The "Springtime" races began in 1976 as the Gulf National Bank Fitness Run. Its success was due, in large part, to the efforts and sponsorship of Dennis Fitzgerald and Gulf National Bank. It took place on the campus of Florida State University (FSU) and was a four-mile race consisting of two loops around the athletic fields.
George West and Donnie Cook, then track stars at FSU, tied for first place in 20:30. There were other familiar names among the leaders as Tim Simpkins, and Herb Wills finished third and fourth, respectively. The women's title was won by Janice Gage (now Janice Hochstein), who would win several more women's Springtime titles over the years. Leitch Wright won the 40-49 age division, and during the early years of Springtime, he dominated what would be known as the Master's division.
The following year a number of factors combined to form the first Springtime Tallahassee 10K. First, Gulf National Bank was merging with Lewis State Bank. Fortunately, Dennis Fitzgerald stayed with the surviving bank, which was located on South Monroe Street. Jeff Galloway, one of the founders of Gulf Winds Track Club (GWTC), had envisioned a road race finishing downtown with the governor presenting the winner's trophy. While he did not stay around to see it happen, others such as Andy Burns took up Galloway's cause. Initially, Andy Burns, the Club's leader and the director of the race (there was no office of president at that time), had little success. "I spoke with the Springtime Tallahassee Festival people (about the possibility of a race), and I got the cold shoulder," he recalled. His luck with gaining police permission for a downtown race was no better.
But in 1977, circumstances became more favorable. Jim Penrod, a local doctor, was president of the more formally organized running club. Dennis Fitzgerald and Gulf National Bank was very interested in achieving downtown status for the race. The three men got together, and the idea for the Springtime 10K was born. Doors that had been closed suddenly opened, the Track Club had its big race downtown, and Fitzgerald had a race that started and ended at the front steps of Lewis State Bank, which would pick up official sponsorship by 1978.
The inaugural 10K would have 205 finishers, representing the second-largest field in a local road race to that date. (The Budweiser 5K, the previous October, had 317 finishers.) The 1977 race marked Jim Penrod's debut as race director, a position he would hold for the 10K's first five years. The original 10K route was supposed to include the hill on the southwest part of Myers Park Drive, where it crosses the railroad tracks. However, on the Saturday before the race, a freight train was sighted crossing the race course at approximately the same time as the lead runners would be coming back down the Myers Park hill the following weekend. Jim had to do some last-minute course alterations, and he recalls that "John Borden (a Club member and friend) and I were still measuring the new route at 2 a.m. the night before the race!"
But the course measurement did get completed, and the next morning when Canada's Morrison Reid crossed the finish line nearly a minute ahead of his nearest competitor, he became the first of many out-of-town runners to win an overall men's or women's title. In fact, the 1977 race was a sweep for non-Tallahasseeans as Nancy McCormac of Fort Walton Beach won the overall women's race. Nick Costes, from Troy, Alabama, and Virginia Reinhardt of Ashburn, Georgia, both in the 50 & over age group, had the fastest men's and women's masters times. Neither received overall Master's awards because the first Master's Cup was not presented until the 1983 race. Reid's excellent winning effort of 31:24 proved to be the fastest 10K time until the course was changed in 1983.
In 1978, the race gained in both prestige and numbers. The added prestige came in the form of Governor Reubin Askew, who made an appearance on the steps of Lewis State Bank to present George West with the winner's Governor's Cup trophy. And the numbers more than doubled from the previous year to 489 finishers. This growth trend continued through the 1980 race when the Tallahassee Democrat reported that "over 700" runners turned out.
Jim Penrod retired after the 1981 race, and long-time GWTC member Don Wilson took over the directorship. Under Don, the race took another quantum leap forward. The 1982 edition had 1,025 entered and over 1,000 finishers. Wilson also gave the volunteer force a tremendous boost, enlisting the aid of 100 race workers. George West made his third trip to the winner's circle in 1982, after providing an exciting finish on Monroe Street. His 32:11 held off Gainesville's Ernie McKee by 4 seconds. "It was a good race against Ernie," said George, "but I'll never forget how bad I was hurting the year before (when he was out-kicked by Mabry McCray in the last quarter mile). I was sprinting hard, really maxed out, but Mabry's kick was incredible. He just took off."
As the race continued to grow, so did the problems. Springtime Tallahassee, Inc. had never had much to do with the road race in the early years. The one exception was the year it protested to race organizers that the race's T-shirt logo looked too much like the official festival logo. However, as the race entry numbers increased significantly in the mid-1980s, so did the festival committee's interest in the run.
At that time, the race finished on Monroe Street, but conflicts with festival organizers ultimately led to a finish in 1983 on Calhoun Street after struggling up Gaines Street and Calhoun Street. The 1983 race nearly outdid its immediate predecessor in size with a record 1,100 entries. However, race day dawned rainy, and the 300 no-shows set another record. Nonetheless, the race was still "big and fast" as Noel Shumann won a very competitive contest over Chris Lingle, a research biologist at FSU. Janice Gage won an unprecedented fourth overall women's title, while Dennis Barton took home the first Masters Cup. Gail Reinertsen led all-female masters across the line.
Although Shumann's 1983 winning time of 31:21 had set a very respectable standard for the new 10K course, the 1984 race was a real barnburner, with records being set everywhere. In what was the finest Springtime men's field before or since, Larry Greene ran a sizzling 30:03 to triumph over Herb Wills (30:20) and Paul Waldron (30:28). All Wills remembered seeing was Greene's back. "Larry pulled away, going up the hills into Myers Park," recalled Herb, "and it didn't seem quite fair for a South Floridian to be doing that!" The women's race was also fast and even closer, as Carla Borovicka outduelled Margaret Coomber by six seconds to win in a time of 35:57. The Master's division also saw records fall, as Sam Turnbull and Patti Sudduth became the first 40+ runners to break 36 and 40 minutes, respectively.
Unfortunately, all these fine times were fated to have an asterisk associated with them because when GWTC measurement specialist John Hesselbart certified the new course for the 1985 race, it was found to have been approximately sixty yards short for the preceding two years.
The 1985 race marked the return of Don Wilson as race director. Tec Thomas had taken over in 1984 when other commitments caused Don to step down temporarily. Now a certified 10K, the course was longer, but it didn't slow the runners down much. Paul Waldron avenged his defeat from the previous year by winning in a swift 30:30. Carole Rouillard, a national-class Canadian runner, also set a course record, winning the women's open division in 35:32.
The 1986 race marked Karen MacHarg's Springtime Tallahassee debut. The former Venezuelan Athlete of the Year (from Bryan, Ohio) won the open women's division in 37:16. Meanwhile, the University of Pittsburgh's Dennis Rice used his spring break to good advantage, taking the men's title in 31:15. A pair of Tallahassee racing veterans visited the winner's circle in 1987 as FSU alumnus Jessie Close breezed to a 31:52 victory and Carla Borovicka won her second Springtime title, this time setting a course record of 35:30 at that time.
When 1987 race director Tim Kelly decided to become a responsible graduate student the following year, Joe Dexter obligingly substituted for him. The 1988 race saw Paul Waldron easily cruises to his second title. Waldron was turning the race into his personal domain; he won again in 1989, and the average winning margin for his three victories was an incredible 63 seconds. Karen MacHarg also rejoined the winner's circle in 1988, adding to her 1986 open title, while Mae Cleveland won her second consecutive masters victory.
The 1989 Springtime 10K featured over 900 starters, the return of a champion from yesteryear, and the best weather in the event's history. With temperatures before the race in the high fifties, it was, in the words of returning race director Tim Kelly, "a picture-perfect Tallahassee spring morning."
Janice (Gage) Hochstein ran a strong 37:54 and picked up her fifth Springtime win. The 1989 run also saw Karen MacHarg switch from open champion to masters champ, setting a 40+ record of 38:45 in the process. In addition, Bill McGuire set a master's record of 34:48 in winning his second consecutive title.
From 1990 until 2000, the race saw a variety of race directors and a continuing array of impressive times. Lloyd Cline (2 times), Ray Scott, Tim Simpkins, Charlie Yates, Rex and Mae Cleveland, Jeff Doherty (2 times), and Paul Hiers (3 times) all took a turn at the helm. During this time, Jessie Close won the race four times adding to his win in 1987. His fastest time was 31:48 in 1990. Paula Johnson (1991,1992,1993), Jane Johnson (1995, 1996) and Sarah Doctor-Williams (1999) all had impressive wins during this time span, but the course record was set by Breeda Dennehy in 1998 with a stellar time of 34:09.
In 2001, Tom Perkins and Jeanne O’Kon grabbed the reins of Springtime and directed the race for the next six years. During their tenure, Capital Health Plan came on board as the race sponsor and continued through 2019. The number of race finishers remained relatively stable during that time with 634 10K finishers for a low and 732 for a high.
Judy Alexander and Brian Corbin became the race directors in 2007 and immediately saw a record number of runners cross the finish line. There were 1,192 finishers, 867 in the 10K and 325 in the 1-mile. From there they went on to add a 5K race in 2008 which triggered another jump in the total number of finishers. To date, the largest number of finishers in a Springtime race occurred in 2011 when 1,877 runners finished the 10K, 5K or 1-mile races.
In 2014, Sean and Amanda Hudson took over and directed the race for the next four years before turning it over to Zack and Rachel Scharlepp in 2018. The Scharlepp Family got in two good years of Springtime before the pandemic hit and COVID shut down in-person racing.
In the absence of a race director, 2022’s race was ‘Directed By Committee”, with Mary Jean Yon coordinating a variety of Board and Non-Board GWTC members to form committees to take on the variety of tasks evolved in putting on the race. The race went off in fine fashion, with all races complete and the awards given out just ahead of some pretty significant thunder storms! The downtown activities such as the parade and arts and crafts in the park were not as fortunate.
Jerry and Jackie McDaniel have taken over race directing duties for 2023 and 2024 with registrations around 1200 runners. NOTE: Special thanks to Bill McGuire for his help in compiling the early years of this history.