Get up and at 'em for a New Year's race
Courtesy photo From left, running friends Sandra Graf, Kari Kelli and Debbie Medlen spread their New Year’s Day enthusiasm during the Tesh, Inc. 2018 Hangover Handicap in downtown Coeur d’Alene. The 42nd annual Hangover Handicap will start at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, near Michael D’s Eatery at 203 E. Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive. Proceeds support Tesh, a nonprofit that provides life skills training, job coaching, child development services and other programs for Kootenai County residents with disabilities.
COEUR d’ALENE — What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
And what do you plan to do the next morning?
“It is unique to run at 12 degrees on New Year’s Day,” Tesh, Inc. CEO Frances Huffman said Thursday. “New Year’s morning is light, happy, welcoming and a strong sense of, ‘We are really here on New Year’s Day!’”
At least 350 daring souls are expected to be running into the new year as they strap on their jogging shoes and participate in Tesh’s 42nd annual Hangover Handicap Fun Run.
The run begins at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 1 near Michael D’s Eatery, 203 E. Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive, in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Runners, joggers, walkers, rollers and strollers will go 5 miles on the Centennial Trail along East Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive and then return to the starting point.
Proceeds from this New Year’s tradition support Tesh, a local nonprofit that provides job coaching, child development services and other programs for Kootenai County residents with disabilities. Funds from the run will help with Tesh's kids day camp, Camp Independence, as well as its employment program and adult life skills classes.
“Tesh has to fill the gap between support from our funders and the cost of doing business, so we depend on community support to keep our programs going,” Huffman said. “When your family meets the statistic of ‘one in five families is affected by a person with a disability,’ then you understand even more the crucial place that Tesh has in our community.”
The Hangover Handicap is not a competitive run, so people of all ages and abilities can participate and feel proud they did something active to start their year out right.
"It’s an opportunity for them to get to know us and then to do what they like,” Huffman said. “Many people participate in the run because they have for many years, others because they wanted to do something unique and a little challenging on the first day of the year. Some are just runners and run in anything they can."
Registration is $25 per person. For those who plan to sleep in that morning, the Hangover Handicap offers an "in spirit" registration so you can still support Tesh from the comfort of your warm bed.
Commemorative T-shirts are available for $17.50 and new this year are the Hangover Handicap beanies for $25.
Visit www.teshinc.com to register, donate and get your Hangover Handicap swag.