On Friday morning, the Boys’ and Girls’ Track and Field teams took to the indoor track to kick off what would be an eventful day of running, games, and camaraderie–all for the goal of raising as much money as possible for charity. Led by senior coordinators Daniel Doyle and Lakshmi Harris alongside junior coordinators Makena Duggan and Gabi Goldstein, the twenty-first annual 24 Hour Run was put together in support of this year’s Charity Drive beneficiary, Propel A Cure.
The goal of the 24 Hour Run is to keep one baton moving for a full twenty-four hours, from 8am on Friday to 8am on Saturday. During the school day, students are encouraged to go to the indoor track and carry the baton for one mile before passing it on to someone else. They can participate during their PE period, lunch period, or study hall.
After school, the event is taken over by the Track and Field teams, where athletes sign up for miles throughout the night. Participants can run by themselves or with friends, teammates, and family. Each runner asks a family member to sponsor their miles, such as donating 10 dollars for every mile completed.
In addition to donor pledges, money is raised from purchased food, custom 24 Hour Run t-shirts, and the newly introduced Boys’ Team versus Girls’ Team Bake Sale. Other events include raffles, hair buzzing, and pie-in-the-face, which occurred throughout the night.
The event began in 2006, when senior Zach Weinberg and junior Evan Reinstein came up with an idea to raise money for the thirteenth annual HPHS Charity Drive. The event originally went from 4pm Friday to 4pm Saturday, and had a “Power Hour,” where several distance runners clocked one fast mile after another. The usual goal is to run 200 miles throughout the duration of the event, which the first eleven years of the 24 Hour Run managed to do. The all-time record, however, belongs to the 2009 24 Hour Run, where 247 miles were successfully completed, equating to a 5:50 per mile average!
Some of the key highlights from Friday night (and Saturday morning) included Evan Reinstein, one of the original founders of the 24 Hour Run, making an appearance and thanking everyone for keeping the tradition alive. Later, after those not on the track team went home, the coordinators hosted the first-ever 24 Hour Run Squid Game. With a small entry fee of five dollars, many participated in a series of fun games from the iconic show.
Around midnight, there was an abnormal silent bid for buzzing junior Daniel Derbedyenyev’s head. Each bid included a donation to Charity Drive, with the highest bidder getting to cut his hair. Finally, athletes took part in 3am Dodgeball–an exciting 24 Hour Run tradition in which four teams battled it out in the shotput pit as spectators watched from above.
Reflecting on the lengthy process of coordinating this year’s 24 Hour Run, Lakshmi shared some of the biggest challenges and struggles her and the other coordinators faced.
“The hardest struggle in planning was probably just finding time to do everything (picking up supplies, making items for the bake sale, etc.) on top of everything else going on in our lives,” Lakshmi said.
However, the efforts paid off, as both her and Daniel saw the 24 Hour Run as a success:
“We have raised over nine thousand dollars so far, and we ran almost two-hundred miles collectively as a team. Both of these accomplishments took huge efforts from both teams.”
They hope that future coordinators will put in the effort to understand the event’s history, which has enabled the HPHS community and beyond to run thousands of miles while raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. To them and many members of the track team, the 24 Hour Run is more than just running laps around a track for 24 hours straight; it is a moment in which two teams, separated throughout the entire season, come together to achieve the same goal.