3.6K Raised for JMRL from Inaugural Running Man 8K
106 runners gathered on the morning of Saturday, May 28, 2016 to run the inaugural “Running Man Memorial 8K” in downtown Charlottesville. Champion Brewing Company donated $3,641.49 in proceeds from the race, and plans on making the race an annual event, helping the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library perpetually expand its collection.
Philip Weber III, aka “The Running Man,” was well-known to generations of Charlottesville citizens and U.Va students due to his unparalleled commitment to running, at all times of the day and in all kinds of weather.
When he tragically died while out on a morning run in December of last year, eulogies and remembrances poured in from around the world. As people who knew the man behind the legend offered their memories, it became clear that Weber’s other great passion was learning, a passion he pursued by reading voraciously across subjects from architecture to horticulture and everything in between. He was known to have taught himself multiple languages and could quote whole swaths of Shakespeare’s plays from memory.
Mr. Weber supported this other habit of his largely through constant visits to the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. Moved by the public reaction to Weber’s death, Paavo’s Apostles, Champion Brewing Company’s weekly running club, decided to organize a charity run in his honor. Given what we now know about the man, it’s no surprise that Mr. Weber’s family insisted any funds raised by a race conducted in his memory should go to JMRL.
“Our family wants to make sure that the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library can continue to provide services to the public and be the inspiration to others that it was for him,” said Joanne Catron, Weber’s sister.
The second Running Man Memorial 8K is tentatively scheduled for the last weekend in May of 2017.
