willie
in 2005, the city of round rock held its 26th annual three-legged willie 12k. named in honor of robert williamson, a 19th century central texas judge whose physical affliction earned him the nickname for which the race honors.
with the first race run in 1980, 3LW was, i believe, the 3rd or 4th oldest footrace in central texas, putting it in an elite league with the decker challenge, daisy 5k, and capitol 10,000. 3LW was certainly the smallest of these races, attracting ~100 runners in recent years, but truly was a runner's race: tear-tag timing, race jerseys with hand-drawn artwork that only varied in color and date with every year, and all the chili and beer that you could care to have under the sun of the municipality's simple parkgrounds.
i ran 3LW for the first time last march and found it quite charming. i looked forward to running it again this year.
this morning, i found in bold letters on the round rock parks and rec website:
Note: Three-Legged Willie has been discontinued.
no explanation, no justification. no tribute to the central texas tradition that once was. surely, somewhere in a boardroom, someone saw 3LW as a burden, a low return on investment whose time had come.
is there nothing to say for tradition anymore? willie, i hardly knew you.
oak hill flyer will do its best to determine the cause of the 3LW's cessation. hopefully, updates will be posted in the near future.
update: i've received a response from round rock parks and rec director rick atkins. his message is as follows:
The tuff decision to terminate the "Three Legged Willie" was made for the following reasons. After many years the race has not grown and has difficulty in paying for it's self. In addition, with the increased traffic in and around Round Rock it was difficult to find a safe place to run the distance.
A couple of years ago we started the "5 K for Clay" and "The Texas Road Rash" ("Inline Marathon") which both show the potential to be a very successful event for years to come. With that said, we felt like the most responsible thing for the Community and Department was to focus our efforts on those events.
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