Elgin Valley Fox Trot stirs nostalgia in longtime runners

Bob Jungwirth was feeling nostalgic before the Elgin Valley Fox Trot Saturday.

So he got ready for race day by looking for something of sentimental value in his Downers Grove home.

It was a framed picture of him as a teenager at the long-running event with his Conant High School track and cross-country coach. If memory serves him right, his coach beat him to the finish line.

Jungwirth didn't find the photo in time for his 10-mile run Saturday. But it didn't matter. Being back on a memorable course he used to run every Memorial Day weekend was enough inspiration.

"I felt like coming back to Elgin this morning and seeing if I can get some of that magic from when I was 20 years old," Jungwirth said.

The Elgin tradition has a certain magic for seasoned runners who reunited with family and friends Saturday morning to take on a course that zigzags through the downtown and neighborhoods of historic homes along the east side of the Fox River.

"Myself I grew up in Chicago, so I come out here, and you see all these older buildings," said Carlos Viramontes, who now lives in Tinley Park. "They're well-maintained. You kind of run through the past."

The city-organized event - now in its 41st year - also offers a 10K, a 5K and a 2-mile "Walk for a Cause." Proceeds from registration fees for the walk support 28 nonprofit groups (runners also can make donations).

Roughly 1,200 participants had signed up before the Fox Trot, and organizers expected another 100 to 200 during walk-up registration.

"The fact that it goes through our historic neighborhoods and it's something that's been a long tradition brings people out every year," said Barb Keselica, Elgin's special events and community engagement manager.

Father-daughter bonding time motivated Gene Burd to wake up at 4 a.m. and make the trek from his Sandwich home to the 5K. The 74-year-old and his daughter, Laura Martin, whose husband owns a motorcycle dealership off Dupage Street in Elgin, started running together again recently, resurrecting a family tradition that began when she was in high school.

"We support each other, I think, a good team," said Burn, who ran the Boston Marathon in the early 1980s.

They needed that support on a hilly course. The best leg is the final one coming down Douglas Avenue, Jungwirth said.

"It's a long, steady downhill, and you can really enjoy the finish of an event," he said. "That kind of helps you keep the surge going."

Jungwirth and other runners were struck by how organizers have managed to keep the event going for more than four decades.

"A lot of races come and go and this one has been here for about as long as I've been running," he said.