Hull of a Race Tid Bits for the Sake of Having a Historical Background
How do you spell Hull? H U L L. Where’s that? Oh, it’s a little spot in the road just off of interstate 72 just across the river from Hannibal, MO. So why would anyone want to start 5K or 10K races there?
Way back in 2006, Lori, a physical therapist, was working with 2 ladies from Hull who had Parkinson’s Disease. Add 2 husbands and you have a relatively unlikely group to establish a race. Lori had participated in some races, and the rest of us had never even been to one. We didn’t have a clue as to what we were supposed to do.
After one year under our belts with Lori, we became experts! We were ready for 2007. We moved up the ladder of progress and hung up our stop watch and put the clip boards. We went for professional help — Alan Avery, a professional timer, rescued us.
We were headed for 2008. We went into the field of amenities for our racers — we had Scottie Potties brought in. But a dark cloud moved in — our leader, Lori, was leaving us. Jim and Marilyn took over as directors in 2008.
2009 brought us a wonderful surprise — an unintended “crashing” of a West Pike class reunion produced 6 new people to help put Hull of a Race on each year. Hats off for the class of 1999 from West Pike. We also picked up several older West Pike alumni so we have about 16 on our Hull of a Race committee.
We lost 1 of our original founders, Sam in 2010. We carry on — that’s what he would have wanted. We brought the world of technology into the picture, we started using the internet to pre-register.
2011 finds us turning our web site over to a web master. The bright spot for this race is we sent a check for $10,000 to the St. Louis Area Parkison's Association for research. Another loss was endured — we lost another founder, Mable. We celebrated their passing by stating "Sam and Mable have crossed the finish line".
We were getting the hang of this project and we were tired of just being called “the committee”— we wanted some identity. Races need a “pit crew”. So in 2012 we became “The Pit Crew.” We added a food court for the racers at the finish line, sent in another check for $10,000 — just the same old “ho-hum.”
The best thing that happened in 2013 was when we sent in another check for $10,000. That was three years in a row!
Then 2014 rolled in (or should we say “rained” in.) It poured all through the night and was still raining during the race. We didn’t have room for people to take shelter. It was very difficult to register runners and it hurt us financially, as many people didn not come. Look at the bright side — only 1 bad weather year out of eight years. The check was sent but it was for only $9,000. Mother Nature is permanently in charge, and don’t you forget it.
2015 through 2018 have been sucessful years for Hull of s Race. Each year we have sent $10,000 or more to St. Louis Area Parkinson's Association with all of that money going toward research.
We now tout a Flat and Fast Certified Course with 3 rehydration stations along the 5k course and 6 rehydration station along the 10k course. We encourage people pushing strollers or wheel chairs to participate. The race is now professionally chip timed by Elvish Consulting. In May of 2018 we recieved our 501(c)(3) status.
In February of 2019, after years of bravely battling Parkinson's disease, one of our original members, Donetta "Sue" Moore, passed away. In addition to her many years of work in our organization Sue also participated in several of the earlier races. In her memory, we are determined to work even harder this year to improve our race and to raise more money for Parkinson's research.
We work to improve our race each year in hopes of raising more money for Parkison's. Let's see if we can make this 14th year of our Hull of the Race the best yet. We hope to donate more money in 2019 than any other year to fight Parkison's disease.
Copyright 2018 Hull of a Race