In 1982, the area in east Denver upstream from Cherry Creek just past the Denver Country Club was mostly a quiet patch of land outside the city center. There were no pricey condos, no trendy shops, no parking pains.
But there were runners. Enough runners to start what would become Denver’s best-attended running race, the Cherry Creek Sneak.
Now, with the 25th annual Cherry Creek Sneak set to start Sunday, the race has become a nationally renowned kickoff to Colorado’s running season.
There’s nothing like an anniversary to surface some memories. Organizers put out a call for runners to display their collections of old shirts. (A risky request if ever there was one. How ragged and rank do your running shirts get before they’re tossed?)
And, when put together, the old race logos are like looking at the concentric rings of a redwood tree — the style of each one belies its age. That teal-tinged logo? So mid-1990s.
Already, a woman was found who has stitched an entire quilt of old Sneak shirts. With 25 different designs available, a sizable quilt should be possible.
This silver-sneakered Sneak will draw numbers in the tens of thousands, with a 5-mile elite run, a 5-mile run/walk, a 5K, a 1-mile student sprint and a half-mile fun run. All ages and abilities are welcome.
Check for information about parking, maps, schedules, amenities and results after the race.
Weak in Review
So much for karma. Victor Conte, the once-jailed former owner of BALCO who was involved in a massive illegal steroids ring and one of pro sports’ most talked-about drug scandals, is back in business. His new venture, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning- SNAC for short- sells a new weightlifting powder for athletes, Barry Bonds included. Conte reportedly is pulling in about $300,000 a month with his new product.
What We’d Like to See
Dear Matt Millen: Please quit screwing up everybody’s NFL draft. The Detroit Lions’ president reportedly turned down a Broncos trade offer that would have given the Lions picks in the first, second and third rounds, plus a first-round pick in 2008, in exchange for this year’s No. 2 pick overall. If you’re the Lions, and your draft philosophy is to throw darts, blindfolded, at a board and hope something hits, then four more first-day darts would certainly increase the success rate. But that would have been too easy for the Lions.
The Couch
ON: Broadcasting the two-day NFL draft on two networks, for more than 20 hours apiece and in high definition, is the very meaning of overkill. It’s like writing a 20-volume encyclopedia about ceiling tiles. But ESPN and the NFL Network will forge ahead anyway, with full-on, behind-the-scenes, analyzed-to-death coverage Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ESPN2 will pick up for ESPN on Saturday at 7 p.m. Consider yourself a true football superfan, for better or worse, if you can actually sit through 20 hours of draft coverage.
OFF: The 25-mile route in Hart Canyon — not far from the Four Corners area, in Aztec, N.M., northeast of Farmington — that will serve as the seventh Alien Run Mountain Bike Competition on Sunday at 10 a.m. is no ordinary path. The course circles the alleged 1948 UFO crash site that gives its name to the race. And the race benefits nearby Aztec Library. Check azteclibrary.org for more information.
Around the State
That the Colorado Eagles let the Oklahoma City Blazers force a Game 7 in a best-of-seven Central Hockey League conference semifinal series after leading 3-1 is a tad alarming. That the Eagles cruised by the Blazers 5-1 on Wednesday, including scoring two goals within 15 seconds in the first period, makes up for it. The Eagles are the best remaining team in the CHL playoffs and will take on the Memphis RiverKings in the Northern Conference finals beginning tonight at 7 at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland. It will be the Eagles’ third consecutive conference finals appearance. They won the CHL championship in 2005.