More detail on this person: Running to remember one of their own (Not complete news article) By Lance Shearer Jan. 06, 2009 Some people ring in the New Year at midnight with fancy-dress parties and copious amounts of alcohol. For the Gulf Coast Runners, though, a 5K run at 7:30 the next morning was just the ticket to start the year off right. Dave Cranor, Sr. would have approved. What used to be called the Alka-Seltzer Run was renamed in Cranor's honor after the long-time Collier Sheriff's Office pilot and former Gulf Coast Runners club president died suddenly in 2000. Between 150 and 200 runners came out on a cool, sunny January 1st morning for the event. The Gulf Coast Runners club sponsored the Dave Cranor 5K Run without charge to participants, including bagels and juice for the runners after the race. Dave Cranor's son and namesake, Dave Cranor, Jr., ran the five-kilometer (about 3.1 mile) fun run, along with a group of his co-workers from the Golden Gate fire department, over a course that started and ended Gulf-side at Lowdermilk Park in the City of Naples. After the run, some of the senior Cranor's running buddies shared stories about him, including some Dave junior had never heard. Chris Bracken, who served in the same Navy helicopter squadron with Cranor in 1971, related how Cranor resolved to shed his excess pounds and get serious about running after finishing dead last in an Immokalee Harvest Festival run. At another race, Sheriff Don Hunter poked a finger in Cranor's belly and told him this was a running race, not a beer-drinking contest. Revenge came at the end of the race, when Cranor pulled past Hunter to beat him. "Dave recruited us for this club," said Bracken. "We ran marathons all over together." He joined Cranor for what would be Cranor's last marathon on Daytona Beach in 2000. "My dad ran a mile, got in his truck and had a massive heart attack," said Dave, Jr. "We'll run right past the spot today." His father had previously recovered from a stroke, said his son, and was doing something he loved at the end.
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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