Sign up because if Manitou Springs could be an idea, it’d be the Manitou 5K on Oct. 11 at 9 a.m. at Fields Park.
It’s for everyone, and I mean everyone. Last year finishers ranged from 4 to 82, school kiddos to super seniors. Each and every Manitoid, and all the other Manitoids at heart. Everyone means everyone, whether you run, walk, roll, stroll, or float like a butterfly and sing for the bees.
Sign up at runsignup.com (look for Manitou 5K). Sign up because the Garden of the Gods Trading Post will do the post-race snacks and drinks. Sign up because our old timey super Arcade will provide kids awards. Sign up because Manitou Brewery is handing out 100 beer tokens. Sign up because The Flying Eagle is making the shirts. Sign up because our fire department and city staff’s been over-the-top with support. Sign up because the Pikes Peak Road Runners are providing professional timing.
Sign up because the race highlights our great schools here. Everywhere you look this race’s got little Manitoids all over it. The race shirt was designed by an art-contest-winning high school student (Madison Sharon). The flyers and banners were designed by our middle school art teacher (Emily Leskee). The wooden medals were made by our careers in construction teacher (Brad Borkowski). The high school student council will handle all on-site sound, developing their voices, organizational skills, and a super-fun-race-playlist for a rocking good time. (If I were doing it, we’d be listening to KRCC. So it’s way better that they are.)
Race proceeds go to the schools. Last year’s went to the middle school. This year it’s the high school’s turn, and next the elementary’s up. Teachers determine the project and this year’s funding is expected to go to support an inspiring guest speaker or an out-of-the-box field trip. That’s the kind of things we make happen in a “District of Distinction,” an award our schools earned recently.
If there was a similar “community of distinction” award, we know it’d land right here too. Because ‘Manitoid’ is a noun that carries a bit of verb. It presumes action, activity, movement. Whether you’re here to climb Pikes Peak or Red or Iron, at work on artwork, or making the world a better place one kind act at a time, you’re here in Manitou Springs more for the doing and less for the being.
That action is yet another hallmark of a community. That’s why we sign up for things. Like fruitcake tossing and coffin racing.
We sign up because the world seems chaotic right now. All communities are struggling, and some even struggle to meet basic decency.
Not here. Manitou runs consistently decent all the time. When the world rages, in Manitou we run together. When people call names, in Manitou we run together. When things turn ugly, in Manitou we run together. When people tear apart, in Manitou we run together. That’s the idea we run with here.
So go sign up for the Manitou 5K! Now!
Matt Cavanaugh is the proud parent of two kids in Manitou schools, the author of “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before,” and likely soon to announce a challenge to Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District.
