In a move Pat Tillman would have made, former ASU athletic trainer Perry Edinger refuses to rest on his laurels.
Edinger attracted 5,578 participants for Pat's Run, a 4.2-mile race that ended Saturday morning at the 42-yard line inside Sun Devil Stadium. He raised an estimated $100,000 for the Pat Tillman Foundation. And he provided another chance for an American hero to be remembered.
That's not enough.
Edinger has tentative plans to hold the second annual Pat's Run on April 15, 2006. He anticipates the race could draw as many as 10,000 people, especially if the start time is moved ahead a half-hour to prevent conditions from becoming too hot.
Almost everything went according to plan on race day, Edinger said. Volunteers ran out of Under Armour shirts for people who pre-registered, but they had more than enough cotton T-shirts to compensate for the shortcoming.
"The things that went wrong, people didn't know about," Edinger said. "And that's the biggest thing right there."
Edinger said it's possible that the start line, located along Rio Salado Parkway, could be expanded next year. That would enable runners to line up across four lanes, reducing the logjam out of the chute.
Former ASU football coach Bruce Snyder attended Pat's Run, along with several former Sun Devils, including Levi Jones, Adam Archuleta, Keith Poole and Vince Amey. Snyder admitted he was surprised by the turnout.
"It shows that the Valley really appreciates Pat," said Snyder, who coached Tillman for four years at ASU. "There's a chemistry between he and the public and vice versa. And he loved it here."
Jones echoed Snyder's sentiments.
"He would have been happy about this," Jones said about Pat's Run. "It's real good to see all the fans come out and show their support for Pat and what he did and what he stood for."
ASU football coach Dirk Koetter insists that Tillman's spirit motivated him to bear the 4.2 miles.
"I just have respect for what kind of a guy Pat Tillman was," Koetter said.
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
