Officially, it is called the Town and Campus 10,000-meter run.
On Saturday, though, they could have called this traditional Kansas Relays event the “Pea Soup Parade.”
More than 200 runners took off at 7:15 a.m. from the parking lot southwest of Memorial Stadium in a blanket of heavy fog that had descended on the city overnight.
“I’ve been running in these things for 16 years,” Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick said later in the day, “and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen droplets of moisture form on your eyebrows and your hair.”
Of course, sweat formed on eyebrows and hair later as the competitors trudged up and down the hills in the metric equivalent of a six-mile run.
“You couldn’t see a block ahead of you,” said Richard Konzem, a KU assistant athletic director who also competed. “The police were really great, though. They were at every corner. Besides, once you were up on the hill you were out of it.”
However, down in town the visibility was limited and that was potentially dangerous for the runners. Apparently not that dangerous, though.
“The only time I was concerned was on Massachusetts (from 9th to 21st) when they let the cars go by us in the second lane,” Frederick said.
Frederick, who turned 50 in March, has run in marathons, he’s been in triathlons and he’s toured countless road races. Saturday, though, was the first time he’d ever competed with one of his four sons.
Competed may not be the right word, however. Brad Frederick, 13, finished in a dead heat with his dad at 49:21, although Brad was awarded 153rd place and his dad 154th.
Not coincidentally, Scott Williams, the 13-year-old son of KU basketball coach Roy Williams, finished 157th, just six seconds behind the Frederick tandem. Scott’s father, who ran in the event last year, was out of town Saturday.
Among the other competitors Saturday were Kansas football coach Glen Mason and his top two aides defensive co-ordinator Jim Hilles and offensive co-ordinator Golden Pat Ruel.
Mason, a latecomer to road racing, finished 130th with a 46:39 clocking. Hilles was 158th at 49:38 and Ruel 171st at 50:34. Gordon Way, a 25-year-old former KU distance runner, won the event in 31:39.
Among the non-competitors was KU chancellor Gene Budig, who has a prep track background but at shorter distances. Much shorter.
Budig, who watched his ninth straight Relays for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, was a sprinter with uneven skills at McCook, Neb., High.
“I once placed at the Sidney Relays,” Budig said good-naturedly. “I remember that one bright moment. And I can truthfully say I never failed to finish a 100-yard dash.”
How fast was he?
“Let’s just say,” he smiled, “that if the wind was right, I was decent.”
Saturday’s weather, once the fog burned off, was also decent partly sunny with 70-degree temperatures and a light breeze and it helped lure a crowd estimated at 4,500 into the stadium.
