Cascade Run off Redux Commemorates 40th Anniversary of Landmark Road Race With Virtual 15K - Sport Oregon Voices

Sport Oregon Voices:

Original race organizers celebrate their groundbreaking past while supporting current post-collegiate running programs

When Keith Peters reflects on all that has changed in the sport of road racing in the 40 years since his first tour of duty as the race coordinator for the groundbreaking 1981 Cascade Run Off, the list is a bit overwhelming. But the overall impact of the era – specifically with that landmark race 40 years ago – can be reflected in one simple statement.

“It hasn’t always been this way,” Peters said.

Today, professional athletes are allowed to compete in international events. And the pinnacle for competitive runners – the Olympics – is still a possibility, even while supporting their medal dreams as professional road racers.

But that wasn’t always the case – certainly not prior to the Cascade Run Off held in Portland on June 28, 1981.  

Four decades later, race organizers are offering today’s runners the chance to connect with one of the sport’s signature historic events while helping to support current elite road racers with the Cascade Run Off Redux, a virtual 15k event. The Cascade Run Off Redux is being organized by three individuals who played key roles in the landmark 1981 event, including Peters; Chuck Galford, the co-founder and president of the Run Off Race Committee; and Don Kardong, who served as the president of the Association of Road Racing Athletes (ARRA).

Runners who sign up for the virtual race will receive a t-shirt replicating the original 1981 design while helping to support programs of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), an organization that assists post-collegiate runners. The cost of the Cascade Run Off Redux is $40, with at least $20 of each entry going directly to the RRCA’s RunPro Camp and Rhodes Scholar program. These programs provide vital revenue and vocational onboarding resources for aspiring post-collegiate runners and elite Olympic hopefuls.

“We thought this is a good chance to do something fun and raise some funds for programs that are important to young, professional athletes,” Peters said.   

The 1981 Cascade Run Off represented a sea change in the running world, with many of the sport’s top athletes, for the first time, effectively challenging amateur rules that prevented them from receiving prize money and related professional compensation for their participation in race events. There had been growing momentum amongst the athletes, who were becoming increasingly organized in their efforts to challenge the status quo amateur provisions, and a developing network of race organizers and associations interested in the possibilities, resulting in the formation of the ARRA. These conversations were further advanced by the United States’ boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Russia.

Previously, in one of the worst-kept secrets around, some top runners received appearance fees under the table for their participation, while still preserving their amateur status and, ultimately, their Olympic pursuits. But this left the majority of runners – including the tier 1B and tier 2 athletes – out in the cold when it came down to balancing their commitment to the sport and simply supporting themselves financially through outside jobs, which oftentimes precluded their continued development as athletes.

Previously, Jordache sponsored a couple of one-off races that awarded prize money, but most of the top runners declined to participate. It was imperative to the athletes that if they were going to make this bold leap to challenge the system and work to professionalize the sport, that there be a sustainable path with a network of similar race opportunities.

“In all these conversations, there were a half a dozen races that had said, when the athletes are ready, when the time is right, we’ll form a circuit of races for these athletes,” Peters said. “Because the athletes needed assurance that they weren’t just going to jump into a one-off race and then get suspended, or not have other places to go down the same path.”

Once plans were in place – and with Nike contributing an additional $50,000 for prize money – the 1981 Cascade Run Off served as the first event of this pioneering new circuit. It initially started with six races, as Peters recalls, and eventually grew to a dozen or so races at its height.

Certainly, these were exciting times. But with all of the uncertainty involved with this new endeavor, it’s understandable that tension filled the air in the lead-up to the Cascade Run Off that year. After all, there was a lot at stake, not the least of which was the very future of the sport.

“There was a lot of indecision, a lot of angst, even leading up to the start of the event on race day,” Peters said. “It was a big deal for the athletes, more than anybody else, because potentially it could be the last race of their career.”

As further evidence of the uncertainty, participants chose a variety of ways they felt would be effective in navigating this brave new landscape. Some leaned on the establishment of a trust to deposit any prize winnings into. Some ran the race on the sidewalks in an unofficial capacity. Others refused compensation period, to hopefully retain their amateur status in the eyes of governing bodies. In short, no one really knew how it would all shake out, but felt it was important nonetheless. Further, a real concern existed that all participants in the race were putting themselves at risk of spoiling their amateur status by the enforcement threat of Rule 53, better known as “the contamination rule.” Effectively this could potentially compromise the future eligibility of all of the thousands of runners, by virtue of their participation in this event that included professionals.

The contamination rule was not enforced, but it came as little surprise that all competitors who won prize money received suspensions for their participation. The top three women finishers were all from New Zealand, and each was immediately suspended by their federation. None of the suspended athletes were permanently banned, though, and most, according to Peters, didn’t miss a beat in their continued development.

It was uncharted territory, but in the end it was a courageous and worthwhile endeavor that served as one of the sport’s signature moments, while at the same time laying the foundation for further changes that were to come in the way amateur and professional athletics were viewed. It led to steady rule changes that allowed open competition to road racing, while helping to lay the foundation for all international events to be open for professional athletes.

“I think it’s a story about the evolution of the sport,” Peters said. “There’s always been lots of conversations when the amateur running track and field world went professional; it opened doors that many say led to having professional basketball players in the Olympics in 1992.

“It began this whole change of redefining how people made a living in sports.”

If You Want to Participate

To register for the Cascade Run Off Redux, click here. Registration ends on July 4 at 11:59 p.m. For more information on the Road Runners Club of America, click here.