year, the headstart will be increased to six minutes -- which could cut into the edge men have enjoyed in most of the "equalizer" races. Coach Roy Benson of Amelia Island Runners and AIR Social Director Rosa Haslip set up the program and social hour, held at O'Kane's Irish Pub and Eatery in Fernandina Beach. Many thanks to Doug and to everyone who attended the event! We hope to hold these socials about every three months, with interesting guest speakers at each. We'll also be varying the days and times to see which will work best for most of our club members. |