Principal ‘bears’ the heat during run in mascot suit
Thursday, March 18, 2010
During Sunday’s Shamrock Run in Portland, Matthew Butte was bearly moving.
That’s a lot more grueling than it sounds. The principal of Columbia Adventist Academy ran 5 kilometers — about 3.1 miles — while dressed as a bear.
Talk about a sweat suit.
The bear suit usually shows up as the costume for Kody, the mascot of the Columbia Adventist Kodiaks sports teams. Butte borrowed it Sunday to raise money for the Meadow Glade school’s construction campaign.
After lining up about $42,000 in donations for his run, as well as a pledge to match those contributions, Butte wound up with about $84,000.
“It went well,” Butte said a couple of days later.
The costume was hot, and it was a bit confined, so Butte decapitated his running outfit during a challenging stretch of the course.
“I took off the head for part of a hill. Breathing was on the difficult side,” Butte said.
And since Butte was looking through the bear’s open mouth, “I had difficulty seeing. There was very little peripheral vision,” Butte said.
Thankfully, Butte had his own personal navigation system. Two students — junior Tasha Breakey and senior Jasper Kolln — and religion teacher Keith Kerbs ran along with Butte and helped him steer clear of trouble spots.
“There were so many people; it was tough to move around,” Butte said. “It would have been very difficult without them. I would have run into cars.”
Butte said he prepared for the event by running two or three times a week for six weeks: “Not as much as I should have,” he added.
Butte only did one conditioning run while wearing the bear suit, though. And if you’re trying to recall any recent bear sightings at Battle Ground-area jogging trails or parks, well …Butte did that training run on an indoor treadmill.
Kody the Kodiak was clocked at 32 minutes and 46 seconds. Butte said he heard lots of comments and encouragement along the route, including some perspective from a runner who couldn’t keep up with Kody’s pace.
“It sucks to get passed by a bear.”
Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558 or tom.vogt@columbian.com.
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