The Sunnyvale Sun

Cover Story

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

It was every runner for themselves at the start of the annual Watermelon Run at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.

Seeded Runners

Any way you slice it, watermelon race is a big draw

By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Maybe it was the new running shoes. Fremont High School senior Brianna Nelson, 17, pointed to her feet, which were sporting new Asics. Two years ago she won a whole watermelon for finishing the Fremont High School annual Watermelon Run as the fastest sophomore girl. This year she said she was feeling good and wanted to win another watermelon. And she did.

Nelson, a member of the school's cross country team, was one of the fastest to finish the 2.1-mile cross country course Sept. 6 at the high school in Sunnyvale.

This was the 25th anniversary of the Watermelon Run at Fremont High School. What began as a race to promote the cross country program at the high school, with watermelons awarded as prizes to entice runners, has grown into the community event it is today. In 1982 there were 30 runners. This year 284 took part, said Pat Lawson, P.E. department chair at Fremont and race organizer for the past 10 years.

"We almost matched last year's record of 296," Lawson said. She was pleased with the diverse group of participants, including students and their families, people pushing strollers and faculty from Cupertino High School. "It was spread out nicely," she said.

The runners all lined up at one end of the football field, across the end zone. Water polo team members wore towels wrapped around their waists. Wrestlers wore their singlets. One girl lined up wearing cowboy boots. Two parents had strollers; two runners each had a dog on a leash.

The school band played the national anthem. Then, at 3:35 p.m., principal Peggy Raun-Linde fired the starter's gun. Water polo players dropped their towels and took off in their Speedo bathing suits. Runners headed down the football field. Then they circled around the track, headed past other playing fields, disappeared from sight at one point then ran back around the track.

The top seed went to Fremont alumnus Kevin Schneider, 18, who finished first overall for the second consecutive year. He took the lead in the first lap, and with an easy, fluid stride, flew around the course, increasing his lead with each step.

Schneider, a sophomore at Stanford University, thought his time of 11:20 was a little slow. He had hoped another fast, young alumnus would be in the race. "When there's no one to compete with, it's hard to run as fast,'' Schneider said.

A group of about 15 teachers from Cupertino High School ran in the race, wearing their "Reach for the Gold" T-shirts celebrating the 50th anniversary of Cupertino High School. Many of the teachers are Fremont High graduates or have taught at their alma mater. One is Jeff Rosado.

"I have close ties with Fremont," said Rosado, 36, who teaches social studies at Cupertino High and graduated from Fremont in 1989.

Rosado won in his category four straight years at the Watermelon Run. He was the overall winner of the race during his senior year.

"Back then it was just a warm-up for cross country," said Rosado, who won a watermelon in this year's race as the fastest runner from outside the Fremont campus.

There are many categories for runners. In addition to fastest boy and girl for each class, there are awards for fastest alumnus, parent, sibling, stroller-pusher, faculty member and department, as well as fastest from another campus. And students are asking for more categories. Everybody, it seems, wants a watermelon.

A water polo player thought there should be a category of fastest in a Speedo. Twin girls who ran thought there should be a category for fastest twins.

While some runners were sporting blisters on their feet, many parents were raising blisters on their fingers as they sliced up dozens of watermelons. Parent Julie Darkish said she hoped they had sharper knives next year. She held up her blistered hands in front of a table heaped three feet high with watermelon slices.

Bill Wishart, 31, the auto shop teacher at Fremont, filled the back of his restored 1950s low-rider truck with bales of hay and watermelons and held a sign advertising fresh watermelon.

"I'm the watermelon guy," said Wishart, dressed in denim overalls and a red plaid shirt, with hay poking out of his pockets.

Wishart graduated from Fremont in 1994 but never ran in the Watermelon Run. "I'm always doing something goofy," he said.

Fremont staff member and alumnus Jose Garcia donated many of the 75 watermelons that were eaten or awarded as prizes, Lawson said.

English teacher Katharine Sims, 40, pushed her two children in a double baby jogger to the starting line. Shannon, 2, and Colin, 4, looked delighted to be a part of the day's events. Soggy parts of the football field made it a tough slog, but Sims won a watermelon as the fastest female pushing a stroller. One man pushed a stroller, but it was a single-baby jogger. He won a watermelon, too.

The Fremont math department took top honors for fastest department, edging out special education, social studies and English.

Lisa Corley came to watch her sons run and to slice watermelon. While the runners were lining up, she had her eye on her son Chris, a junior, who was running in his orange and blue-flowered Speedo. The water polo players had their names and race numbers written on their backs with Sharpie pens.

"This is fun, great fun," she said. "I even considered running, but it's pretty hot."

After the race her 12-year-old son, Matt, was pleased with his finish. "I beat a lot of the high-schoolers,'' said the seventh-grader from Cupertino Middle School. Matt competed in the race as a sibling. His T-shirt read, "I wasn't sleeping, I was thinking hard.''

The Schneiders were the family that probably entered the most runners in the race. Parents Jody and Stan, both 50, were justly proud of their son Kevin, the overall winner. Their entire family runs.

"We got Kevin running when he was 12," Jody said. "But it wasn't long before he was leaving us in the dust." Their 6-year-old son David ran in the race; their daughter plays in the band. "And the dog ran last year, too," Jody said.

Perhaps the person most proud of all was Doug Boyd. Boyd was the school's athletic director when he and Charlie Peters, the cross country coach, organized the first Watermelon Run 25 years ago. The race began as a time-trial for the cross country runners and had a novice division. They added the watermelon prizes "as an incentive to run well," Boyd said. The whole event included 30 "athletes and kids who came out for watermelon," Boyd said.

When Pat Lawson took over in 1994, she expanded the run to make it a school-wide event, inviting staff, parents, alumni, strollers, siblings and dogs.

After the race Boyd surveyed the happy crowd, the kids eating watermelon, the water polo player wearing bunny ears, the team of Cupertino teachers.

"This is fabulous,'' said Boyd. "It's fun for everyone involved."