The Kiwanis Kingston Classic10K- First Grand Prix race of 2022
Now in its 40th year, Kingston Classic remains a community event
The Kingston Classic has always been the “big race” in town. The Shamrock Run is bigger, but the 2-mile jaunt down Broadway is a fun run, with no official timing or awards.
The Kingston Classic was run out of uptown Kingston for its first 34 years and finished at Dietz Stadium. In 2017, the Kiwanis Kingston Classic was moved to the Rondout section of the city, starting and ending at the waterfront. This year will be the fifth year the race has occurred “downtown.”
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first running of the Kingston Classic in 1982. The race date is Sunday, April 24. The main attraction continues to be the 10K distance. However, the event also features a 5K and 1.5-mile fun run and walk. This expanded format seems ideal for participants of all abilities. The 1.5-mile fun run/walk is geared toward youngsters, beginning runners, and people wanting to be involved in a fun, healthy, community activity.
Due to the closure of the Rondout Creek Bridge, a new course was designed. With the Brickyard Trail along the Hudson River from Kingston to East Kingston now open, this new trail replaces the Abeel Street and Port Ewen sections of the old course. The virtual version of the race in 2021 used the new trail, and it received rave reviews.
The new courses are predominantly flat, with only two hills. The first hill is a short but steep two-block climb up Abruyn Street, and for the 10K, a second hill out on the Brickyard Trail that you get to enjoy out and back. The 1.5-mile event is flat.
Kiwanis moved the race downtown to highlight the revitalization of the Rondout waterfront and re-energize the race. Some people felt the out and back course on Hurley Avenue had become “stale” and logistically challenging to organize.
For much of the 19th century, the Rondout prospered as a transportation hub for commerce, as the terminus of the D&H Canal. As a result, the Rondout was a vibrant melange of commercial and residential activity. It would be called a mixed-use area in today’s urban development language. However, with the rise of the railroads and the canal’s demise, the Rondout’s prosperity slowly eroded.
By the time I moved to Kingston in 1964, downtown was identified as the “slums.” In the late 1960s, an ill-fated Urban Renewal program destroyed all that was decrepit, and unfortunately, all that was good along the east side of Broadway and the Strand. It has taken the better part of four decades for the Rondout district to be revitalized.
The organizers anticipate more than 500 participants for this year’s race. Registration numbers have been robust, and the race is on track to surpass the 2018 and 2019 numbers — a nice way for the race to bounce back from two years of the pandemic.
All three races start and finish along the waterfront. The 10K course will take you through Rotary Park, along the Hudson River, and past the Rondout II Lighthouse before returning to the Strand.
This year’s T-shirt looks terrific, depicting the historic Mathilda Tugboat. Local artist Judy Tellier designed the shirt. In the 10K and 5K, there will be awards for the top three men and women in all standard 10-year age groups. In addition, there will be refreshments, ice cream, and beverages hosted by the Ole Savannah Restaurant.
The race has a fun, festival-style atmosphere. The 10K and 5K start together at 10 a.m., followed by the 1.5 miler at 10:15 a.m.
Online registration closes on April 21. However, in-person registration will be available at race packet pickup on Saturday, April 23, between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the Hudson River Maritime Museum boat building school (the former Rosita’s Restaurant) at 50 Rondout Landing. The boat school is halfway between the Maritime Museum and Ole Savannah. In addition, there will be race day registration on April 24 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Hudson Valley Maritime Museum (50 Rondout Landing). For more information, visit kiwaniskingstonclassic.com.
History of the Classic
In its first 37 years, the race has undergone many changes. There have been seven different courses through the streets of Kingston, Hurley, the town of Ulster, and the Rondout. This year adds the eighth version. The history of the race can be divided into three distinct eras.
Bob Bright, who owned the Catch Us If You Can running shop in New Paltz, started the race in 1982. Bright wanted to focus people’s attention on running and his business. To put the race on the map, he used appearance money to bring in some of the nation’s top runners. John Sinclair and Patti Lyons Catalano (world record holder in the half marathon) were the headliners in 1982. Greg Meyers (1983 Boston Marathon winner), Pat Porter (eight-time USA Cross Country Champion and 1988 Olympian), and local running legend Charlie Bevier (three-time Olympic trial qualifier – 1984, 1988, 1992) all participated in the early years of the race. It was exciting for local runners to toe the line with these elite and Olympic-caliber athletes. The race made running and runners the stars of the day.
In 1987, Dick Vincent became race director, and the race underwent a significant organizational change. Led by Vincent, the sponsorship group ended appearance fees and instituted a prize money structure. Prize money was awarded to the top 20 men and top 15 women. This change turned the Classic into a major regional race, highlighted by the race drawing 1,395 registrants in 1992. The energy at the start on North Front Street was palpable. For local runners, the goal was a fast time and the prestige of “picking up a check.”
In 2011, the Kiwanis Club of Kingston took over the race and turned it into a “people’s race.” Prize money was gone, and the focus of the race became local runners and fundraising for the service organization’s mission to help the community. Over the last 10 years, the race has generated $20,000 to $25,000 yearly for community organizations and programs the Kiwanis Club support.
Programs such as the Kiwanis scholarships awarded to area high school seniors, the Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts, the Children’s Home of Kingston, area youth soccer leagues, Kingston High School Band, Veterans Emergency Fund, the ARC, Flood Victims Relief, Kingston Comets, and the Seniors’ Holiday Dinner have all benefited. In addition, this year, for every entrant entered, the Kiwanians will donate a book to a child. Five hundred entrants mean 500 books! For a complete listing of organizations the Kiwanians help, visit KingstonKiwanis.org.
The race still shines attention on running, gives runners a first-class event, and now has a “greater good” that benefits the community year-round. Bright, who passed away in 2009, would be very proud of what his “brainchild” has become. But, of course, none of this would be possible without the generosity of the local businesses that sponsor the Classic every year.
All-Purpose Training
On social media and in conversations with other runners, we constantly hear about the events people are doing. Some people run ultra-marathons; others run marathons, half-marathons, trail races, and even track races. I’ve always thought that specializing or typecasting yourself as one type of runner, i.e., “I’m a marathoner” or “I’m a 5K runner,” is wrong. A versatile runner is a better runner.
Furthermore, specializing is fraught with overuse injuries and burnout. So how does one prepare to race a multitude of different
distances? In my observation and personal experience, the best type of training for all-purpose running is 10K training. Training to run a good, hard 6.2 miles touches all the skills needed to be a distance runner. Ten-kilometer training works on your endurance and speed and teaches you to be efficient and pace yourself properly. With the fitness base I gained from training for 10K racing, I could modify my training to move up or down in distance.
In 10K training, you have three basic workouts every seven to 10 days: a long run, a tempo workout, and an interval speed workout. A good source for understanding the definitions of each of these types of workouts is Jack Daniels Training Formula,
available online or in book form. Starting with what you gain from 10K training, you can modify the focus of your running for three months to emphasize any goal race, from the mile to the marathon.
Last Sunday, April 3, was Richard Manuel’s birthday. Manuel was the pianist and a vocalist for the 1960s-1970s rock group, The Band. If you have never listened to the song “Whispering Pines” give it a listen, and if you have not heard it in a while, do yourself
a favor and listen to it again. You can thank me at the Kiwanis Kingston Classic.
If you find me in a gloom, or catch me in a dream
Inside my lonely room, there is no in between
Whispering pines, rising of the tide
If only one star shines
That's just enough to get inside
I will wait until it all goes 'round
With you in sight, the lost are found
Foghorn through the night, calling out to sea
Protect my only light, for she once belonged to me
Let the waves rush in, let the seagulls cry
For if I live again, these hopes will never die
I can feel you standing there
But I don't see you anywhere
Standing by the well, wishing for the rains
Reaching to the clouds, for nothing else remains
Drifting in a daze, when evening will be done
Try looking through a haze
At an empty house, in the cold, cold sun
I will wait until it all goes 'round
With you in sight, the lost are found