Kentucky fan Steve Cate was fifth overall in Saturday’s 5K in Gatlinburg. (Danielle Cate Photo)
Any time I travel I always look around for a road race of some kind close to the area where I am going.
I’ve been lucky enough to do a 5K at Colonial Williamsburg and one at Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. My travels led to doing a half-marathon in Mt. Airy, N.C. — the town portrayed as Andy Griffith’s hometown in his successful TV show. I ran a 5K in Utah during the NCAA Tournament as well as one in Indianapolis during the 2015 Final Four.
I could go on but that just lays the foundation for why I participated in the Pi Beta Phi PTA Phive-K outside of Gatlinburg Saturday morning. I have done runs in Pigeon Forge and the Cades Cove 10-mile Loop Lope is one of my all-time favorite events but this was my first time to do one in Gatlinburg.
It was a fundraiser for a school located near Anakeesta and Gatlinburg Margaritaville Resort, two of my favorite places. It also gave me a chance to participate in an event with UK super fan Steve Cate, who works at Margaritaville but lives in Talbott, Tenn., about 54 miles away. He recently came to central Kentucky to show his wife, Danielle, a Tennessee fan who is also an Oscar Tshiebwe fan, what Big Blue is all about and even made it to a Kentucky Sports Radio remote at Lee’s Famous Recipe in Danville.
We got lucky and had a gorgeous sunny day. It was cool to run along the highway and gaze the Smoky Mountains. It was also nice to see either current or former students helping along the course and encouraging runners.
Not saying I am fast — because I am not — but I did get FIRST in my age division with a finishing time of 37 minutes, 59 seconds on a course described as “about as flat as it gets around Gatlinburg.” That’s about as good as my time gets now and did place in the upper 50 percent of the 5K finishers.
Cate was a running machine and despite being used to mini marathons (13.1 miles) or more, he looked at ease on the 3.1-mile route and finished FIFTH overall and just beat me by a little over a MILE.
But what made this 5K even better was the race swag. Participants got the traditional T-shirt but your swag bag included candy, a honey stick and get this — a one-day admission to Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg.
After the race you got bananas, granola bars and water but you could also dig into chocolate chip cookies provided by the Doubletree Gatlinburg that would just melt in your mouth.
It gets better. Instead of traditional age division awards, this event went above and beyond. My prize for winning my age division was a gift certificate to the Peddler Steakhouse in Gatlinburg. Other age division winners got similar types of gifts.
Cate got admission to a local water park and along with two passes to another area attraction that he knew would delight his grandchildren.
The real bonus, though, was that Cate brought me some terrific products from Ole Smoky Moonshine. I never knew there were quite so many flavors or even moonshine with pieces of fruit — has to make it healthy, right?
