By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
There was a time not too many years ago when Salisbury’s Winter Flight attracted more than 1,000 runners.
“When I started running it, there was only one good race a month,” said David Freeze, president of the Salisbury Rowan Runners Club, the organization that sponsors the event. “That’s no longer the case.”
The race, which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at Catawba College, was begun in 1981 and still attracts a good number of runners. By Thursday afternoon, more than 180 participants had pre-registered.
Freeze said he and other organizers are hoping that better than 300 runners will take to the streets of Salisbury for the grand event.
Race-day registration will be held from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Race-day registration is $30. Participants get to run a top-notch race and also get a snazzy shirt.
Winter Flight covers eight kilometers, a distance of about five miles. A shorter fun run will be held at 9:30 a.m.
Freeze said Winter Flight is the second-oldest foot race in the state, and the oldest eight-kilometer.
He said Mother Nature is apparently going to bless this year’s race.
“It sounds like the weather is going to be perfect,” Freeze said. “People are going to be ready to be out.”
Molly Connor is a longtime member of the Salisbury Rowan Runners Club and volunteer coordinator for Winter Flight.
She agreed with Freeze that the number of races that have sprung up around the state in recent years have pulled from turnout for Winter Flight.
“It used to be, if you wanted to run a race in the middle of the winter, we were it,” Connor said.
But the fact that Winter Flight now has competition from any number of other races doesn’t distract from the attention members of the Salisbury Rowan Runners Club give to their event.
“We put on a good race,” Connor said.
The race follows a route up Statesville Boulevard and loops along U.S. 601 before ending on the track at Catawba.
This year, volunteers from Rowan Helping Ministries will assist with the race. Proceeds from the race will go to the ministry.
“It’s a good solo sport, but it can also help you connect with people,” Connor said of recreational running. “The camaraderie is what draws so many people to races.”
Pete Earney, of Dallas, is 73, but is still a regular at Winter Flight, where he’s finished third in his age group each of the past two years.
“I’ve always been impressed with the race they put on,” Earney said. “They do a great job up there. That’s why I keep coming.”
He said he remembers the days when Winter Flight races were held on Sunday afternoons, and the celebration that awaited runners once they’d completed the grand event.
“I’m sorry we don’t get to partake of the beer at the finish line, anymore,” Earney said.
He said he washed a T-shirt the other day that he got when he ran a Winter Flight years ago. That T-shirt came from the race in 1992.
“I’ve run up there on days when you couldn’t put on enough clothes to stay warm and run up there on days when a long-sleeved T-shirt did just fine,” Earney said.
With Saturday’s high expected to climb into the 60s, that long-sleeved T-shirt should be perfectly fine.