Photo courtesy of Action Sports International
I’ve been meaning to write a brief post about a 5K event that my wife, Kylene, and I ran in April. The race was part of the 2011 Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon held in Champaign/Urbana. The course started on the southwest side of the University of Illinois and proceeded north to “campus town” on Green Street. It eventually made its way back south to the school’s Memorial Stadium. The race ended inside the stadium. The picture on the left is of me sprinting the last 100 yards to the finish. My time was 28:27, and Kylene completed the course in 27:46. We both did better than we expected. Some of my students came out to cheer me on. One student even made a sign that read “Go Professor Gilbert!” He received extra credit. You can read about his observations of the race on his blog. He writes about seeing a runner dressed up as the former University of Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek. I also saw this individual before the beginning of the race. A lot of people wanted to take their photograph with him. He was decked out in feathers and a war bonnet. He liked the attention, but he wasn’t much of a runner. I never saw him again after the first 30 yards.
First, kudos, Matt, for doing these runs.
Second, a runner dressed like “chief illiniwek”?! Geez.
I went over to read the student’s blog. His last entry is evidence of the need for courses like those offered in American Indian Studies. Good job, Matt.
Link to his last entry:
http://joeywiemken101.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/ais-101/
Hey, Debbie, thanks for your comments! I had a great group of students in my Intro to American Indian Studies courses this Spring. Joey was one of them. Chief Illiniwek didn’t stand a chance. I was determined to beat him. Ha!