The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
500 runners, $19,000 raised for Living Journeys
by Than Acuff
The volunteers came out in droves, the town opened its arms and the fog lifted as 500 runners of all ages and abilities toed the line on Saturday, September 30 for the inaugural Emma Coburn Elk Run 5k.
To say it was a success would be an understatement.
It was a frantic lead-up for Emma Coburn and her fiancée, Joe Bosshard, who along with Joel Vosburg have been putting in massive time to organize and plan the event. In addition, both Coburn and Bosshard had to fit in their bachelor/bachelorette parties the week before the race.
“Thank God we had enough adrenaline to do the Elk Run,” says Coburn.
Ultimately, Coburn touts the efforts of the gang of volunteers both the days before the race and during the day of the event to put the finishing touches on what was a perfect day.
“We really relied heavily on friends and family to volunteer,” says Coburn. “Shari Sullivan-Marshall and Living Journeys rallied volunteers and we had a lot of great people in the community help us.”
The race was capped at 500 and Coburn readily admits they picked that number at random.
“We just made up that number because we thought it was an appropriate number of hats to order,” jokes Coburn. “We also didn’t want to overextend our sponsors or ourselves.”
As the weeks passed between the announcement of the event and the day of the event, the 500-runner cap looked out of reach and they were perfectly happy to draw fewer, only to have the race fill up in the final week.
