Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on May 31, 2006

The Family That Runs Together….

“We guarantee you will have fun or we will give you your money back.” – Dennis Houchens, ZTC president when asked about the free All-Comer’s Series

Most of the time it is an either/or proposition. Either the parents are watching or coaching their child, or the child is watching his parents participate in some sporting Tevent. How rare it is when an entire family from two-year olds to grandparents can go to a sporting event and all participate. Suppose there were such an event. Now what would you say if you could all participate at no cost to the family? What if in addition to all of that you did not have to go very far for such fun? Does this sound too good to be true? Is this beginning to sound like a commercial? Maybe that is just what this is.

Since 1997 Zionsville has been the home of the first and finest All-Comer’s Track Meet in Indiana. We have had runners come for the evening from other states just to participate in our family oriented meets. The Zionsville Track Club under the direction of Dennis Houchens has put on this series and the Athletic Annex Running Centre at 86^th and Ditch has sponsored the track meets which are being held this year at the Zionsville Middle School track. The meets are scheduled on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM beginning on June 7 and going through July 19 (with no meet scheduled for July 5). Daylight savings time will allow all meets to be run without the need for lights this year.

Multiple heats of each race will be held allowing runners to run with other athletes of comparable ability. For instance, two heats of the 1600 meters will be scheduled with the first heat being those people who expect to run it in less than six minutes (last year’s fastest time was approximately 4:30). Then another heat is run with those people who expect to run 6:01 to 12:00 (the majority of people run in this heat). The speed of the runners is not important; it is how much fun they have in making the effort. Smiles and encouragement abound. Runners can expect to receive the satisfaction of having run faster than they thought possible.

Since the inception of the meets, runners were timed and results were put on the www.runz.com website. To speed up the meets this year, races will be timed, but no results will be recorded. It will allow and extra event to be run each week.

Each week different events will be run according to a schedule posted at runz.com. All meets will begin at 7:00 PM sharp with registration available up to one-half hour prior to the first race.

As the series begins its tenth year, Zionsville Track Club president Dennis Houchens reflected on the history of the series. “Some of the families that began running in the series had children who participated as middle schoolers and they have come back to run here after graduating college. We have had toddlers running the 100-meter dash in 1997 who are now very fast middle school track athletes. Some of our Moms and Dads began as encouraging parents of elementary school runners are now speedsters in their own right. The All-Comer’s has been great for Zionsville too. We have many runners who call our series the high point of their summer. Some families make a night of it with the meet followed by ice cream in town. Families in the Indianapolis area consider the events a Zionsville institution and would not miss a meet.”

I have been associated with this series since its inception. I can say without reservation that it is something unique and should not be missed this summer. If you have young children, older children or no children at all, come join us and see what kind of fun families have that run together on Wednesday nights.

For more information you may call Dennis Houchens at 873-5634 or go to the website at www.runz.com.

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.