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Governor's Cup Fun Run
| Capitol Building, Juneau to Sandy Beach, Douglas | The 1980 Governor's Cup, Juneau's biggest race of the season, run on a Saturday in a light drizzle from the Capitol Building along the road to Douglas and down the home stretch to Sandy Beach. The Empire's photograph of the start puts 360 runners on the road; 312 finishers are listed here.
Guy Thibodeau won in 17:57, thirteen seconds ahead of Steve Schmitz, who led with him almost the whole way before pulling up with a side ache. "Steve and I weren't sure where the finish line was," Thibodeau said; the two reckoned they had begun their kick as much as a quarter of a mile too early. Third was Paul Pusich in 18:24, a sixteen-year-old junior at Juneau-Douglas. Holly Ackley was the first woman in 23:09, two seconds ahead of Susan Thomas. The race director, Jim DuFresne, finished 24th.
The report also records Cajje Holst, who had lost her left leg to cancer the year before, running the whole race on an artificial limb.
The course was 3.5 miles, as the Empire's caption states, and finished at Sandy Beach. By 1981 the race was three miles and finished at the Tlingit and Haida Center, so the two years are not the same course.DuFresne previewed the course mile by mile in the Empire a few days beforehand, calling it "the second Gvernor's Cup, slated for July 12 at 9 a.m." and describing a mass start at the steps of the state Capitol, with Lt. Gov. Terry Miller raising the starting gun, then 4th Street, Calhoun Avenue, past the Governor's Mansion, down to Egan Drive and across the Juneau-Douglas Bridge, through West Juneau and over three hills to Douglas Highway and First Street, finishing in the Sandy Beach Recreation Area. His sections run from 0-0.2 up to 2.7-3.5, which is the course measuring itself at three and a half miles. A field of 140 had pre-registered that morning, and there were t-shirts for the first 400.
It was also DuFresne's last column as the Empire's sports editor. | DefaultRaceDirector Unassigned | 1980-07-12 09:00:00 | no | no | yes | Registration Form |