Race Off, Party On

Early on the morning of October 30^th, organizer Kelly Fattman got the call: the City of Newton was cancelling the Bill’s 5k Run for the Travis Roy Foundation.

“Someone else had to make that decision for me,” Fattman said sadly. “I couldn’t do it myself.”

But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t something to celebrate: even without the actual run, Fattman and owner and all of the runners and supporters of the 5k still managed to raise over $15,000 – a full 30% more than they did last year. So they decided to still hold the “victory” party at Bill’s.

“No one is more upset than I am!” exclaims Chronopoulos. “I mean, everyone worked so hard and did so much.”

The cancellation of the race wasn’t the only thing that Chronopoulos and Fattman had to be upset about: at 10:55 a.m., right before the party was set to start, the power went out at Bill’s and didn’t go back on until about 12:25 p.m.

“We were running on fumes,” Chronopoulos said. “We had one oven going and a line out the door.”

But it was a festive line, with many in Halloween costumes and all with wide smiles on their faces. Nothing soothes a hungry crowd like free pizza, fried dough and juice (provided by Nantucket Nectars). And celebrants were entertained by the band Loose Change who played acoustically until the power came back on.

“Unfortunately, we can’t reschedule the race,” explained Fattman. “We want to get the money to the Foundation as soon as possible, so we can’t wait to see when we can run it.”

But Fattman and Chronopoulos are determined to be back in 2012 for Bill’s 5k’s seventh year, and with any luck Mother Nature will be a bit more cooperative.