Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Some 2,000 runners are expected at Great Race

By Bob Aldrich

It's nearly puff-puff time again.

Rain or shine, the 1997 Saratoga-to-Los Gatos Great Race will be held Feb. 23 starting on Oak Street in Saratoga at 9 a.m.

It's likely that well over 2,000 runners, ranging from experienced runners, who train to keep in shape, to slightly overweight types and folks pushing baby strollers will be making the annual fun-and-exercise run sponsored by the Los Gatos Rotary Club and a flock of co-sponsors.

Registration for the 3.8-mile run will begin at 7 a.m. at Saratoga School on Oak Street behind the starting line. The top three runners in each age division will be awarded trophies at the finish line on N. Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos.

Preregistration may be done at the Runners Factory, 51 University Ave., or Athletic Performance, 55 W. Main St., both in Los Gatos, according to Ted Braucht, Rotary Club race chairman.

Debbie Follmar of Saratoga, who took top place in the run for the 1994 Highway 85 opening, will be running the Great Race accompanied by daughter Alicia, 9, a student at Foothill School in Saratoga. "I love it because it gives me a chance to run with my daughter," Follmar said. "This is Alicia's fourth time in the Great Race.

"It's just a lot of fun," she said. "I run the loop in Los Gatos almost every morning, and I'll meet a lot of people I know."

Julie Rohloff, a resident of Black Road in Los Gatos, and her husband, Dirk, will both be running in the Sunday event. "I've been in it for the past 10 years at least," she said. She is foregoing participation in a 10K race the same day in Stockton. "The Great Race is so much fun," she said. Rohloff runs the Dammit race each year, and she is a regular in a group that takes a long "loop" from Los Gatos High School.

One veteran of the Great Race, Bill Meinhardt of Los Gatos, will be sitting it out this year. "I injured my knee," he said, "so I can't make it." Meinhardt recalled when the race was a two-way affair. He was a winner in the Los Gatos-to-Saratoga segment back in 1981.

The age divisions include one category for 13 and under, and even a wheelchair division.

Up to Feb. 15, the entry fee is $20. It's $24 the day of the race. Entrants receive a T-shirt.

The course will be officiated by the Los Gatos Athletic Association and Total Race Systems. Runners will be offered refreshments at the finish line.

Sponsors, in addition to the Rotary Club, include Contempo Realty, radio stations KRTY, KLIV, and KARA, McHugh Lincoln-Mercury, San Jose Construction Co., Los Gatos Community Hospital, the Runner's Factory, Bank of the West, Hitachi Data Systems, Athletic Performance, Metro Newspapers and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.