Raspberry Run Celebrates More Than the Berry

Time for the raspberries.  Sunday the Hopkins Raspberry Run 5 Mile will be held in Hopkins.  Below is something of a trip down memory lane.  The race was started in 1964 by Pat and Emily Lanin for the Twin Cities Track Club.  It became in the early years the summer road race that attracted the top runners in the area:  Van Nelson, Garry Bjorklund, Steve Hoag, Ron Daws, Mike Slack, Dick Beardsley, Bob Kempainen were but a few of the Olympians and champion runners who ran the course around Shady Lake and finished down  Main Street in Hopkins.

There was no prize money, no post race banquet of sponsor products.  Just hot, hilly racing on a course laid out not for speed but to finish up on Main Street where the Raspberry Festival Parade took place.  It reflected the Midwest farming tradition  where you have Corn Days and other such events that celebrate "Breadbasket" agriculture.  As he did for Grandma's Bjorklund told any runners he knew that if you were going to run a road race in Minnesota, you should do the Raspberry Run.  The winners didn't get medals, but rather a solid silver bowl.  Though it no doubt seems foreign to runners of this era, when the race began, there were no race T-shirts.  That "inovation" was brought to Minnesota by the Raspberry race in 1975.

Like the silver bowl that, when left out in the air and not regularly polished, races can show their age.  But Mike Reneau and the Twin Cities Track Club are attempting to build it back to a place fitting its past traditions.  So, if you want to get back to the roots of Minnesota road racing, Hopkins is a good place to start.  Below is some of its history.  If you're so inclined and are either old and or have a good memory, you can take the quiz listed on some of the photos below.  Just reply in the Comments section.

The start of the 1977 Hopkins Raspberry Festival 5 Mile. Photo by Anne
Kelly

Here's a new quiz.  Who are these guys?  The guy in the University of
Minnesota singlet wearing number 563?  The guy next to him with the
flowing hair with the only visible number 7.  And The guy behind
the runner wearing number 143 with the number 2 visible
on his shorts?  Photo by Jim Ferstle

The finish of the race. Notice the "high tech"
announcer's stand--the Ford truck with
the guy with the megaphone.
Photo by Jim Ferstle

This is what they ran for back then.  A silver bowl that hasn't been polished
in some time.  We all show our age as the years go past.