Market to market relay, dancing a jig

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By CINDY LANGE-KUBICK / Lincoln Journal Star

Captain America yelled.

Spectators cheered.

Cameras flashed.

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Ann Medeiros, a member of the Omaha Running Club, runs along 310th St. with the Trinity Lutheran Church in the background near the town of Murdock. (Jacob Hannah)

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Market to Market Relay

The inaugural Market to Market Relay from Omaha to Lincoln took place on Saturday, October 11, 2008....

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Why? Was it a bird? Was it a plane?

No!  It was an act of Superhero-like sportsmanship! The Just Us League  carrying Superman across the finish line of the first ever Market to Market Relay, 86 miles from Omaha’s Old Market to Lincoln’s Haymarket.

More than 1,200 runners and 150 teams traveling hill and dale, dodging horse dropping and wild turkeys on their way to the finish line on North Eight Street.

“We did it guys,” hollered Curtis Coatman, aka Captain America, high-fiving first Batman, then the Hulk and excitable Ninja Turtle Mitch Memming.

The Hulk had sweated off his green and Raphael looked similarly spent.

“It’s crazy to think about,” said  Memming, 22, whose team of heroes in running shoes spent 11 hours and 42 minutes making the trek.

Crazy, yes, but in a good way. A very good way.

Teams came in running and walking. Some limped. A few carried a cold one, ready to be popped.

“They’re having a ball,” said Ray Ringlein,  whose wife, Ann, set up a booth with shirts and shoes from the Running Co.

Market to Market has the potential to be Nebraska’s version of the popular Hood to Coast relay in Oregon, he said.

“This will end up being a big deal. I think it’s going to be awesome.”

The race was organized by a couple of Lincoln guys who love running — Ben Cohoon and Jason Bakewell, former roommates at UNL.

It was a success from the start, filling up two months before the registration deadline.

The race featured a costume contest. A vehicle decorating contest. And a free Miller Lite just beyond the finish line.

At the end of a warm and windy Nebraska day, some runners arrived shirtless.

A team of grad students and physicians assistants called Cure the Rabid — “rabid as in rabies” — wore haloes and wings.

Snow White ran in with her Dwarves.

The Action News Team sported ties and dress shirts.

“It was amazing,” said Carl Weiland of Omaha. “We had no idea we were that fast.”

Actually, Weiland wasn’t that fast. He drove the support vehicle. But his team did well.

While one runner ran, the others tossed a football, listened to the Huskers, and even made a tunnel with their arms for other runners to pass through.

The race was filled with camaraderie, they said.

Although there was the time that teammate Cuyler Gembol — dressed as a news anchor and holding the team’s microphone baton — tried to interview a fellow racer.

“How you doing,” he asked.

His answer: “I can’t believe I’m being passed by a guy with a tie.”

And so it went. Team Fed Ex ran past the finish line carrying Express Mail boxes.

The FBI team looked buff.

Go Clones! in red and gold looked beat.

Run Faster Drink Sooner had not yet started drinking.

The Angry Beavers? Well, they seemed happy.

“We got third place,” said Adam Taylor of Lincoln. “We even got lost once.”

Team ndorfnz.com — Endorphins, get it? —  sponsored by major sponsor Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital, took first.

And on a very busy day, co-organizer Cohoon found himself on the receiving end of a stream of compliments.

“Thank you for all your work,” said Ron Uhlig a member of Team Running Challenged.

“It was a great relay,” added his  teammate Gordon Smith. “I’ve done them before and this was a good one.”

The Challenged team took third in the Masters Division with a time just over 11 hours.

“We’ll do it again, absolutely,” said Smith.

“Under 10 hours next year.”

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com