Herb Wills

On Tallahassee’s fall event calendar, Florida State football is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla. You just don’t schedule anything without first considering what’s going to be happening in Doal Campbell Stadium. This is no less true for running events, as illustrated by the races scheduled for this past weekend when the Seminoles were playing in town, and next weekend, when Seminole football is on the road.

The FSU Parent’s Weekend 5K is by nature entirely dependent on the football calendar; the Parent’s Weekend race is always going to be the morning of the Parent’s Weekend game. Hundreds of runners gathered at FSU’s Integration statue on Saturday for this year’s race.

Being Parent’s Weekend, there were many out-of-town runners in the field — mothers and fathers visiting their FSU students. It was a Tallahassee runner who won the race, though. Patrick Dawson of Shaw’s Running led from the start, reaching the finish line 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Bryce Vokus. Orlando master runner Angie Ave was the first woman finisher.

Last year Refuge House avoided scheduling against FSU football by holding their inaugural “Stop the Violence” 5K on the first Sunday afternoon in October. They used the same formula this year, and the second annual “Stop The Violence” race started from the Southwood Country Club just after 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Tallahassee master runner Bill McGuire designed and measured the course for Refuge House, but as soon as the race started, he found himself running third to Renee Cox and Hope Hoffman. McGuire soon overtook Hoffman, but the race belonged to Cox, who went on to win in 20:39. McGuire was second overall in 21:17, the first male overall and the only male in the top 10.

This Saturday will be a quiet day at Doak Campbell Stadium, and several organizations are taking advantage of that by scheduling running events.

The largest will be the Saturday session of the FSU Invitational cross-country meet. Nicknamed “Pre State,” it will be a chance for the best high school runners in Florida to check out Apalachee Regional Park where the State Finals will be held on Nov. 15. The meet will actually be bigger than the State Finals — in 10 races, thousands of athletes from three different states will compete that morning, representing more than 120 schools.

The longest will be Gulf Winds Track Club’s Pine Run 20K at Tall Timbers, a 12.4-mile cross-country tour of Red Hills pine forest. Run outside Bainbridge, Ga., from 1977 to 2006, this year's Pine Run starts up against the state line at Tall Timbers Research Station at 7:30 a.m.

Half an hour later at 8 a.m., the second annual “Go Pink!” 5K starts from Market Square. This year’s race features a new USATF-certified course with at least one memorable hill. The race benefits the Joanna Francis Living Well Foundation.

At 9 a.m., Wildlife Alert's fourth annual "Run Wild" 5K starts in Cascades Park. At 10 a.m. the FSU chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha will stage their 20th annual “Race To Live” 5K, starting once again in front of their sorority house at 514 W. College Ave.

With so much on the menu, you hope that there aren’t more choices than runners.

College football season be over soon enough, sooner for some teams than for others. Racing will go on, though, because runners just keep running. That’s what they do.