Great Race combines athletics with community

For Casey Tarasi, the antics of the annual Great Race often overshadow the arduous task of running 6.2 miles.

There’s the man who stands on his porch and screams battle cries through a siren, the guy who competes while carrying an 80-foot-tall American flagand the volunteers who dish out free food at the finish line.

“Little things like that really help you along the way. You’ll be chuckling over a sign, and little do you realize that you ran a half of a mile, and it’s like you didn’t even feel it,” Tarasi, who’s competed for the past six years, said.

The gratifying smiley cookies at the finish line are also a source of pleasure for Tarasi.

“Can’t forget those,” Tarasi said. “That’s the best part of the race for some people.”

On Sept. 27, the 38th annual Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race will bring nearly 17,000 runners together for 5K and 10K competitions.Organized by Citiparks — Pittsburgh’s parks and recreation department — the event includes the tenth-largest 10K competition in the country, as well as a 5K contest that places in the top 30.

The 5K and 10K races will span parts of Squirrel Hill, Oakland and Downtown.The 10K course starts at Frick Park, then goes past the CMU and Pitt campuses and down the Boulevard of the Allies, finishing at Point State Park.The 5K follows the same path, but begins on Fifth and Atwood — right outside Litchfield Towers. Police will block traffic from these sections from 6:30 to 11:00 a.m.

For some runners, being able to see Pittsburgh’s skyline from different perspectives than they normally would is their favorite part of the event.

Sean Donnelly, who lives in Crafton, ran the Great Race three times when he was in high school, participating in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 5K competitions. Now a senior at Edinboro University, Donnelly hopes to run the 10K this year. The course’s scenery and the finish line commotion drive his desire to compete again.

“I liked when you go past Duquesne [University], and you have a good, high view of the city as you come running down Boulevard of the Allies,” he said. “It’s a real rush compared to doing cross country in high school — you always had ten people max cheering [at the finish line], then all of a sudden you got a couple hundred people at the end.”

For Donnelly — who’s also a fan of the cathartic smiley cookies —  the Great Race is also an opportunity to see how his race time compares to that ofPittsburgh’s best runners. Last year’s 10K winner, Jim Spisak, finished with a time of 28:42 — about a minute shy of 2012’s Olympic qualifying standard. Although Donnelly doesn’t expect to compete with Spisak’s time, he hopes to at least finish near the top of his age group, as he did in the 2010 competition.

“You know that a lot of the best — especially local — runners in Pittsburgh come out to it,” Donnelly said. “When you get to see your ranking and everything, you know that it’s the best of Pittsburgh.”

Although the event attracts competitive long-distance runners, Brian Katze — the event’s race director — said the run is ultimately a family-friendly, community occasion.

“We bill ourselves as an everyman’s race, with 5K and 10K distances that people of all ability levels can compete in,” Katze said. “Everyone looks forward to it to the point where they mark it on their calendars every year. We’ve got grandparents walking with their grandkids, and parents walking with their kids — it’s part of Pittsburgh culture.”

Citiparks will hold a kids-focused event the day before the Great Race, where every childwill earn a medal for completing one of the day’s several races at Point State Park. Highmark will also host a free exposition that weekend at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where competitors can interact with each other before the Great Race.

While many runners come for the competition and the community atmosphere, the event also brings a large economic benefit to Pittsburgh.

According to Kevin Smith, the owner of Elite Runners & Walkers — a Pittsburgh-area fitness retailer that also provides timing services for races — local businesses and public services benefit from the competition.

“We’re doing training programs 10 weeks prior to [The Great Race],” said Smith, who will also sell running equipment as a vendor at Highmark’s exposition. He also mentioned that healthcare providers see an increase in business from overworked runners, and that more police officers are hired to provide safety on race day.

As for Tarasi, he gives himself a simple goal every year — beat last race’s time. Even if he doesn’t improve upon his sub-42-minute personal 10K record, Tarasi is looking forward to continuing what’s been a family tradition since his dad started running the Great Race in the 1970s.

“It really feels like the city’s there — if they’re not in the race, they’re there cheering you on. [pull quote]Rarely do you see dead spots along the course. It’s pretty great involvement from everybody around,” Tarasi said.