It was early December 1999 when Jon Lugbill, founding executive director of Sports Backers, sent a letter to Bobby Ukrop asking Ukrop’s Super Markets to sponsor the Monument Avenue 10k.
Lugbill had the idea that the Monument Avenue 10k could be a signature event for the community just like the Peach Tree Road Race in Atlanta and the Bolder Boulder 10k in Colorado.
“Fortunately, Bobby agreed and the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k happened on April 1, 2000,” says Lugbill, who is retiring in June. “The community enthusiastically supported the event right from the first year.”
Now, 26 years later, the race goes on to the rhythm of 25,000 runners, a soaring jump from the close to 2,500 runners that signed up for that first race.
As one of the founding members of the Sports Backers, Bobby Ukrop endorsed the organization’s goal to always look for better ways to build a better community through sports.
“That was the driver for what we did on the board of Sports Backers, try to bring events to town,” says Ukrop, chairman and CEO of Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods and prior president and CEO of Ukrop’s Super Markets.
The 10k helps unify and encourage people to be healthy and stay healthy. “We wanted to start with an event people could rally around,” Ukrop says.
In the early years of the race, he remembers how Ukrop’s employees would haul out pallets of product to the race site for the runners. Still today, racers can pick up Ukrop’s Whitehouse rolls in Monroe Park at the Sheehy Post Race Festival.
“The race is very energizing,” says Ukrop, who ran his last race when he was 57. “I wanted my time to beat my age. I ran the 10k in slightly more than 53 minutes.”
His grandson, Howe Aronson, has been competing in the 10k (or the Atlantic Union Bank 10k Mini, a one-mile race) since 2015.” At the age of 13, he ran the full 10k in 38 minutes,” Ukrop says.
Now the fourth largest 10k in the nation and the largest race in Virginia, the Ukrop’s Monument 10k has built a fellowship among runners. “People have friendships they have developed in addition to the health benefits [of racing],” Ukrop says, adding that all along the way the streets are line with spectators adding their encouragement and adrenaline to the event.
It’s not just people who are connecting to the event, VCU’s Massey Cancer Center (the race’s charitable partner) has been a great partner to Ukrop’s and the race, Ukrop adds.
“That’s been huge,” he says.
While he may not be a runner now, Ukrop still has a vital role in the event.
“I now put myself at the halfway point. I have a chair, and I cheer people on. It’s fascinating to see people come through that I’ve seen [running in the race] for years. People love it,” he says. “Even though I’m not running, I feel engaged with the race as a cheerleader.”
