Your Crim Tales: Running the Long Blue Line

Flint Journal reporters find many inspiring stories through the years of covering the Crim. We've included a few here to spark your memory.

Others have shared their memories, including pictures. How can anyone forget Ed Wiberg? Cashew Point? Karen McClure?

So many more. And we're waiting to hear from you now.

The 1994 Crim holds a special memory for Karen McClure. After a 1990 hit and run accident which placed the Boston, New York and Detroit Marathon runner in the hospital nine months and therapy a year and a half, trained with her trainer Nancy Norris for a year with their sights on walking the Crim one mile which she had run so many times before.

Walking with her trainer and friends, the cheering crowds with the media congratulating her at the end of her come back walk was a day at the Crim never to be forgotten in her Crim memories.

Karen had run in every race from 1982 to 1989. And it was during her preparation for the 1990 race that she was hit by a car at Bradley Avenue and Sunset Drive. She had taken he bicycle to check out the race route.

She had just quit her full-time job at the University of Michigan-Flint bookstore to work as a production assistant for Channel 28 when the accident occurred.

It could be a misunderstanding. But Dennis Donlan of Flint's Bagley Street wants it known that all money raised at Cashew Point goes to Special Olympics. Donlan shared this photograph of his favorite Crim memory. For 14 years, Donlan and friends have partied at their point, sharing with all who pass by.

In 2005, Donlan said we even had a Kenyan take one of the offered beers. Donlan wasn't sure if the runner drank it.

In 2006, the crew wore T-shirts announcing they'd been at Cashew Point, at the corner of Chevrolet Avenue and Bagley Street in Flint, in 2006. ABC12 even made the spot one of its camera points during the station's live coverage.

One year, a photograph showed Rick Schultz of Flint Township wheeling in a second keg of beer at 7:35 a.m. to Cashew Point. He told the photographer: "It's after 7 o'clock; it's legal now,' he said. A third keg was rolled in within an hour.

My Crim story starts in May 2003.

My 77-year-old father, James Laird Jr. had called me a few times wanting me to join the Crim Training Program. He really wanted to do the 10 miles. I wasn't so sure about that. We had both been involved with the 8K walk, but I had never thought about trying to run 10 miles. He finally convinced me to join and it's one of the best decisions I have ever made.

We trained all summer with our Crim Training Group. My father became an inspiration to the whole group. People would say, "If he can do it, then I can too!"

The day of the race finally came and I can remember the sky being a perfect blue. A hot air balloon with the American flag draped over it ascended. Chills went up and down my spine. My father and I stayed together the whole race. It was an experience that we will never forget. The music and spectators all along the course were a real source of encouragment.

Finally, we were on the bricks of Saginaw St. We were very tired and did not have much left. As we got closer to the finish line, I grabbed my father's hand and raised it up with mine as we crossed the finish line. What a feeling that was ! We were pretty excited to get a medal around our necks.

Since then, I have remained involved with the Crim Training Program and actually became a group leader.

Unfortunately for my father, health issues have prevented him from running in the program again. The good news is that he is still involved. He lives on the Crim course and has now become the Crim wate rboy. He provides water for the Crim Training participants every Tuesday and of course on Crim Day also. He takes great pride in keeping it ice cold. It's the best on the course. He is our biggest cheerleader on Crim Day and remains an inspiration to a lot of people.

I was raised in the city of Flint and it is so good to see such a positive thing as the Crim make a profound impact in this community. I see people of all races coming together and encouraging each other. It's something we should all be proud of.

Phil Shaltz remembers the year he ran with his son as a memorable moment. He'll also have to remember this year. His family bought billboards to congratulate him on his 30th year of running.

A Flint Journal article on Aug. 12 had this headline: Family heralds Crim regular's endurance in big way


Here's the story:
If you've seen the billboards congratulating someone named Phil for participating in 30 Crims, and wondered who Phil is, you're not alone.

The mystery Phil is Phil Shaltz, 58, of Flint Township, one of 24 runners who have participated in every Crim 10-mile race.

His wife, Ardele, and two adult children, Jason and Carrie, collaborated on three billboards to honor him for the 30th anniversary race on Aug. 26. They each include a running-related saying that Phil has often said to family
members over the years: "Cut the tangents," "Pace yourself," and "Good luck buddy."

Phil, whose family has had four generations run the Crim, said he's overwhelmed by the tribute.

"It's great recognition that your family knows how much it means to you," he said.

You could pull a muscle, run out of energy or trip on your shoe laces. But if you're walking or running the Crim, you won't bump into a low-hanging tree branch or fall into a pothole - at least not if Bob Cook has anything to say about it.

Flint Parks and Recreation Director Cook and his staff trim trees, fill potholes and check for hazards along the route for weeks before the big race. The result is a safe course with an improved appearance.

"We get a lot of positive feedback from racers each year about the route," Cook said. "Neighbors who see us out making improvements want to be part of it, so they get out and sweep their sidewalks and mow their lawns and pick up trash before the race.

"It's a great thing for the community."

- Rose Mary Reiz, Flint Journal staff writer

If you decide, say, on the morning of the Crim that you feel like entering the 10-mile run (we hear there are such people, although we don't pretend to understand them), you'll still be rewarded with a special T-shirt, thanks to Roger Salomon at The Great Put On, Inc., a Flint screen printing and embroidery business.

"Roger stays up all night so that people who register late can still get their shirts," said Deb Kiertzner, Crim race director. "His customer service is wonderful."

In 2006, Salomon and his crew are printing and delivering some 50,000 Crim T-shirts to participants, volunteers, sponsors and organizers of the mega event.

What makes the job tricky is that shirt designs vary by Crim event. A 5K finisher gets a shirt printed with "5 miles" on the back; 10-miler racers are rewarded with "10 mile" shirts.

"We could stop printing earlier and just give generic shirts for the people who register late, but we know that if you run 10 miles, you want the 10-mile shirt," Salomon said. "You can't purchase it; you only get it by running the race. So we stay up late to monitor the registration and get the shirts printed."

Salomon, who's printed the Crim shirts for 15 years, said he's had recurring nightmares that he slept through the race and didn't deliver the shirts on time - but it's never happened.

"What's neat is when you see people wearing Crim shirts that we printed years ago," he said. "When you run 10 miles, the T-shirt matters. It's not one you want to let go of.
- Rose Mary Reiz, Flint Journal writer

If it wasn't for Pat Rahn, this year's Crim Festival of Races might be renamed the Crim Steeple Chase, with walkers and runners leaping over a barrier and landing in a puddle of water at the Garland-Beach street bridge north of downtown Flint.

"I tried to sell that idea, but the Crim people weren't buying it," joked Rahn, City of Flint traffic engineering supervisor.

Instead, Rahn and his crew re-routed the Crim course to go around the bridge closing, which necessitated a re-certification of the entire route by race officials.

Rahn has been overseeing street closures and traffic detours for the Crim for 17 years. The job involves year-long planning, 900 traffic cones, 600 road barriers and about 300 traffic control volunteers, including police officers and special deputies at 140 race locations.

Crews start setting up detours Friday for Special Olympics and children's events, and work Saturday from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. Since one-mile, 5k, 8k and 10-mile races have different routes, workers frantically take down cones and barriers from one event while setting up for the next.

Rahn said he loves the Crim, even though it means sleeping overnight Friday in his office on an inflatable mattress and packing sandwiches to eat during race day.

"The Crim people give me free pizza, but it's always gone by the time I get there. I haven't had a slice in 17 years."

- Rose Mary Reiz, Flint Journal staff writer