The 5-kilometer Big Bear fun run at Menlo-Atherton High School begins at 9 a.m. sharp on Sunday, May 4, and will wind from the Ringwood Avenue side of the campus into Atherton, through the shady Lindenwood neighborhood, and back to Coach Parks football field on campus.
Tickets for the 3.1-mile race are $15 for students 18 and younger, and $25 for adults. Medals will go to winners in the different age groups.
To register online at www.active.com, enter “big bear” into the search box, click on the link for 2008 M-A run, and follow instructions. A blank registration form is available at www.m-aboosters.org.
Race-day registration begins at 8 a.m. on May 4, on the Ringwood Avenue side of the school at 555 Middlefield Road in Atherton.
T-shirts and racing bibs are scheduled to be handed out near the M-A gymnasiums on Thursday, May 1, from 1:30 to 3 p.m., and Friday, May 2, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Proceeds from the race will help pay for uniforms, equipment and upgrades to M-A’s athletic facilities. The race is being put on by the M-A Boosters, which expects to raise close to $60,000 this year, says race spokeswoman Kim Young.
Of more than 100 commercial and family sponsors of the race, the leading sponsors are Orrick, an international law firm based in San Francisco and the municipal bond counsel for the Sequoia Union High School District; Demandtec, a San Carlos-based business-software firm; the Herbst Foundation based in San Francisco; and the Falkenhagen family, Ms. Young says.
Scheduled entertainment includes the M-A dance team and pep band and M-A vocalist Holly Smolick singing the national anthem. An honoree this year will be athletic director and girls’ varsity basketball coach Pam Wimberley, who recently marked her 600th victory with the M-A Bears, Ms. Young says.
Bicycle racer MaryAnn Levenson and M-A industrial arts teacher Mark Leeper, who regularly commutes on his bike from San Carlos, will lead the racers through the flat course, Ms. Young says. Ms. Levenson is still recovering from being run over and severely injured by a drunken driver in December 2006.
The race is popular with alumni, with local middle-school children, and sometimes Stanford University students, says race co-chair Darci Wentz.
Breakfast food such as coffee cake, coffee and water will be provided free of charge, as will warm-up assistance by personal trainers from the Axis Performance Center in Menlo Park and chiropractic adjustments from Peak Chiropractic, also in Menlo Park.
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