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Every so often a running event comes along that is so much fun, it takes on a
life of its own. Portland, Oregon’s, Star Light Run is such an event, and
Saturday, May 30th, marked the 20th running of this “fun” run.
Ever since 1979, when a young Arnold Schwartzenegger was the guest celebrity and local DJ turned king, Craig Walker, signed on as host, Starlight has been a fun run with no clocks and no race results. Participants run or walk a 3.3-mile course along the Rose Festival Starlight Parade route about a half- hour before the parade. The Rose Festival is a month-long series of events that showcase the city, and the Starlight run, with its 3,000 athletes, is the largest participatory event in the Festival. Since its inception, Starlight has been directed by Steve Hamilton, of Hamilton Events. Steve is no stranger to road races, having spent the last two decades directing most of the Northwest’s biggest runs. He originally sold the city and the Rose Festival on the idea of having a race precede the Starlight Parade after seeing the success of Seattle’s Seafair Torchlight Run. His favorite part is the costume contest. The costume contest takes place right before the start with judging in three categories: best individual, best two-or-more, and best centipede. This year’s combination of prizes for best costume and the 300,000+ spectators waiting for the Starlight Parade produced three President Clintons, two Lewinskys, and one Kenneth Starr. Swarms of secret service guys kept the Clintons away from the Lewinskys as they waited to take their turn before the judges. There were two runners in a model of the Titanic (one of their kids was the ice berg); a bunch of cross-dressing Hawaiian dancers; and a Rose Festival princess in running shoes. There was a young cow with a very cute utter , and a couple of cat women —one that purred and one that howled! One of the big winners was a male psychologist who looked good in a leopard-skin bikini top (he got extra points for doing a nice hula). In the centipede competition, the dragon boat was a shoo-in—they even brought real dragon boat paddles. For as much fun as this run has generated over the years, it has also played a part in the way events are presented in the Northwest. Most older runners remember when runs always gave away T-shirts with registration. In the pre- Nike days, running shirts were fun to show off to your friends (especially if the design was cool). Consequently, these shirts started accumulating in every runner’s closet. Eventually, just to make room for the new ones, they were unloaded by the dozens to Goodwill. In 1982, Steve decided to make the T-shirt an option—pay $2 to run the race, and add $5 if you want to sport the T-shirt. People liked that idea, and now we take it for granted that every road race has that option. Amid the hustle and stress of trying to squeeze in a workout with a job, the kids and a life, it’s nice to see that an old favorite like the Starlight Run, where your pace time is as unimportant as the color of your husband’s jog bra, is still going strong. Let’s hope it will always remain the place where every runner can be a princess for an evening. |
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