by Ketan Dhawan
Daily Lobo
One UNM track student will celebrate St. Patrick's Day by giving back to a man who has been one of his biggest influences.
Chris Rogers, a 22-year-old senior marketing major, has run track at UNM for four years and has been under the watchful eye of coach Matt Henry for eight. Rogers works at Athlete's Edge, an athletic specialty store, which is designed to meet the demands of serious athletes, he said.
"The owner (of Athlete's Edge) and I came up with the idea of putting on a race with the proceeds benefiting Coach Henry and UNM track," Rogers said. "So we partnered with New Mexico Sports And Wellness and came up with the Shamrock Shuffle."
The race, scheduled for Saturday, begins at the corner of Wyoming and Harper, at the Del Norte shopping center at 9 a.m.
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"This race is really for coach Henry," Rogers said. "It'll really help him out. I've been running with him for eight years, and I want to give something back. He's amazing."
Rogers said he realized that funding was extremely scarce for sports like Track and Cross Country.
"UNM's running programs have to raise certain amounts of money through contributions every year," he said. "This is hard for this kind of sport, and we can't ask students to pay to run track."
He said this realization gave him an idea to give back to coach Henry and the track program.
"The race will go around Academy High School," Rogers said. "UNM track athletes will be doing water stops and monitoring the finish line."
The race will be 4k meters, and participants can run, walk or wheel their way to the finish line. There is also a 1k-meter kids' fun run. All proceeds will go to UNM's track program.
The race already has about 300 participants registered. Anyone interested in running this weekend can pick up a registration form at Johnson Center's front desk or register Saturday before the event.
