Hal Canfield Memorial Mile and Five Miler

The fourth annual Hal Canfield Memorial Race will be held at 8:30 am on Monday, September 2, 2013. The race will take place on Cherokee Boulevard in beautiful Sequoyah Hills. This promises to be the fastest one mile race in the Knoxville area throughout the entire year. The start line will be adjacent to the parking lot at the west end of Cherokee Boulevard. The point to point course will finish near the middle parking lot on Cherokee, just past the Indian Mound. With no turns and no turnarounds, this race course is going to be fast! State records are sure to fall unless of course there is a strong tailwind. (The tailwind must be within USATF guidelines in order for the records to be eligible). How many races have you ever been to with that stipulation? Pretty cool stuff!

For the first time, KTC will be proud to offer a five-mile race in addition to the mile, in honor of the five-mile loop courses offered by Hal Canfield in the early days of KTC racing. Details will be forthcoming but due to staggered start times, it will be possible for runners to compete in both races. It will be a wonderful way to kick off your Labor Day Holiday.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hal, he was one of the founding fathers of the KTC. In 1962, Hal and seven other track enthusiasts met at the home of B.E. Sharp to organize a team for track competition in AAU summer meets in the Southeast. Little did that group know that what they were forming would become the Knoxville Track Club as you know it today.

Unfortunately, Hal passed away in 2009. Upon his death, the KTC Board of Directors created the Harold W. Canfield Memorial Scholarship Fund with the help and generosity of his daughters, Barbara Karpay and June Fillingim. The fund now qualifies as an endowment, thanks to the efforts of the East Tennessee Foundation. Earnings from this endowment will be used to fund and support an academic scholarship annually, starting this fall. With Hal’s Mile now on the event calendar, all proceeds of the event will be contributed to this endowment to help pay for future scholarships.

I am honored to be co-directing this race. We chose Cherokee Boulevard to stage this race primarily because of the history that Hal had with the area. In the early days, many of the KTC’s long distance running races were run on a five mile loop course on Cherokee Boulevard. This year-round program of road races was the only one of its kind between Washington, D.C and New Orleans and preceded other road race activities in the southeastern United States. Founders and organizers of such clubs as Atlanta, Chattanooga, Huntsville, Birmingham and Nashville received their initiation into the sport from participation in Knoxville Track Club competitions. We feel that Hal will be smiling down on us as we stage this grand event in his honor on Cherokee Boulevard.

--- Jason Altman, Co-Race Director

Weather

Averages: High 84 Low 62.

Early September in East Tennessee is still summer, but the short length of this race, combined with the shady canopy of trees present along most of the course and the early starting time, should protect runners from any adverse effects of the heat.