Beat the Director

It’s fall running season. To make his 5k race stand out among the hundreds of races this season, a South Jersey library director is offering a challenge – and is spreading word about that challenge on YouTube.

Brett Bonfield has been director of the Collingswood Library since May 2008. One of his goals has been to create what he calls “a teen area” within the library.

“We’ve already cleared the space, but we need money to buy things to put in it – not just library specific things, but also furniture and other items to make it appealing to teens,” says Bonfield, who has lived in Collingswood since 2000.

To help raise funds for the project, the library is holding a “Beat the Director” 5k (3.1 mile) race on Saturday, September 26.

If you’re a runner, you know that the fall is lousy with benefits races – putting this new kid on the block at something of a disadvantage. So, with help of Emerald Productions, Bonfield created an entertaining black-and-white video that ably previews his event.

“I wanted to promote the race using video, but I didn’t want to have to talk,” says Bonfield, explaining the silent-film inspired clip. 

Why is the race called “Beat the Director”? The fee to sign up is $25. If you beat Bonfield, you get $10 back.

Bonfield claims he doesn’t know how fast he’ll go. His last race was the 1996 Philadelphia Distance run, a 13.1-mile event that he finished in an hour and 50 minutes. That’s a pace of about 8:30 minutes per mile. However, he says, “I’ll be disappointed if I run slower than 8 minutes per mile in the 5k, and very surprised if I run faster than 7-minute miles.”  If he’s right, then we’ll both be running about the same pace: my best 5k time was 22 minutes, 12 seconds, or just over a 7-minute mile pace.

But Bonfield needn’t worry about me – or most of the other runners. We probably won’t take the refund. It is, after all, to keep teens in the library.

Check out the library’s blog for more information on how to sign up.

Tags: Collingswood | running | South Jersey | library