The Kirk Goodwin Run leadership team cancelled the half-marathon portion of the race because of construction on Westlake Road. The traditional 5K race will still take place April 23.
Troy Osborn, co-director of KGR this year, said the team was contacted by ACUPD late last week and notified of the construction along a major part of the route.
“There’s no way we could run on that road,” said Osborn, senior accounting major from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Osborn said the race could have been re-routed, but that would have meant the route wouldn’t be certified.
“It takes months to get on the certification schedule and $5,000 to get certified, so we didn’t want to waste the money having a second route,” he said.
Forty-one runners were signed up to run the half marathon, but after being notified of the cancellation this week, Osborn said many of them will still participate in the 5K.
“Some were upset because they had been training a lot, but most have been understanding, and a good number are going to switch and run the 5K,” Osborn said.
The KGR leadership team said 90 participants have registered for the race so far, and registration will remain open as race day gets closer.
This year marks the 34th run in memory of Kirk Goodwin, a member of Galaxy who was killed in a car accident in 1984. Since then, Galaxy members have honored Goodwin’s legacy with the KGR, donating the proceeds of the race each year to a family with significant medical expenses.
The proceeds of the race are going the family of McKenzie Fleming, a 13-year-old from Keller who has been in the hospital most of her life. The run is also dedicated to recent ACU alumnus Cason Ford, who was diagnosed with leukemia in the fall.
Osborn said, to him, KGR means helping families and encouraging the ACU community to give back.
“I really like historically what KGR has done,” Osborn said. “You have the stories like the family we are helping out this year. And even if we give them less than $10,000, they don’t care. The call we made saying, ‘Hey we want to support y’all,’ probably does more than the money we’ll actually give them because of the encouragement.”
Brian Lang, senior accounting major from Abilene said he appreciates the focus on giving to different families each year.
“I think it’s very personal because it does change every year who they’re going to give it to,” Lang said.
The KGR team will sell shirts and register runners for the 5K in the Campus Center starting Wednesday. Additionally, the KGR team has opened a contest to design a Snapchat GeoFilter for the race weekend, and the student with the winning design will receive a free shirt and free entry in the race.
Osborn said he wants to see even more campus-wide involvement in this year’s KGR and future runs.
“I think the type of growth KGR can have is something that can be an ACU thing that the student body can really come together on,” he said.
