Larry Giunipero and Bill Hillison, Race Directors

We see many races come and go, and if a race does continue for more than five or six years, we see race directors come and go. But this year one Tallahassee race celebrates its fifteenth running with the same Gulf Winds members associated with it from the outset still directing it.

Actually, it was GWTC member Leitch Wright, a professor of history at FSU, who in 1985 established the Bowlegs 5k race over a challenging course around the hills of the FSU campus. "Bowlegs" is the anglicized name of a famous native American of Florida he had become interested in through his research. After Leitch's untimely death in 1986, Larry Giunipero and Bill Hillison dedicated the 1987 event to the memory of Leitch as the Wright Run for Scholarship for that year, and then continued it as the Bowlegs 5k race for another thirteen times, including the 1999 running of the event. The race still raises money for the Scholarship Fund.

Over that many years here in Tallahassee, road race courses often do change, especially if held anywhere in the vicinity of Florida State University, for one or another reason, often called traffic problems. The Bowlegs has not been exempt from course changes; it was moved from the Main Campus to Innovation Park.

But Larry and Bill have kept the race true to its roots: a challenging course, a certified course, and popular tee shirts which seem to get more colorful as the years go by. The Awards Committee, recognizing the quality of the Bowlegs race, has included it in the GWTC Grand Prix series a total of five times.

Thanks to longtime Club members Larry Giunipero and Bill Hillison for their many years of directing the Bowlegs race.

Text and Presentation by Mae Cleveland