Winter Race Series participants do it for the love of running

YAKIMA, Wash. — It's not that they don't know the answer, these Hardcore Runners; it's that they don't understand the question.

"Why?" I keep asking them.

"Why do you run 100-mile ultramarathons?"

"Why do you run past the point of pain?

"And why, why in God's name, would you run a 5K in the middle of January?"

They're not dodging the question. But they're not really answering it, either.

"Everyone needs a hobby," says Tim Englund of Ellensburg, a 45-year-old who goes on 20-mile night runs in the hills for fun.

As if that's an answer. As if marathons and stamp collecting occupy the same category. It's as though it never occurred to any of these runners that this is patently ridiculous behavior. I mean, didn't they know they could have been home with a blanket?

Instead, they were at Chesterley Park on Jan. 15 in 28-degree weather for the final race of the Hard Core Runners' 20th annual Winter Race Series, four races run during December and January.

It's not the biggest turnout of the year, but there are 131 people ready to run. There's 76-year-old Court Jones of Ellensburg and 65-year-old Tony Gerardi of Yakima. There's Virginia Nicholson, 71; Hailey Lozano, 15; and a pair of 3-year-olds, Laurel Downes and Delilah Haller. There are high-schoolers, expectant mothers, retirees, professionals. Black, white, Latino.

They're all stretching and running sprints, trying to warm up or stay warm. Spirits are high. Conversations are everywhere. There is an alarming number of unflattering novelty hats with pompoms or animal faces on them. There is much talk of "splits" and "trying not to go out too hard."

And then they're off.

There are about 200 dues-paying members (at $15 a year) of the Hard Core Runners, a Yakima-based group that started in 1977. They've been doing the Winter Race Series since 1992. The weather for this year's races has been mild, but there have been years in which races were run in 6 to 8 inches of snow.

"This wasn't extreme at all," says 49-year-old Ian Brown of Ellensburg after the race.

Brown has run at least one race in each of the 20 winters the series has existed. He remembers the race in the half-foot of snow. It was 10 degrees and windy, he says, but the traction actually wasn't that bad.

"You run mostly on top of the snow," Brown says. "It's cold enough that it's got a crust."

There is disagreement among the runners, who gather after races at Round Table Pizza near the park, about just how bad it is to run in the cold. Some of them say it doesn't matter; you don't even feel it after the first mile or so.

Others say it burns the whole time.

"You feel it in the arms and the legs and the lungs," says Alberto Melchor, a Davis High School cross-country star who wins the day's race, covering the 3.2 miles in just under 18 minutes.

He says it matter-of-factly. It doesn't sound like complaining so much as it sounds like an auto mechanic or computer analyst discussing machinery. That's the key to this whole running thing, says 69-year-old David Lygre of Ellensburg. It's a question of staying analytical and mentally strong even as your muscles and lungs beg you to stop.

"I feel like my body and mind are at war sometimes," Lygre says.

"I actually enjoy the pain to a certain degree," Brown adds.

At this point, Englund and his longtime girlfriend, 43-year-old Lisa Bliss of Spokane, start talking about the need for runners to be goal-oriented. It's that famous George Mallory quote about climbing Everest "because it's there." Hard Core Runners are people who don't like to let challenges go unmet.

"Stubborness is a commonality," Bliss says.

That stubborness is relative, of course. There are ultramarathoners like Englund and Bliss, and there are runners for whom a 3.2-mile race is quite enough. But there is something to the idea of runners as stubbornly goal-oriented people who just naturally enjoy testing themselves.

There are other runners who cite other reasons, too. Camaraderie, competitiveness, community. But most of them come back to some variation of wanting to face a challenge, to face physical pain and overcome it.

If you ask them, "Why?" they wonder why you'd even ask.

"I love it," says 51-year-old Gregg Harnish of Wenatchee. "I don't know why."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.