Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
start of the 2003 Anchorage Daily News Heart Run!” Off mike, he says, “I'm a runner but
not always by choice.” Like everyone else, Dave is volunteering his time, for the 13
th
year.
Volunteers are a big part of this race, from local vendors who provide fresh fruit and
water to Barb Henderson, who is carrying race director's Gerianne Thorseness' baby
Kaiya in a back pack. “I usually run or walk,” Barb says, “but it's fun to pick up when
somebody needs help.” Alaska Professional Volunteers equips and mans four medical sta-
tions at points of the race, fully equipped from oxygen tanks to defibrillators. “We get
asthma, scraped knees, blisters, chafing,” says
EMT III
Toby Mikalonis. “This morning we
had a squashed finger in a car.” Just then Eli Shayer, about 8, appears and, typical guy,
shows off his scraped knee and elbow. His mother, Celia, says, “We tripped over each oth-
er's feet.”
The race is divided into two heats, the runners at 9:30 a.m. and the walkers at 10. Be-
fore the runners' start, there is a photo op for those folks with mended hearts, about sixty
of them wearing bright red ball caps. They're all ages, from a four-year old boy to a
seventy-year old man and there's one guy in a wheelchair. They're all smiling, and it's at
this point that you realize that this race isn't only for fun. Kayleen Hetrick from the valley
is wearing one of the red caps and pushing a stroller with her two-year old daughter Zia in
it. “It's her third race,” Kayleen says. “Next year she'll be walking it.”
“The first year it was only a couple of hundred people,” says Lorraine Stumbaugh, ex-
ecutive director of the local chapter of the American Heart Association. “This year, we've
got about 6,700.” From 1999-2002 the Heart Run alone has raised half a million dollars.
It's not only a fund raiser, however. “This year especially,” Lorraine says, “we really want
people to know that while the Heart Run is a fun family event and an arena for elite run-
ners, more importantly it's to put a face on heart disease. It could be your mom, your dad,
your sister, your brother.” People come from all over, Lorraine says, including a couple
from Montana and one woman who registers from Tennessee so she can collect the t-shirt.
“We are exclusive, other chapters have the Heart Walk but we are the only 5K Heart Run
in the nation.”
“We came,” says Dave over the loudspeaker, “we ran, we blocked Tudor Road,” and a
muted roar wells up. The starting chute is defined by orange tape and a double arch of
