Inaugural Bear Paw Marathon unites the region

After being postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the inaugural Bear Paw Marathon, held June 5 in Havre, was a success.

Whether running in the day's 5K, half marathon or the full marathon race, runners came together following more than a year of anticipation to finally achieve their goals. 

"Since I started running six, seven years ago, this has kind of always been one of my dreams is to be able to run in your hometown. I mean, I never expected I'd win this thing. It's unbelievable," marathon winner Chris Durward said.

Durward said he expected to finish the race, which covered 26.2 miles starting at Sucker Creek Road, with a time of roughly 3 hours and 20 minutes. He said his coach thought a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes was reasonable. Over 300 people raced in the marathon.

"To come under 3:10 is beyond my expectations. I had hip surgery like two years ago, and it's really my first race since," he said after the race.

Bigger sources of motivation for Durward included his son and the necessity of a lifestyle change.

"Maybe 10 years ago I was 230 pounds. I lost some weight through diet, but I was really in terrible shape still. One of my buddies took me for a mile run and I could barely even finish it. I've been watching my son run races for all of his life. I've just been kind of sitting on the sidelines and I wanted to go race with him. I got to do that," he added.

5K runner Charles Clay shared similar feelings, expressing the event was about far more than sport. 

"It was all about family. The environment and everything everybody had to endure over the past 18 months; we showed a lot of promise that we would get through it. Running the Paws was great to bring the family together. My wife and I brought my son out from Lewistown and spent time with her father," Clay said.

"It was all about me being better than I was yesterday. Yeah. I've run in a couple of 5Ks. I probably had a personal record," he added.

Rachel David of Montana State University-Northern was a cross country runner for both the university and Havre High School. She is now an assistant coach with the girls team. She said she wanted to be able to keep up with the athletes she'll be alongside by running the 5K.

"The course was familiar to me. So that was very nice. I liked it. The gravel might have been the most difficult part, but most of it was just pretty flat. I didn't think it was too chaotic for the 5K, I can't speak for the half marathon or full marathon runners. Yeah. I liked it. It was a very easygoing course," David said.

The 5K was a 3.1-mile race starting at Butte Road consisting of 113 runners.

David added that she has something new to strive for next year. 

"I would probably push myself to run longer. I didn't prep well enough to run farther, but that's the overall goal, now that I'm done running for cross country, is not necessarily time, but length I want to be able to run a full (marathon) one day," she said.

The half marathon covered 13.1 miles starting at Beaver Creek Reservoir - AKA First Lake - with 100 runners competing.

Like both Durward and Clay, for returning Havre resident and half marathon participant Kaden Keto the day represented a chance to both reconnect - and lose weight.

He said he moved back to Havre in 2019.

"I felt like this was a good way to put myself back into the community and also, selfishly, lose a little pounds off the belly before summer starts. I probably lost like eight or 10 pounds," Keto said. "This has been absolutely just stellar preparation by everyone. The turnout was great."

Race Director Julea Robbins said she was pleased with the event, expressing gratitude for the 100 volunteers and the unexpected extra time for planning due to the pandemic.

"The turnout has been amazing," Robbins said. "We could not have asked for anything better. For our very first year, the community support has been wonderful. Our traffic plan has gone pretty well. We've got a couple of notes for next year but overall, it's been amazing."

Robbins also serves as the executive director of the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce, which put on the event. She said the hope is events like this will inject youth and income into the community.

"Havre is kind of an up-and-coming city, and we want to make it a little bit younger and bring more life to it. I think that this was one of the best ways to do that. Every big city has a good race and we didn't have one. Tourism is a huge part of the Chamber and any way that we can support that and encourage tourism is great," she said.