On running and the dangers of drunk driving
On Sept. 16, I had the pleasure of running the Memory of the 8 for the sixth time.
As I lined up at the start against my “rival” from the city attorney’s office, I made sure to learn from my failures in the Fourth of July 4-mile race. I did not let up at the end, I did not look behind. I just stared straight ahead and kept moving forward.
By the end, I finished comfortably ahead of my rival, achieving my goal of finishing in less than one hour, then I ran to my car, grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.
But fun rivalries aside, it was cool to see nearly 400 people gather together to run and walk in honor of the eight cross-country runners from the University of Wyoming who were killed in a drunken-driving crash in 2001.
It was the 15th annual Memory of the 8, but the first one without Jim and Deb McLeland, the parents of Morgan McLeland, one of those eight runners. Deb actually passed away two weeks after the 2024 Memory of the 8.
Things felt different this year without Deb kicking things off with a short speech on the dangers of drunken driving.
A few days after the Memory of the 8, I ran the 5K route, which takes runners through the cemetery and past Morgan’s gravesite. I saw the ribbons that people had placed around his headstone, as well as a couple of pairs of shoes, including a pair of Hokas.
For some reason, this really put into perspective to me how long ago the crash took place. Hoka wasn’t founded until 2009, eight years after the crash, and today it’s one of the top names in the running shoe world. Would Morgan have worn Hokas? How would he have felt about the rise in the “supershoes” that elite runners wear these days?
We’ll never know.
Just this week, I was walking through the Denver airport, on my way to get Chick-fil-A.
I was wearing my Memory of the 8 T-shirt in the airport and someone asked me if I ran for the University of Wyoming cross-country team. Now, of course I was flattered that somebody would believe that I am fast enough, and young enough, to run for UW.
I told this stranger I’m nowhere near fast enough to run at that level, and I gave him the 15-second version of the story behind the Memory of the 8 before we had to head our separate ways.
It’s a story that’s been told many times over, but with the passage of time, memories fade.
The Razor City Runners have done a commendable job of keeping the memory alive, putting signs up all over town, spray paint symbols on the sidewalk and organizing a huge annual event. But still, there are people who don’t know what’s going on. And worse, there are still people who don’t think driving under the influence is that big of a deal.
More than a dozen people have been arrested for DUI since Sept. 16, and dozens more people were likely driving drunk and just didn’t get caught. Going through court documents throughout the months, it’s sad to see how many repeat offenders there are, getting caught for their third, fourth or fifth DUI, and how many of them continue to get off with a light sentence.
It’s 2025. It has never been easier to not drink and drive.
Just don’t do it.