The course for the 49th annual Hog Days Stampede has been marked, and the way is cleared for hundreds of runners to take to Kewanee’s streets on the Saturday before Labor Day.
Mark Mikenas, executive director of the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce, said each year there are 500 to 700 entries altogether in the four-mile Stampede, the one-mile race and the “Kids Fun Run” of only a few blocks. Mikenas expects the participation numbers to be in that range this year.
The chamber takes on the task of organizing the race. This involves marking out the racecourse in early August so runners can get an early look at where they’ll be going on race day. Volunteers Jay Cone and Nelson Lay have done that.
The chamber also accepts race entries, hands out T-shirts to all participants and trophies to the winners, provides water for the racers and so on.
Mikenas said interest in participating in the Stampede events peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when more than a thousand people signed up to run. But it’s still a big enough event that hundreds of people will take part. . .and hundreds more will find seats along the parade route where they can watch the race and cheer on the runners.
The four-mile Stampede starts on South Chestnut Street just north of Oak Street, heads south to Page Street and west to where it loops around and comes up West First Street to the finish line in front of the Kewanee YMCA.
As soon as all the runners and walkers have finished the Stampede, the Kids Fun Run is set up on West First Street. Younger kids run one block; the run is three blocks for the older ones.
And the mile race starts in front of the former Masonic lodge on Chestnut Street, heads south to Prospect and over to West Park, then comes back to First Street to finish in front of the YMCA.
“The Stampede is a gathering spot for a lot of people,” Mikenas said.
He said that each year some people register for the run and pay their entry fee, but don’t show up to race, maybe because they don’t feel they have the energy to run four miles.
“Or maybe they just want the T-shirt,” Mikenas said.
