Huntsville Track Club

BY HAROLD TINSLEY
Vice President Communications/Membership, Huntsville Track Club

The Huntsville Track Club, Inc. (HTC), founded in 1971, is a non-profit, tax exempt, all-volunteer, family-oriented, membership organization located in Huntsville, AL. Each year, the HTC conducts 14 road races, four trail runs, a triathlon, Eurocross race, track meet, a summer cross-country race series, and a one mile series of races for grade school children. For all of the club’s 39 years, it has maintained a close and beneficial working relationship with city government and the support of local media. The many other running events in Huntsville have benefited from the use of club equipment, race expertise and manpower. The club began a Scholarship Fund in 1985 that has awarded scholarships to young club members desiring to further their education and running at the university level. The club also conducts a race to raise funds for the local university track and cross-country program. Funding from other club races has benefited a number of other worthwhile local causes. Over the last few years there has been a significant increase in race participation, club membership is now at an all time high, and the club is in excellent financial shape.

HTC road races range from one mile to the marathon with many events having multiple race distances and most also including a fun run for youngsters. The Cotton Row Run (5K, 10K, One Mile Kids Run and One Mile Memorial Walk) on Memorial Day and Rocket City Marathon in December are national class, prize money races. The marathon and Cotton Row Run 10K have been on the Running Journal Grand Prix since the early 1980s (when it was the Racing South Grand Prix) with Cotton Row the final grand prix race. The HTC has its own successful grand prix now in its 26th year. The club’s trail runs range from a half-marathon to 50 miles, including the Mountain Mist 50K Trail Run, that is one of the biggest mountain trail runs in the Southeast, drawing entrants from 14 states. The Eurocross is both a 5K and 8K based on European style cross-country races, that are run over obstacles and through water/mud crossings. The Summer Cross Country Race series includes a one-, two-, and three- mile cross-country race each Tuesday evening for 12 weeks during the summer. The one-mile Autumn Chase kid’s race is 18 individual races starting on 10 minute intervals for both boys and girls from kindergarten through eighth grade and has no entry fee for the more than 3,000 kids that participate for the coveted t-shirt.

The club and its members have been active supporters of the RRCA since joining the organization in 1974. Members have participated as committee chairmen to holding a number of national offices, including that of President of the RRCA (1983-1986). Seven HTC members have won the RRCA Rod Steele Memorial Award as the outstanding volunteer in the nation, two HTC club presidents have won the RRCA Scott Hamilton Award as the outstanding club president in the nation, a member has won the Browning Ross Spirit of the RRCA Award, the club newsletter was an original winner of the RRCA Journalism Award, and a club member is in the RRCA Hall of Fame. In 1996, the co-directors of the Rocket City Marathon were named Road Race Management Race Director of the Year. A number of members have been inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame, that includes participants from all sports. The club also has a very active annual awards banquet to recognize outstanding performance, volunteerism, and civic organizations that support the club and its races. Over the 39 years of the club’s existence, members have had the opportunity to listen to the wisdom and training knowledge from many of the nations most noted speakers as guests of the club.

The HTC has an extensive group of outstanding ultra marathoners and mountain trail runners that has now brought a new dimension and renewed interest to club runners of all abilities. A club husband-wife team was the top two finishers in 2010 Antarctica Marathon, becoming the male and female winners and the first female to run a sub-four hour marathon on the continent. Not only competing frequently in trail races in the Southeast at distances up to 314 miles, members have run many of the difficult 100 mile mountain trail races in Colorado, the Western States 100 Mile in California, and one member has even completed the 135 mile Badwater Ultramarathon in the July heat from Death Valley to Mount Whitney.

To have your club featured, email story (or info) and photo(s) to bruce.morrison@running.net.

Photos (From Top Left)
1) Start of the Rocket City Marathon
2) HTC Member David Riddle winning the 2009 Rocket City Marathon. Holding the finish tape on the left side is Steve Bolt, who won the first two Rocket City Marathons in 1977 and 1978 as a local track club member, and on the right is co-marathon director Dink Taylor.
3) HTC President David Purinton and WAFF Ch48 News Anchor Liz Hurley standing in front of the newly dedicated patient room with the plaque that reads "This Room is a Gift of the Huntsville Track Club" located inside the new Emergency Department at Huntsville Hospital. The room was a gift of the Huntsville Track Club, which partners with Huntsville Hospital and Huntsville Hospital Foundation on the annual Autumn Chase Run and the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run for breast cancer.
4)HTC member DeWayne Satterfield with Race Director Gary Cantrell right after finishing and setting the record in the 500K (312 mile) trans-Tennessee Vol-State Road Race in 3 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.