Niagara Falls 5K Experience Back on Top
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We're happy to report that the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club "Run in the Mist" 5K run on June 24 was a great success. A beautiful Western New York midsummer's evening in downtown Niagara Falls saw 105 runners, an excellent turn-out for a weeknight, compete for prizes and then gather on Old Falls Street for dinner and refreshments, all to benefit the Boys and Girls Club, whose mission "is to provide appropriate and diversified programs and activities that serve to attract and hold area youth to the Clubhouse. We provide environments that teach children the skills needed to build positive lives, attitudes, and behaviors" through mentoring, drop-in, sports, tech skills and other impactful programs. The event was a huge improvement over the May 16 Downtown Niagara Falls Business Association race that pulled a bait-and-switch at the last minute, substituting a shortened alternative route without informing runners. Subsequently, the sanctioning body USA Track and Field withdrew certification of the race, resulting in the invalidation of all runners' times. We first became suspicious of the DNFBA race when City Council chairman Andy "Feet don't fail me now" Touma posted a time far surpassing his personal best, as did several other runners. Indeed, Chairman Touma (aka "Crazy Legs") finished the DNFBA "Run With the Rapids" in a blistering 25:19. We spotlighted his unlikely performance in our expose', not to judge him or others, but to make our point about the race. However, in finishing the "Mist" 5K a month later in 24:15, surpassing his previous time in the fudged "Rapids" 5K by over a minute, for some reason he took it as a kind of vindication. "Put that in your newspaper, Hufnagel!" he remonstrated with this puffing and wheezing writer, moments after we both crossed the finish line last week.
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