News
Mar 15
Notebook: Eikenburg run a family affair
By PATTI MUCK, March 15, 2001, Houston Chronicle
As the only major 8K (4.96 miles) race on the Houston-area racing calendar, the March 24 annual Law Week run is unique. Renamed the John J. Eikenburg Fun Run in 1998 shortly after the death of its founder, it also is a race that has become an annual tradition for many Houston lawyers as well as the founder's family.
When runners line up at Sam Houston Park for the 8 a.m. start, five Eikenburgs plan to either walk or run the distance.
"We participate in it because it's a fun way to remember him and his commitment to the community," said John Eikenburg Jr., 30, the race founder's son and a lawyer with Bracewell & Patterson.
John J. Eikenburg was president of the Houston Bar Association in 1986 when he told the association's executive director, Kay Sim, that he wanted to start a fun run that benefited a Houston charity. They chose the Center for the Retarded Inc., a nonprofit corporation offering people with mental retardation programs to provide education, job training, socialization, community living and health care. This year, the total amount contributed to Center for the Retarded in the race's 16-year history will top $500,000, said Sim.
John Eikenburg Jr. was in high school at the time, but he remembers why his father -- who was not a runner -- wanted to launch a fun run.
"His whole mission that year was to get attorneys involved in the community," said Eikenburg Jr. "I think attorneys often have a negative image, and he wanted to have them participate in the community as much as possible so people could see them as interacting and involved.
"It was all part of his effort to show that attorneys in Houston care about their community and are committed to helping out the community."
The idea caught on, and many lawyers fill the running and walking ranks each year, with nearly 100 percent participation by the 15 voting members of the Houston Bar Association Board, said Sim.
The race founder's wife, Elizabeth, will walk with the family's dog Missy -- short for Misdemeanor -- said her son. His sisters, Ensley and Huntley Eikenburg, will travel to Houston from New York City for the race. And John J. Eikenburg's mother, Margaret, now in her 80s, will come to the Bayou City from Dallas.
"She encourages everyone at the finish line," said John Eikenburg Jr. Although he is a longtime runner, he said he's now demoted himself to a jogger and likes the 5K distance better than the 8K. But he said that as long as his and his family members' schedules permit, they'll participate in the spring tradition named after his father.
The event includes a 7:30 a.m. 1-mile children's run and a 7:50 a.m. 8K wheelchair race. A 1-mile family walk follows the 8 a.m. main race at 8:30 a.m. The John J. Eikenburg 8K is the fourth in the Houston Area Road Runners Association 2001 Spring Challenge.
Registration and packet pickup is set for 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, at the Center for the Retarded Inc., Cullen Residence Hall, 3550 West Dallas near Shepherd and Allen Parkway. Race-day registration runs from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. at Sam Houston Park, 1100 Bagby. For more information, call 713-759-1133.
St. Patrick's Day Saturday -- St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be the same without some fun runs on tap. The St. Patrick's Church 5K starts at 8 a.m. at 4918 Cochran. It includes a wheelchair race and a walk. For more information, call the church at 713-695-0631.
Also scheduled for Saturday is the 16th annual Houston Eye Associates Lookin' Good 5K, which kicks off at 7:30 a.m. at Holcombe and Brompton. It also includes a wheelchair 5K, a Kids K and a 5K run and walk. Call 713-558-8760 for more information.
Rare midweek race -- There's a rare midweek race on the calendar Wednesday, and it's the third race in HARRA's 2001 Spring Challenge. The March 21 LP Run takes place at the St. Thomas High School track. Runners need a scoring partner and will run as fast and as far as they can for 33 1/3 minutes -- around and around like an old record. It's a unique annual event that features a limerick competition. For more information, call 713-840-0300.
Patti Muck covers running for the Chronicle. Her notebook appears on Thursdays. Leave a message or fax her at 281-344-8978 or send e-mails to runningnotes@aol.com. Click here to see original article.
