CROWN POINT | The Hub Run has been acting like the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- of yesteryear.
During the early 1990s, the annual 5K race at the Lake County Fairgrounds sometime flirted turnouts of 800. Subsequent years saw participation dwindle down to less than half of that.
Sunday's race and noncompetitive 2K run/walk was a "bull" run of record-setting proportions.
"Going into today, we had 1,057 signed up," said Carl Zurbriggen of the Southlake YMCA, which holds the event as a fund-raiser to offer memberships and programs for underprivileged families.
"But then came the race-day registration, and we didn't expect the numbers we got from there despite the weather forecast."
Luckily, the race was concluded before a downpour drenched the fairgrounds. Earlier, Erik Forehand, 26, of Crown Point defended his 2008 overall title with a time of 16:31; last year he won with a time of 15:50.
"The course was a little slick, especially the last 250 yards going up that hill," Forehand said. "I haven't won a race recently ... I think the last was last year here."
Forehand is a track and field, and cross-country coach at John Wheeler Middle School in Crown Point. Likewise, the women's overall champion, Lindsay Hattendorf, is the girls track and field, and cross-country coach at Crown Point High School.
"I couple of my girls ran in this," Hattendorf, a 26-year-old from Chesterton, said. "I beat them, but I'm their sprint coach, and they all can out-sprint me."
For the former Indiana University runner, this was her first Hub Run overall title. She has won other local races -- like Hobart's Brickyard Run held on or around the Fourth of July -- and now is gearing up for her first 26.2.
"The most I've ever run is a half-marathon," Hattendorf said. "The next Chicago Marathon will be my first."
Solon Robinson Elementary School in Crown Point won the school-participatory category.
"I think that's what has helped bring more people out," Zurbriggen said of the local school challenge. "That, and this being the first time the race has been part of the (Calumet Region Striders) Gold Cup Series."
