Running with Moe
This next Saturday, September 22nd, the 15th Annual Country Roads 10K, will be held out at Country Estates starting at 8:00 a.m. This race has been a favorite of area runners ever since the very start of the event. The race has several things going for it that runners enjoy. The first thing is the scenic course with more than a few sightings of deer along the way. For a 10K distance, it does have a few challenging low hills, but nothing to worry about. If it is a warm morning the runners have the benefit of a swimming pool to jump in for a cool down. Pre-registration can be found at: athleteguild.com, then look for the Country Roads 10K name. The proceeds for the race will benefit the San Marcos Running Rattlers cross country team and the San Marcos Runner’s Club. There is a kid’s run starting at 9:00 a.m. for children under 12 years of age. There is day of race registration but organizers recommend an early sign up. Early sign up can also be made at Core Running Store in San Marcos.
Looking back at runs in Country Estates made me think that one of the first runs in San Marcos was held there. This had to be around 1980 or so. I decided to host a 10K run out at Country Estates, as it was one of my favorite runs. The problem at the time was that there were very few people that have ever been associated with this running thing. I went out with a calibrated bike and measured off a 10K distance. One problem was that the start was a good quarter mile down the road from the finish. I designed a tee shirt for the race. The logo wasn’t that bad for an amateur cartoonist. It has a circle boarder that had, “I Run Weekend 10K’s” at the top. On the bottom part of the circle was, “It’s the lifestyle for a lifetime”. In the center was a runner with, “Moe’s Run; San Marcos, Texas” next to him. I had a friend who was starting out in the silk screening business called, ‘Teed Shirts’ and operated out of his garage and living room. He printed up the shirts for me. I still have one of the originals left.
I made direction arrows that could be pointed both left and right on 2 X 2 posts stuck in a can of cement. I had some mile markers painted up and even made a starting banner to show where the race started. The biggest problem was finding volunteers to help with putting this race on. I finally talked about six friends to help out that Saturday morning. I instructed them how to do registration and hand out the tee shirts. I had one other volunteer mix the Gatorade in a five-gallon jug for after the race. I had one volunteer go with me while I set up the course. Things were coming together.
Back in the early days I tried to be a race director and run in the race at the same time. It was here where things took a decided turn for the worse. The starting banner was tipped over, as some resident out there must have felt it blocked the road. The race started and the group of runners took off. I was not the fastest runner so I found myself somewhere in the middle. As we came around to the finish area the direction arrow I had to turn runners to the left was changed. Some kid thought it was a cool idea to spin the arrow around and it ended up pointing to the right. As I came close I saw that the lead runners were now out on Ranch Road 12 and heading down the road toward Wimberley. I yelled at them to see if I could get them back on course. I think most of the lead runners did turn around and come back.
The next problem was after the race. My volunteers, the ones that have never helped at a race before, did the registration thing and then thinking the race was over, all went home. Nobody was at the finish line to record place finishers and who won. I gathered all the finish cards and put them in the buckets we used to determine the finish time and who were the top three place awards. The volunteer for the Gatorade tried to read the directions on the can. After some time he just gave up on trying to figure how many of those little scoops were needed to fill a five-gallon jug. He left the open can next to the swimming pool and the ants were having a gourmet meal of the contents. It was not going well for one of my first races.
I did manage to determine the winners and hand out the little awards to the proper runners. It was after that race that I decided that I could not be a race director and run at the same time. So, that ended my being able to run any race in San Marcos. If I wanted to run in a race I had to go out of town. After a couple years of not running in San Marcos, and putting on almost all of the races, it seemed that I was the race director for every group that wanted a race. One summer had eight weekends in a row where I was helping at a race. The good thing about all of this is that many of those first volunteers continued to help out and learned what needed to be done to put on a race. Things have improved greatly for race organization since then.
It was shortly after that that Brian McCoy offered to help sponsor a race where I could run if I would just tell his volunteers what to do. We came up with ‘Moe’s Better Half Marathon’ and ran it out at Jim’s Gym that first year. McCoy’s were the sponsor for eight years and then the race took on other sponsors after that. The race lasted 33 years and was finally retired in 2017.
But, next weekend, the Country Roads 10K will be well organized, everything will go as planned, and runners will enjoy a great race.