The Van Davis Memorial 5K, named after the late National Park College professor who was known as the "iron man of marathons," is having a homecoming of sorts next year.
Darla Thurber, NPC's vice president for external affairs, and Van Davis Memorial 5K co-director Julie Larue announced Tuesday at a Leadership Hot Springs meeting that the race will be moved to the NPC campus in 2020. The race has been held at Whittington Park since it began in 2013.
The eighth annual race will be held on Saturday, Feb. 15, Larue said. The new logo for the race, also unveiled Tuesday, has the tagline "Bringing It Home."
Thurber said they wanted to give the race a "new feel."
"While everyone has been very supportive in the past, we just wanted to put some extra excitement around it and having this new facility and our new drive on campus, we knew we could incorporate that into the day," Thurber said. "So it will be a few positives for us in that we'll have our facility open, all the comforts that a person would need before the race begins, and then we would utilize our new route and just kind of promote the campus more."
Race co-director Blake Butler said the main emphasis is to showcase the college's newest building and bring people to the campus.
"We have a wellness initiative going on on-campus that will help promote our wellness initiative that we have here," Butler said. "We want to get as many students involved as we can; it's all about participation and bringing more people into that fold and making them part of the college, so just a great outreach for us. It raises money for scholarships and other initiatives we have on campus, so it's a win-win: It brings people in and also raises money for the college."
Thurber said the Van Davis Memorial 5K is an annual event that began in 2013 in honor of Davis, an "esteemed member of the NPC faculty and chair of the sciences division, teaching students for nearly 38 years and inspiring them to use their drive, passion, humor and intellect to succeed at earning college degrees."
She noted Davis ran over 60 marathons, including finishing the Boston Marathon six times and Pikes Peak eight times.
"Van was truly an iron man of marathons," Thurber said. "With his familiar beard and his long, lanky legs, many local residents will remember him running around Whittington Park and Hot Springs roadways."
She said when Davis' wife, Charlotte Davis, informed the race directors that one of his first 5Ks was run on the NPC campus, they knew it was the right decision to move the race to the campus.
"He was known to personally help some students who were struggling financially," Thurber said. "He had taken money out of his own pocket to help some students along the way, so we knew of all the things that we did, for us to be able to support students after his passing, that was probably the main thing that he would like to see happen."
The first race was in 2013, following Davis' death, in the Whittington Avenue area.
"He ran in Whittington (Park), he walked his dog, he was always active, so what better way to do it than to put on a 5K, and the first one was a resounding success," Thurber said. "We had almost 500 participants that year and we've raised over $50,000 since the inception of the race."
There is a "Virtual Runner" option, allowing people to participate by donating money.
"You can just come volunteer and help us during race day just to get everything set up and manage the course and all that, so there's many ways to get involved and help out," Butler said. "But if someone just wants to be a virtual runner they can contribute their money, it goes right to funding some of our initiatives on campus, and they get a T-shirt and they can say they were part of the race."
For more information on the race, visit the Van Davis Memorial 5K Facebook page.
"We'll be doing reveals along the way: We'll reveal the T-shirt, once we get it printed, and we'll also be revealing the award medals and the finisher medals," Thurber said.
Local on 11/13/2019