I can’t remember a time that the club has done two races on a Saturday, then followed that with two more during the next weekend. This happened during the last half of October with Race to the River, Rotary Fall Crawl, St. Matthews and Spooky Sprint, all 5Ks. With just two months to go, 2025 is headed for a record year of 31 official charity races. Add to that a spring and fall BRC and Rowan Helping Ministries Walk Club, both of which lasted for eight weeks. And timing of numerous middle school races.

    And we are not done! November is busy too with the Fill the Food Banks 5K in Cleveland already complete on November 1^st. This was a fun new race that highlighted Cleveland Town Park on the town’s community day with all proceeds going to three food banks in town. All these recent races had great weather and of course we hope that trend continues.

    Next week’s Clean Water 5K and fun run on November 8th at Grace Lutheran Church offers a fun environment where all proceeds go the Lutheran Church’s mission to provide good drinking water to areas that don’t have it. All participants get the race’s famed hush puppies at the finish. SRR’s Pam Roseman is the race director and she has cash prizes.

   After an unusual week off, the Girls on the Run 5K with a new fun run will take place at Salisbury Community Park on November 22nd. This is the fall program graduation event where hundreds of girls and their running buddies will complete a first 5K. Community runners are also invited.

    Then, SRR’s premier holiday race is the Butterball 5K on Thanksgiving morning, all headed up by SRR’s Rayna Gardner and Matt Marsh at The Forum. All proceeds go the Terrie Hess House and Prevent Child Abuse Rowan.

     That totals four races for November and two more loom for December. Two holiday favorites start off the month, beginning with the Freeze Your Buns 5K and fun run in Spencer as part of Winterfest on December 6^th. Do the race and then go ‘ice skating’ afterwards. Race day is December 6^th with the unusual start time of 1pm.

     Then on December 13, we close out the year with SRR’s own Santa Run 5K and Fun Run. The usual fun continues with Santa on hand, the concurrent Bigfoot reunion and the Bigfoot shoe competition for all competitors and volunteers. Everyone gets pancakes following the run where all proceeds go to Rowan Helping Ministries.

     The Resolution Run 5K is just around the corner on January 1^st and Winter Flight takes off on February 1^st. Plan to run or volunteer at both of these races.

     Lunch serving continues as needed and running shoe collection does too at Rowan Helping Ministries. Let me know if you can help with either or both. David.freeze@ctc.net Many runners are turning in 8-10 pairs of used running shoes, and that effort will go a long way.

   Another childhood buddy of Wayne Crowder, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “Nothing great can be completed without enthusiasm.”

    See you on the roads!

David