It's the simplest form of meditation.

It's breathing.

It's back to the breath every day.

When you go for a run, it reminds you that you are alive.

You are a living, breathing thing because that's the one fundamental thing you have to do and nothing else matters.

As a child, that's, you know, my earliest memories of running are from, you know, races with the Chattanooga track club produced shortly before the Chattanooga track club formed a group of these interested bodies of runners decided to form at the Kirkman High School and they would do a couple of lap around the track and they were like, All right, we're going to we're going to do this race.

And the very first Chattanooga chase in 1968 was out in back on Amnicola Highway.

It is currently the oldest still in existence race that the track the Chattanooga track club put on.

They got together as a group like on a Saturday and didn't did their runs but they all had jobs so you would have president of the bank.

One guy was a farmer out in Ooltewah and it didn't matter.

And it doesn't matter now who you run, where you are.

It just brings people together.

But I had a lot of energy as a child, a lot of energy.

So I'm not what you call a gifted runner.

It takes dedication and discipline.

And I have discipline and dedication.

Suzanne is an she's an amazing woman.

And if you go back and look at archival race results, you're going to see her in everything.

It's fun to look at.

I mean, I hadn't looked at this in two years and I'm going through wow.

I mean, to see like Tim Ensign.

I think he was fifteen when he was running all these races.

And I remember him when he was fifteen.

Skinny little kid.

Still at it again, slower every day.

But I still still love running.

Dick Dillard, who was the original owner of the Fast break, was my neighbor.

He got me running and I just always liked it.

That accomplishment of winning this race is is is huge for me.

Going into seventh grade, I was in the kitchen watching the '76 Montreal Olympics with my mom.

We were watching the marathon and I looked at her.

I said, Mom, I think I can do this.

I look like those guys.

Running is is a sport, but it's also a way of life.

You can achieve whatever you want to achieve with it.

You know, in the in the late sixties and early seventies, the running boom happened in the in the country, right?

Not just Chattanooga but everywhere was which huge races were tremendous.

There's a picture here of a thousand runners at this race.

It was one of those things where you get to go see your buddies.

There were no social media you had you waited all week long to go to the race to see all these all these friends of yours and compete.

And then you got really excited to open the paper up the next day to see what the result was.

And then running kind of started to fade off.

It wasn't about racing as much anymore, it was more about fitness.

As the Chattanooga Chase aged, the popularity of the race shrank, going from a thousand plus runners in early years to barely over 100 runners.

And the race was on the verge of extinction About six years ago.

The track club came and said.

Would you guys be interested in directing a race?

We said yes about six years ago and started looking at the archives, started looking at what the original course looked like, started looking at problems with the race, and then the first year we had nearly 500 folks show back up and that was the first time since I was a since my younger days that I had felt that feeling that I forgot.

that that I knew what running and racing and being together was about.

What we want to do this time is we want to beat the all time record, right?

Which is around a thousand folks.

We want to have.

We want to put a thousand folks in Riverview.

Those guys are out there at 430 or 5:00 in the morning doing the the set up, you know, the course markings, the track club does the race day registration and packet pick up that morning, which is crucial, setting all that up and getting people going.

Registered folks, folks that registered before today head over to the pavilion to get your packet, pick up information.

Since Alan Outlaw took over the chase, he's been the best.

How many times you done the Chase Greg?

Ever since I met Alan I was hooked.

We this is a Brandon Hudgins he's from High Point, North Carolina he is the current record holder.

He broke the record last year.

After 38 years, he's back again to hang out.

We're pleased to have him.

You know I think as long as the is Alan and fast break I want to keep or behind it it'll it'll be successful but not to put any pressure on him but.

How you guys doing this morning?

Can you see by the dawn's early light what's so.

His.

At the twighlight's last gleaming I'm out on the course somewhere whether that be at an aid station or whether I'm at an intersection kind of directing traffic.

But the main thing is I usually walk away from that race.

Losing my voice and my hands are usually sore.

So it's a really great energy.

It's always awesome to be surrounded by athletes.

It gives you that extra boost that you need and everybody is super nice and everybody is really encouraging each other, which is fantastic.

It's always great.

And it's a very unique course.

You run through Riverview and it's as beautiful.

It's got long winding roads.

It's very it's very interesting to run on because of the shade there.

It's very challenging.

There is a particular there's a couple particular hills, but one in particular, Minakhada, which is this three quarters of a mile or a half a mile hill to the top.

Generally, whoever makes it to the top of Minakhada will probably win the race.

It's up my alley anyway, let's just say that.

So I'm pleased with it.

The last two miles.

But it's it's tougher.

It's probably toughest race around town, really.

It's hard.

A lot of hills.

Then you think it's over and it's not over.

And along the last mile, it seems to go on.

Everybody saying, oh, you're almost there.

But I know I don't fall for that.

You know, the race definitely evolved from when I first started doing it, but to me, it's it's kind of come back to the way it was, which as I remember it and it's been a long time ago, but it was just kind of it was always like a festival atmosphere.

It's kind of a party.

That's the idea behind it, and that's the way it was originally.

This year, I believe we had more than 1000 participants in both races rolled through here.

We're all ready to do it again next year.

So I think the future is really bright for running in Chattanooga for a long time.

Guys, My generation would would say that we were we were faster, you know, in high school and college than the kids are today.

But not anymore.

I mean, it's, they're getting coached better, training smarter and kind of push each other on it.

We're seeing a lot of youngsters come in, which is great because we haven't seen that in a long time.

And now that's that's going to be the growth of running.

And Chattanooga is is the young people coming up and it's becoming cool to run again.