35 year Hangover

COEUR d'ALENE - It was just an idea Tim Olson tossed out to his wife, Julie, one day more than three decades ago.

What about a run on New Year's Day? A nice five miler around Fernan Lake, starting, let's say, about 9 a.m.?

She didn't like it.

"Nobody will show up for that," Julie said.

Undeterred, Tim Olson persisted.

"We'll call it the Hangover Handicap," he said.

OK, Julie agreed, maybe it would work.

They measured the course, got road signs, barricades and traffic cones. They put out the word. There wasn't much traffic to worry about.

"Everyone was still sleeping from the night before," Tim said.

And yes, people came to run.

That first year, 110 men and women arrived at the starting line at Fernan Village. The course took them 2.5 miles out, then back. The race cost 5 bucks, and included a blue and white stocking cap that had the words "Hangover Handicap."

"I still have it, that original stocking cap," Olson said, laughing.

No way he knew then that the Hangover Handicap would still be running strong and on Sunday, it will celebrate its 35th running, one of the oldest races in North Idaho.

"I can't believe 35 years has gone by, quite frankly," he said Thursday.

Olson, who retired Friday as vice president of corporate affairs for Regence Blue Shield in Boise, chuckles when he talks about those early years of the Hangover and explained how it came to be.

The Kellogg native had moved back to Coeur d'Alene from Portland in the mid-1970s, where they were members of the Oregon Road Runners. This was the era of Steve Prefontaine, American's most dominant middle-distance runner, at the University of Oregon. It was the beginning of the running boom, sparked by Frank Shorter's glorious Gold Medal in the 1972 Olympic Marathon in Munich. Oregon was America's running mecca.

"They had a run every doggone weekend," he said.

So when Tim and Julie arrived in Coeur d'Alene, they were dismayed to learn there was no running club. There was no marathon. There really weren't many races at all.

This, they thought, had to change.

Olson helped start the North Idaho Road Runners, which disbanded a few years ago. He also helped form the Coeur d'Alene Marathon, which will see its 35th running this year, too.

The endurance of the Hangover Handicap is perhaps the biggest surprise. Olson organized it for about five years before it became a TESH fundraiser.

"I didn't make any money on it. I might have made enough money to buy Julie and I breakfast," he said, laughing. "For me, it was bringing the community together."

He often saw the same people who came to run as soon as they crawled out of bed, on New Year's Day. Tim Olson's trademark was his megaphone in hand, shouting, encouraging runners as they finished, thanking them for participating, cheering them on.

"You're doing something good for yourself the first day of the year," he said.

Coeur d'Alene's Richard Ochoa, has competed in all but perhaps two Hangover Handicaps.

"It's a North Idaho tradition," he said. "It's just one of those things they started on New Year's and it just caught on and everybody decided to join in."

Runners, like the race, have endured.

They've battled blizzards and bone-chilling temperatures. They've tip-toed on ice and slipped on slush. They've run through rain, waddled into winds and smiled at sunshine.

"Some years you were just kind of slogging along through five or six inches of fresh snow," said Melanie Candia, who ran the Hangover in its earliest years.

There were even a few years, bowing to political correctness because Hangover, of course, implied you had been drinking, the name was changed to Resolution Rush. But some said that inferred some type of drug reference, so it was switched to Resolution Run. But no one really liked that.

Back to Hangover Handicap, politically correct or not.

Ken Korzyck ran it in the early 1980s and eventually took on the organizational aspect when the run became a TESH fundraiser. They gave out gloves the first year, went back to stocking caps at popular request, then to the standard long-sleeved T-shirts and started finding sponsors, too.

"It just kind of evolved from there," Korzyck said.

The course was changed because traffic along Fernan Lake increased. Cars and snowmobilers would be backed up behind the runners on the narrow, two-lane road.

"We'd have everything clogged up," Korzyck said. "I was afraid someone was going to get run over."

The race moved to Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive, with the starting line behind what is today Michael D's Eatery. Race-day registration was at the Cove Bowl, since torn down.

Korzyck said the Hangover has stayed the course because it's low-key, people just show up and have fun.

One other constant: The race raises from $3,000 to $7,000 each year.

The 62-year-old says he'll likely walk this year.

"I'm not in real good running shape," he said.

Dave and Melanie Candia of Coeur d'Alene were there in those early years.

"It was the greatest," she said.

Melanie recalled it was a small group of diehard runners. And yes, running following a night of ringing in the new year could make for a challenge.

"It was a way to get together with people you knew and probably got drunk with the night before," she said, laughing.

But they finished, no matter if they were tottering a bit at the end.

"We always smiled when we came through the finish line, even if it killed us," Candia said.

Olson takes pride in knowing he and his wife founded the Hangover Handicap. They're proud that it has survived for 35 years.

Slowed by injuries, Tim doesn't plan to compete in the race when he and his wife return to North Idaho. But if they need someone to help organize it, he'll be there, megaphone in hand.

"It's fun to know you were part of something that has continued as a tradition in Coeur d'Alene," he said.

Layer yourself up & run

COEUR d'ALENE - The 35th running of the Hangover Handicap is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Jan. 1.

The five-mile fun run is an out-and-back course that goes along the Centennial Trail on Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive. It begins behind Michael D's Eatery.

Generally, about 400 runners and walkers participate. Some come dressed in colorful costumes, while others make it a family activity and a few even come with a resolution to run.

As for this year's weather, expect cold, clouds, but no snow.

There are refreshments at the finish line. Strollers and dogs on leashes are welcome.

The race is a fundraiser for TESH, a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities learn to live independently.

Race-day registration is $22 including a shirt, $12 without.