Blizzard? No problem. Ice? Runners complain about it, but they still compete. Sunny? Signups double.
"In running," says Pat Caffrey, "there is no bad weather. Only wimpy people."
The Cheetah Herders have existed since Feb. 26, 1979, when, according to group history, Caffrey sought a name "reflecting play and shameless opportunism in the finest English prep school tradition" that also suggested "an illusion of speed, competence and social order."
Six competitive friends formed the original group; to train for other events, they'd been running around the lake on winter Sundays before they settled in for beer and a football game.
The Cheetah Herders' name made them as official as they wanted to be, although they've added some faux-fur cheetah sashes and other get-up through the years.
Eventually, they asked others to join them on their weekend workouts. Thirty-three people showed up for the first official Snow Joke race in 1980. The next year, entries doubled. Last year, a record 261 signed up and 259 finished.
The 13.1-mile course has a charm to it, beginning and ending at the Seeley Lake Grade School and going one lap around the lake on plowed roads. Runners usually hit a "wall of stupidity" at about the 11-mile mark, Caffrey said, but runners who press on find the finish line and, in close proximity, the Filling Station Tavern, where every runner gets a free drink.
"Basically, to have a foot race in the dead of winter in a place where it snows a lot is incongruous," he said, which fits the spirit of the Cheetah Herders. Yet the race has never been canceled and is thought to be the longest continuously offered event in Seeley Lake.
The Cheetahs also are known for another running event: the Le Grizz Ultra-marathon, a 50-mile trek through forests around the Hungry Horse Reservoir in October. This month's Runner's World magazine listed Le Grizz as one of four 50-milers to try, along with the American River Endurance Run that starts in California, the Mount Hood Pacific Crest Trail Ultra in Oregon and the JFK ultra-marathon in Maryland.
Caffrey and Lynn Carey will both be working Saturday, along with scores of volunteers. Caffrey is the event organizer, Carey the timer, so neither will run.
But competition still fuels their lives.
Caffrey, 54, a forester with Plum Creek Timber Co., calls himself a "legend in my own mind." Every year he tackles something unusual, like running 65 miles across the Bob Marshall Wilderness, scuba diving in Belize, completing an ultra-marathon in South Africa or undertaking a major mountain expedition someplace in the world. He's done nine of those.
Carey, 59, who worked for Pyramid Lumber for 27 years and retired as a sawmill supervisor, is a runner, canoer and cross-country skate-skier training for a 25-kilometer skate-ski race in Yellowstone in March. He's a cyclist and trophy hunter, too.
"I'm addicted," he said. "Running is the easiest, and anybody can do it. All you need is some stinky sweats and a pair of shoes, and you're out the door."
"I'm what you'd call a Type A personality. I just can't stand boredom. I want to be going 100 percent, or laying on the couch. Nothing in between.
"I see myself doing this until I die."
Caffrey and Carey are the two founding Cheetah Herders still living full-time in Seeley Lake. John DeLarios now lives in Palo Alto, Calif., and Dave Kesheimer in Kentucky. Doug Mood is in Helena these days, serving as a Montana public service commissioner. And Don Larson summers in Seeley Lake, but lives on his boat someplace warm in winter. So Carey and Caffrey keep the group going.
"We'll continue on," said Carey, serving as "El Presidente" of the Cheetah Herders.
"We don't quit," agreed Caffrey. "I've got another 30 years in me.
"I see myself doing this until I die, too."
Reach reporter Mea Andrews at 523-5246 or mandrews@missoulian.com
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