History of the Melon Run

by Paul Hargrave

When runners toe the line on July 4th, 2002 for the 24th FTC Melon Run, none there will know the history of this race better than Dave Mathia. Dave is the founding race director of the Melon Run, who faithfully directed it from 1979 through 1995. The Melon Run was the first race ever put on by the newly-formed Florida Road Runners' Club, under its first president, Bill Luttge. Bill tapped a new runner and club member, Dave Mathia, and handed him the RRCA manual that described how to organize a road race. Dave learned on-the-job and the race prospered. After a few years the Florida Road Runners' Club merged with the Florida Track Club and the races that the FRRC initiated have been carried on by the FTC.

The first, 1979, edition of the Melon Run had no funds, no T-shirt, but lots of watermelons. It's only sponsor, Norman's Produce, donated 250 large melons. Since there were only 125 runners that first year, all participants received at least one melon! For years, the awards were watermelons.

Starting with the second year the Melon Run featured singlets. This was a warm summer race and singlets were popular. The running watermelon was an early logo, and the shirt design remained similar for years. During the year of the Gulf War, the US flag was added to the design (and any veteran was given a free race entry). In recent years we have experimented with different designs, and even a T-shirt for the 1996 race.

Road races are generally noncontroversial, but one year the Melon Run was picketed. Dave had noticed that the age groups were not evenly represented, so to even out the chance of runners receiving an award, he established proportional age groups. If there were lots of runners age 20-30, he would make 3-year age groups. Since there were fewer runners in the older age groups, he designated a 50-and-over group for them. Several of the older runners objected to this, and picketed. With the introduction of the Grand Prix series, and uniform age groups for all Grand Prix races, all FTC races including the Melon Run have adopted a uniform age group structure.

Since its inception, the Melon Run has been held on the same course, starting from Westside Park. The choice has been a good one, and provides convenient facilities at the pool both for restrooms and for swimming. The locale is pleasant and parking is plentiful. Dave introduced another innovation, having males run the course in one direction and females in the opposite. The following year, males and females would switch directions. This unique feature was discontinued in 1996 due to concern about the potential for collisions. Now all runners run in the same direction and the start and finish are both downhill.

Some of the oldtimers who were active in the early days of the Melon Run might want to share their stories about it. Please consider doing so via the members discussion list at http://ftcmembers.listbot.com.**

(Note: Listbot is ending their free service on Aug 6, 2001 so our member discussion list will be disabled on that date)