The 18th Annual Hugh Heacock Memorial Run opened to the drumming of Roman and Celtic warriors practicing for Shakespeare's ``Cymbeline,'' and ended with a man and his dog contesting last place. Mark Dammeyer pulled ahead of Eric Morgenstern and Scott McCrea two kilometers into the first lap, and kicked away on the second lap to win the 10 kilometer race in 41 minutes, 31 seconds. Morgenstern finished after one lap to take the men's 5 kilometer race in 20 minutes, 37 seconds. ``I kept looking at my watch and figured I had to finish in 5k,'' explained Morgenstern, who'd signed up for the 10k race. ``I've got to pick up my wife at work. She'll kill me if I don't.''

McCrea finished second in the 10k in 42 minutes flat over the hilly course at the Birch Hill Ski Trails. Andy Holland was third in 43:45. Heidi Harbison was the only woman in the 10k race, and finished 4th overall in 47:09. ``It's a nice course, except for those rollercoasters,'' commended Harbison, a Massachusetts resident working at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the summer. Kellie Baker won the women's 5k race in 24:01, followed by Kathleen Edic in 29:38 and Kristen Morris in 31:00. The course covered the Birch Hill Blue Loop, Rollercoasters, the White Bear to the biathlon range, and the warm-up loops, a 5-kilometer lap that racers covered either once or twice. The Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater was drilling its ``soldiers'' and reading through Act 1, Scene 1 as a backdrop to the event.

The race is named for Hugh Heacock, who became a competitive runner late in life and was a fixture in Alaskan running races in the late 1970s. Heacock died in 1978, and the races commemorate a man who inspired younger runners that raced far ahead of him. Leo Woster, who won the 10k event in five years ago, stood at the finish line and commented, ``This is the only race I've ever won and tonight it might also become the only race I ever finished in last place.'' But when Ernie Misewicz came into sight a half lap behind, Woster shouted, ``There's a man. I'm not last.'' Misewicz finished ninth in 1:10:40 but last place went to Gary Hopkins and his dog Rascal in 1:14:48. ``I got lost, and then the dog chased a moose calf,'' Hopkins explained. In Heacock's memory, race organizer Guy Williams gives out prizes by drawing rather than by finishing order. Last place finisher Hopkins got a bag of mangos and Harbison was awarded a coconut.

by Fred Pratt