The Durango Adult Education Center’s annual Fast and Curious 5K and 10K fundraiser is returning Aug. 17, and racers are encouraged to preregister now.
Kirsten Chesney, center communications and outreach manager, said the Fast and Curious 5K and 10K races are open to all ages. Registration for each race closes Aug. 12.
Registration fees for the 5K are $35 and fees for the 10K are $45. Kids 14 years old and younger can register for free. The races will be held along the Animas River Trail with the start and finish lines at Santa Rita Park.
Chesney said the morning races are an opportunity for Durango Adult Education Center to mingle with the community and make its variety of services known.
The races are one of three annual fundraising events, the others being the Snowdown Spellebration, which is hugely popular, and the Literacy Luncheon, the center’s biggest fundraiser of the year, she said.
The fundraisers play an important role in funding the center’s various educational services, including general education development (GED) classes, English language courses, career counseling, college readiness preparation and scholarship opportunities.
A total of 12 prizes will be awarded to the racers in the men’s and women’s 5K and 10K who place first through third.
Some prizes were donated by sponsors and include gift cards for couples, massages from Massage Intervention in Durango, 10 free classes at Pause Fitness and Nutrition, gift cards for Durango Running Co. and even bookings at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio, Chesney said.
“First place prices are going to be around $300 in value, second place $140 to one $150, and third place at $80 to $90 in value,” she said.
But the Fast and Curious 5K and 10K fundraiser isn’t just about testing one’s athletic mettle, she said. At the end of each race, participants have the option to take a multiple choice test reflecting subjects students at the Adult Education Center study.
Correctly answering questions will shave seconds off runners’ overall races times. The harder the question, the more seconds a correct answer will deduct, Chesney said. Scoring a 100% on a test will deduct seven minutes and 30 seconds off of one’s time, giving those participants a considerable advantage over the competition.
Each test will feature questions in subject areas such as math, science, language arts, social studies and U.S. citizenship. Questions will be ranked in difficulty ranging from easy to hard. Calculators will be available for math questions.
“It adds another element,” Chesney said. “The fastest doesn't always win and I feel like it also invites maybe non-runners or beginner runners to … have a good chance to win a prize.”
Last year, runners struggled most with math questions, she said.
The test questions will not be the same as last year, she warned. But to give prospective contestants an idea of what they will be faced with, she read one hard-ranked science question from the race fundraiser last summer.
“There's different types of heat transfer. One's conduction, one is convection and one is radiation. … What's an example of conduction?”
The multiple choice question offered three possible answers: 1) ice melts inside of a hot drink, disappearing over time, 2) a light bulb emits light and heat, and 3) a hot iron is used to iron out the wrinkles in a dress shirt.
“Which one is an example of conduction?” Chesney said. “Even with the definitions of those – conduction, convection, radiation – it was still a bit tricky. The correct answer is the last one, the hot iron.”
Several sponsors of the event will be on-site with booths. Ohana Physical Therapy is returning this year to offer free massages and manual therapy, which proved popular with runners last year, she said. Carrie Foster, the Ice Cream Lady, will also be present to offer free ice cream to child participants, with ice cream for sale for the rest of attendees.
Participants can register for the races online at bit.ly/4foKiJK.
Durango Adult Education Center Program Director Libby Baumchen said GED preparation courses resume in August with morning, afternoon and evening classes in Durango and morning classes at the center in Cortez.
Classes are typically about 10 students large and the center serves about 300 students per year, she said. The center receives grant funding from the Colorado Department of Education, and that grant funding depends on student successes.
How many students are passing GED tests, how many students are going on to land jobs and how many students are entering vocational training programs or getting into community college are all measured factors, she said.
Baumchen said 17 countries were represented in the center’s English as a Second Language classes last year, including from Ukraine, Thailand, China and Nepal.
“We had a student from Poland last year, which is not usual for us. But it's been interesting watching the Olympics and I'm like, ‘Oh, we have student from there,’” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story referred to the 5K and 10K races as “marathons.” They are races, not marathons.
