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Dashing for Donation at the 5K Race

Mike Foley

The 5K Race for Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness is the only sporting event at the U.S. Transplant Games that allows transplant athletes, friends, family members, donors, donor families and the general public to compete as one.

If you saw the starting line on Saturday morning of the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games, you'd have realized it was the largest event of the Games. While 165 transplant athletes competed in the 5K, they were dwarfed by 650 other race participants.

When the gun fired to start the race, everyone surged forward and onto a route that meandered through the University of Minnesota Campus, crossed the Mississippi River—briefly, since as soon as runners stepped on one side of the giant river, they turned around and sped back—and then continued on through campus to a festive finish line at U of M's Bierman Track and Field Stadium.

For more than an hour, runners and walkers alike coursed across the finish line in a colorful stream of pleasant exhaustion. While everyone showed courage by completing the event, the 165 transplant athletes—who mixed seamlessly with their fellow competitors—showed vital lives are possible, even probable, in their post-transplant conditions.

Fastest transplant athlete of the day was Timothy Renzelmann of Team Wisconsin, who earned his fourth gold medal of the Games when he crossed the finish line in 18 minutes and 37 seconds. Renzelmann was also third overall, as only two non-transplant runners were faster. Lisa Turgeon, of Team Upper Midwest, was the overall female transplant champ as she covered the 3.1 mile route in 27:53.