World-class runners speaking at pre-marathon banquet

by Alan Sorensen

Friends of the Bear Paw Marathon will host a pre-marathon carbo-loading spaghetti banquet for runners and their friends and families from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, June 3, 2022, at the Eagles Club in Havre, the day before the second annual marathon. 

The meal will be dedicated to the memory of long-time area running enthusiast and run sponsor Ignatius George "Iggy" Stiffarm of Fort Belknap, who passed away on March 2 of this year after a years-long battle with ALS. 

Stiffarms' Mosquito Run/NeeWahs Run has been run annually for more than 40 years as a featured Saturday-morning event at the Milk River Indian Days Celebration and Fort Belknap Powwow. He was assisted by wife Nancy in the 1980s and '90s and his sisters and nephews have kept the race alive since Iggy's diagnosis.

Featured guest speakers for the evening will be Hill County's three world-class distance runners from the 1980s and '90s: Havre High graduates Deborah Raunig, Class of 1973, Tom Raunig, Class of '77, and Chippewa Cree Tribal enrolled member Donald "Donny" Belcourt. Even 30 and 40 years later, their personal best times are still listed among the fastest ever by runners the world over in distances ranging from the 1500 meters through the marathon at worldathletics.org.

The meal is primarily intended as a carbo-loading feast the night before the marathon and accompanying runs, and will include vegan and meat sauces, and baked potatoes with a smattering of topping choices for those who are gluten-intolerant.

Carbohydrate-loading has been found to provide runners with additional race-day energy and hydration. To maximize the carbs' benefits, runners should substantially reduce their carbohydrate intake for the better part of the week preceding the meal. 

Belcourt, a 1983 Billings Senior graduate, qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in both 1,500 and 5,000 meters in 1992 and '96. He and Montana State University standout Shannon Butler both qualified for the Olympic trials 5,000 meters at the Mount Sac Relays. After trailing Belcourt for most of the race, Butler surged with 600 meters to go and beat Belcourt by about 5 seconds, 13:41 to 13:46.

"Butler was amazing," Belcourt said. 

In his only 15K race, Belcourt went up against Butler again Oct. 29, 1994, in Tulsa, OK. Butler won that encounter going away, but Belcourt's time was good enough that it is still listed among the fastest ever run by an Earthling.

In fall 1994, Belcourt led Haskell in defense of its National Junior College Athletic Association Marathon Championship title by placing second overall in a time of 2:26:54. He earned All-America honors in that race to go along with All-America honors in track and in cross country. He was also a highly competitive in the 3,000-meter steeplechaser whose personal record was about 5 seconds from being ranked among the best in the world.

Big Sky Games organizers invited Belcourt back to his alma mater in Billings in July 1992 for the inaugural Montana Mile in hopes that he might push Butler to the first sub-4-minute mile by a Montanan in Montana. Unfortunately, Butler sustained a major injury and Belcourt had no one to push him as he finished that initial race in 4:16, setting a target for the runners yet to come. His previously established best 1,500-meter time extrapolated out to a 3:57.4 mile and would have made for an exciting race between him and Butler.

Belcourt, who also won the Montana Golden Gloves 112-pound title in 1983, was inducted into the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame last fall, along with fellow tribal member Jonathan Windy Boy, at a ceremony in Missoula.

During his high school and college years, Belcourt spent his summers on his Uncle Gerald "Chief" Belcourt's cattle ranch and ran in numerous road races in Havre and the surrounding area. 

He was the sole subject of a full-page New York Times feature article, "The search for the next Billy Mills," by Jere Longman, dated Dec. 26, 1994.

The trailblazing Raunigs were the first brother and sister pair to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials marathon in the same year - 1984 - and remain by far the most accomplished of the four brother/sister pairs to do so. Each also qualified for the trials in the 10,000-meter run.

Deborah won the Montana Governor's Cup Marathon in her first attempt at the that distance in June 1983. Raunig followed up that October with a record-setting, trials-qualifying win at the Portland (Oregon) Marathon she entered while still in the process of completing her nutritionist internship at a Detroit, Michigan, hospital. 

As a result of her strong showings in her third and fourth marathons - the Olympic trials in Olympia, Washington, May 12, 1984, and the Chicago marathon six months later - she was selected to represent the United States at the World Cup Marathon in Hiroshima, Japan.

Deborah continued to improve with each race, establishing herself as a premier American woman marathoner with a $20,000 pay day as the first American finisher in Pittsburgh in May 1986. 

She entered the '88 Olympic trials, to be held on that same Pittsburgh course, with the fastest PR of all the entrants. She cemented herself as a definite favorite after being the first American across Chicago's American Marathon finish line in a sizzling time of 2:31:28 in October 1986. That race established her as the fifth-fastest ever American woman marathon runner at the time and the fastest active runner. 

She also qualified for the U.S. marathon trials in 1992 and '96, and her 1988 personal record of 2:30:23 still ranks among the 50 fastest by an American woman. 

Tom set several marathoning milestones during his short career, including the third-fastest first marathon by an American runner prior to his senior year at the University of Montana. His time in that race in Eugene, Ore., still stands as the fastest ever by an American under the age of 22.

Tom earned NCAA All-American honors in the 10,000 meters in 1982 and still holds the University of Montana 10,000-meter record. He won the U.S. Olympic Committee Festival Marathon in record time in July 1982. He was recruited onto Nike's Athletics West team upon graduation from the University of Montana and trained in Eugene until a stress fracture effectively ended his competitive career two years later. 

He took a year off due to the injury shortly after his 25th birthday and returned to the classroom. He subsequently earned his masters and doctoral degrees and went into teaching and coaching and raced only sporadically the next several years. He went on to a 20-year career as an NCAA Division I cross country and track and field coach, first at MSU in Bozeman, then at UM in Missoula.

In his only Olympic trials marathon, Raunig stayed with the lead pack for the first 18 or so miles and subsequently finished 10th. For the record, he ran his first marathon in 1981 and his last in December 1999. He crossed the finish line in 16 of the 18 marathons he entered, including the last in a time of 2:43:10, as a full-time coach/professor and part-time runner.

He considers his sixth-place showing in the New York City Marathon as his prime accomplishment. His Chicago appearance, though, was also outstanding, as he was first among American runners, while placing seventh overall behind a strong foreign contingent.

As for his coaching career, Raunig was inducted into the MSU Sports Hall of Fame along with his 1993 Bobcat men's cross-country team. The team won the school's first-ever Big Sky title and placed third at the Mountain Region meet.

Individually, Raunig cited Eureka's Shannon Butler, Boulder's Sabrina Monro and Poplar's Scott McGowan as among the best runners he ever coached. Butler won both 5,000 and 10,000 meter titles, while Monro finished second in the 2000 NCAA cross country championship race and holds MSU records in both track and cross country, and McGowan is credited as the first Montanan to break the four-minute mile barrier.

The Raunigs were both sponsored by Nike and Belcourt was sponsored by Reebok. Numerous articles about each are available on the internet with a little perseverance.

The banquet will also provide a venue for runners to strike up acquaintances and perhaps meet future running partners, make plans to organize other area runs throughout the year, and even establish a local runners club. The opportunities are endless and the carbohydrates a necessity to produce a runner's optimal performance.

The admission to the banquet will be $15 per person at the door. 

Proceeds from the dinner will be made available for a variety of running-related activities within the area.