Location: start on Hospital Entrance Road near the Tlingit-Haida Center; finish at the Fish Creek parking lot, North Douglas Highway
Course: across the Mendenhall Wetlands and over the Gastineau Channel at low tide, past Sunny Point, then a paved stretch through Bayview Subdivision to the finish
Start Time: 7:00 PM
Registration Fee: 5 dollars
The fifth annual May Day Mud Race. The channel crossing is run at low tide, where the seawater is no more than a foot deep at the trail crossing; expect slippery spots, sand traps, tussocks and knee-deep water. Divisions at 16-35 and 36 and over for each of men and women. Mickey's Muffins was the major sponsor.
Rick Thibodeau won in 46:29, running with his dog. John Geary, a bicyclist and mountain climber, used his leg strength in the mud and the at-times waist-deep seawater to close on him: sixth at the Tlingit-Haida Center, he took second at the Mendenhall Wetlands at Sunny Point and led into the paved stretch through Bayview Subdivision, where Thibodeau's road-running told and he pulled away by 14 seconds. "He's a faster road runner," Geary said, "but running in the mud was to my advantage. When we hit the road, he put 50 yards on me."
Nancy Pease won the women's division in 54:27. Glenn Frick won the men 36-and-over in 46:52, third overall, and Elizabeth Shaw the women 36-and-over in 64:34. Ron Flint was fifth overall.
The course is known for its crossing of the Gastineau Channel at low tide, where the seawater is no more than a foot deep at the trail crossing, and for slippery spots, sand traps, tussocks and knee-deep water. "It's not a paving pounder," Pease said. "It takes mental concentration. It's a mentally relaxed way to start the running season." Entry was $5, Mickey's Muffins was the major sponsor, and police protection was provided for the Egan Expressway crossing. Race organizer Jerry Buckley said the turnout was about the same as usual: "About half have run in just about all of them. The other half are newcomers who will never run in another."
SOURCES: the preview "Annual jog across the mud set" with a course map, Juneau Empire, Wednesday 1 May 1985, page 8; the report "Thibodeau wins annual Mud Run" by Richard F. Schmitz, Monday 6 May 1985, page 6; and the finish list published the same day.
INCOMPLETE: thirty-seven runners are reported to have taken part and the finish list numbers to 37, but it names only 32 - places 26, 27, 28, 32 and 34 do not appear in it. Those five finishers are not recorded here because the newspaper did not print them.
