It is 5 a.m. on July 24 and Liberty Park is alive with energy, music already sounding throughout the park.
The sun hasn’t fully risen over the Wasatch Mountains, but Salt Lake City is awake, the venue set for the 55th Deseret News Marathon, commemorating the day when Latter-day Saint pioneers set foot in the Salt Lake Valley after a grueling journey west.
By 7:15 a.m., the finish line is a celebration zone as 10k runners begin streaming in. A Chick-fil-A team and their mobile kitchen, a 40-foot-long truck, one of only three in the nation, is buzzing with activity as workers prepare what area marketing director Heather Jackman calls “the best tasting free chicken sandwich anyone has ever had.”
“Watch,” says Chick-fil-A franchise owner-operator Dusty Pyne, gesturing toward the growing line of exhausted runners. The scene tells the story. The tired athletes are lining up for a celebration meal — a chicken sandwich at 7:30 in the morning.
By 7:30 a.m., they’ve already handed out approximately 1,000 sandwiches, with 4,000 more ready for finishers yet to come.
Around the finish area, other Utah businesses gathered to support the community — with Creamies, Kizik, Shasta, Blue Unicorn and Symbol Arts all handing out free food or swag to runners and participants.
More than 3,000 participants from across the nation came to run in one of the longest-running marathon events west of the Mississippi. The Deseret News Marathon features a unique racing atmosphere. The races are integrated with the historic Days of ‘47 Parade route, where cheering crowds waiting for the parade to start line portions of the course.
A mother-daughter duo from Colorado running in the 5K loved the built-in cheering environment along the parade route and have hopes to make running in the event a yearly tradition.
During Thursday’s first-ever 1K run, Utah’s first lady, Abby Cox, joined children and Special Olympics Utah participants. Even the Chick-fil-A cow got a workout in, trotting alongside the kids before helping distribute medals at the finish.
When asked what her favorite part of the morning was, Cox said, “It’s when our friends with intellectual disabilities get to come here and feel like everybody else. So many people are here, the community’s here.
“This is the time to celebrate Utah’s heritage, the Days of ’47, and this is an opportunity for all of us to really think about what inclusion means.
“If you think about how Utah was started as a state, there were religious refugees, people that didn’t feel like they belonged, that were actually ostracized because of their religious beliefs. And here we are celebrating inclusion, coming together as a community, all of us. And so there’s no better partnership than Special Olympics, because that’s what Special Olympics is all about — building community, creating a place where everyone belongs.”
In the spirit of those first pioneers who built a community from nothing but faith and determination, today’s Utahns, whether lifelong residents or first-time visitors, find common ground in celebration, service, physical challenge and the simple joy of a free celebration meal and swag.
