Boalsburg Memorial Day Run History
by Marty Mazur
The Boalsburg
Memorial Day Run has been going on since 1981. It's one of the longest
established races in the area. Somehow Mike Casper got hold of a
spreadsheet that had data on the race going back to the beginning. The
spreadsheet ends in 1997. I made a table below with some of the
interesting statistics. I filled in the information for the races after
1997 from our results on the web site, but there are a few missing
years. If you have any information on these races, let me know at mxm14@psu.edu.
The village of Boalsburg is a small town just outside of State College,
PA. It's one of the towns that claim have originated the idea for
Memorial Day around the time of the Civil War. The town still has an
old-fashioned home town feel. They have a great Memorial Day
celebration, including an arts and crafts fair, a carnival, a parade,
and the race itself. The
Boalsburg race has always been a funky affair. It used to be billed as
a 4 Miler, but the race directors were never very picky about the
distance measurement. The current course is
really about 3.8 miles and it has always been about that long. But
the start and finish changed from the Diamond at the center of town to
Blue Spring Park, not far away, and there have been a few other tweaks
over the years, so course records are hard to compare. It seems like
the whole town either runs the race or cheers the runners. And despite
the fact that the course is pretty tough, with two challenging hills,
lots of people of all ages run it. It's a nice way to spend Memorial
Day morning.
Here's the history:
Year
|
#
of Runners
|
Start/Finish
|
Men's
Winner
|
Time
|
Women's
Winner
|
Time
|
1981
|
146
|
Diamond |
Richard
Harter
|
20:44
|
Sue
Crowe
|
24:06
|
| 1982 |
253
|
Diamond |
Gary
Black
|
20:13
|
Barbara
Black
|
25:30
|
| 1983 |
316
|
Diamond |
Bill
Knapp
|
21:18
|
Sue
Crowe
|
25:39
|
| 1984 |
332
|
Diamond |
Bob
Hudson
|
20:11
|
Liz
Kisenwether
|
25:20
|
| 1985 |
415
|
Diamond |
Pete
Bortolotti
|
20:22
|
Lynne
Strauss
|
25:17
|
| 1986 |
426
|
Diamond |
Bob
Hudson
|
20:43
|
Karen
Borza
|
25:29
|
| 1987 |
430
|
Diamond |
Matt
Colton
|
20:39
|
Sue
Crowe
|
23:30
|
1988
|
336
|
Blue
Spring Park
|
Matt
Colton
|
19:47
|
Sue
Crowe
|
22:21
|
1989
|
372
|
Blue
Spring Park
|
James
Hegarty
|
20:18
|
Laurie
Morrow
|
23:16
|
1990
|
412
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Mike
Crescenzi
|
19:15
|
Sue
Crowe
|
22:26
|
1991
|
436
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Austin
Morrow
|
19:45
|
Sue
Crowe
|
23:26
|
1992
|
300
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Mike
Crescenzi
|
18:59
|
Heidi
Gerken
|
22:15
|
1993
|
281
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Leif
Steiner
|
21:15
|
Sue
Crowe
|
23:12
|
1994
|
263
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Colin
Heitzman
|
20:33
|
Evelynn
Ellis
|
23:56
|
1995
|
310
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Jeff
Miller
|
20:32
|
Evelynn
Ellis |
23:49
|
1996
|
302
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Chris
Pass
|
20:23
|
Evelynn
Ellis |
24:04
|
1997
|
356
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Chris
Pass
|
20:30
|
Evelynn
Ellis |
24:04
|
1998
|
?
|
Blue
Spring Park |
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
1999
|
425
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Louis
Aquila
|
19:50
|
Bethann
Scott
|
25:06
|
2000
|
496
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Matt
Kretchmar
|
20:44
|
Chris
Crowe
|
25:27
|
2001
|
440
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Stephen
Gross
|
20:33
|
Chris
Crowe
|
24:43
|
2002
|
408
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Stephen
Walsh
|
19:37
|
Jessi
Loner
|
24:13
|
2003
|
348 |
Blue
Spring Park |
Brian
Wheeler
|
21:48
|
Julie
Grubb
|
24:31
|
2004
|
412
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Erik
Scott
|
20:22
|
Patricia
Keating
|
25:09
|
2005
|
418
|
Blue
Spring Park |
David
Moore
|
20:19
|
Jessi
Loner
|
24:32
|
2006
|
491
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Erik
Scott
|
20:49
|
Martha
Nelson
|
23:02
|
2007
|
420
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Richard
Koubek
|
20:48
|
Meghan
Mason
|
23:30
|
2008
|
437
|
Blue
Spring Park |
Andy
Cunningham
|
21:44
|
Meghan
Mason
|
23:21
|
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