Arts Fest T-Shirts Through The Years
- Details
- Written by Dave Eggler Dave Eggler
Here is a gallery of some Arts Fest T-shirts through the years. Click on any T-shirt thumbnail for a bigger view. If you have a T-shirt from a race not represented here, take a photo of it and send it to Dave Eggler at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Red Raider Rally Run
- Details
- Written by Dave DeGroote Dave DeGroote
The NVRC Indoor Mile Series
- Details
- Written by Administrator Administrator
The Nittany Valley Running Club's 2025 Indoor Mile Series was another success. Again, there were again great match-ups, continuing rivalries, and personal records. The Series will be back for 2026!
The Indoor Mile Series are held in conjunction with three Penn State Indoor Track Meets. The Indoor Miles are the first event at each of the Penn State's Indoor season meets, which are held at the Horace Ashenfelter III Multi-Sport Facility. The Series is open to all adult members of the Nittany Valley Running Club. High school age runners and younger cannot participate in the Indoor Mile Series.
The Indoor Mile Series Is free to all active members of the NVRC.
All mile entrants need to be an active member prior to the meet. If you need to become a member or renew, go to http://nvrun.com/index.php/club/membership. Use the online registration link above to join. There will not be membership registration (written forms) or a check-in table this year in order to limit person-to-person contact. Once heats are determined, approximately a day or so in advance of the meet, you will be emailed instructions as to heat, hip and shoulder numbers, and starting time. The indoor track will not be open for warmups, so come prepared to warmup outside.
The Club will make a donation to the PSU Track and Field Booster Club. If you'd like to add to that donation, bring a few dollars.
In order to be on the roster for a particular meet, you must contact Marty Klanchar at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 12 Noon on the Wednesday before the meet. Please give Marty an idea of your expected finishing time so that he can organize heats. Sign up early! There will be absolutely no race day sign-ups for any of the meets!
The Indoor Mile series is a great way to keep your speed training on schedule during the long winter months. The races give you goals to shoot for. We generally get a wide range of ages, experience, and talent, with times in any race ranging from under 4:30 to over 8:00. So don't by shy!
2026 Series Dates:
Indoor Mile #1: Saturday, January 17. Held in conjunction with the Nittany Lion Challenge. Results
Indoor Mile #2: Friday, January 30. Held in conjunction with the Penn State National. Results
Indoor Mile #3 and 3000 Meter Run: Saturday, February 7. Results.
Indoor Mile Series Information:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Application for NVRC Membership
2026 Indoor Mile Series Final Standings
The 2026 Predicted Mile Contest
The Centre Region Youth Cross-Country Program
- Details
- Written by Administrator Administrator
The Centre Region Youth Cross-Country Program
The Nittany Valley Running Club and Centre Region Park and Recreation are sponsors for cross-country races for Centre Region youth, ages 14 and under. The program began in Fall 1999, and we've had more than 100 kids participating each year. Participation is free!
The Centre Region Youth X-C schedule typically permits two to four meets a year. This Fall (2026), our schedule has three meets:
- Saturday, September 12
- Saturday, October 3
- Saturday, October 17
The races will be held at: Oak Hall Regional Park, located at 120 Linden Hall Road. This is the home course for Joseph's Catholic Adademy. Signup will be on the morning of each race; Parent/Guardian signature required! Here is the sign-up/waiver form.
AWARDS:
Ribbons are given to all runners, and the emphasis is on participation and fun. All children are welcome (whether or not you live in the Centre Region), and there is no fee to participate.
X-C run distances and age groups are based on National AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) standards.
Here are maps of the courses:
Note: This year's start times for age groups are different from previous years!
| As of 12/31/26, if you are: | Your X-C age group is: | X-C Distance |
Start Time |
| 13 or 14 years old | Youth | 4K (2.4 miles) |
8:30 AM |
| 8 years old or younger | Sub-Bantam | 2K (1.2 miles) |
9:00 AM |
| 9 or 10 years old | Bantam | 3K (1.8 miles) |
9:30 AM |
| 11 or 12 years old | Midget | 3K (2.4 miles) |
9:30 AM |
Note: A mix of running/jogging/walking is certainly o.k. We have had children much younger than 8 years old participate, along with a parent or older sibling. It's all about exposure to X-C, having fun, and talking pride in a solid accomplishment!
Questions? Contact -
- Greg Fredericks (814) 466-6976 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Liz Kisenwether (814) 571-3487 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
See the Fall Schedule .
See past youth cross-country results.
First Night State College Resolution Run 5K
- Details
- Written by Administrator Administrator
Resolution Run 5K
The First Night Resolution Run 5K was first run on New Year's Eve, 1997. About 130 hearty souls showed up on a frigid, windy night for the race through downtown State College and the Penn State Campus. Since then, the race has grown every year and has become a much anticipated part of the First Night® State College festivities as well as the start of the local running calendar. Like the Boalsburg Memorial Day Race, the First Night 5K is a "fun run" attracting first time racers, families, kids, out-of-town Christmas visitors, costumed runners (there's a prize for the best costume!), as well as serious competitors. The course is fast, with a relatively mild (by State College standards) hill in the first half-mile, an even milder one in the second mile, and a long downhill to the finish. Well over 700 runners have taken part in recent years' Resolution Runs, and the race keeps on growing: Since 2012, the race has had between 300 and 1000 finishers!
The Resolution Run 5K is part of the First Night® State College festivities. First Night® State College is a day of winter fun, including music, crafts, ice sculptures, indoor and outdoor performances and activities, and a Grand Procession through downtown State College. For more information on First Night, visit the First Night® State College web site.
- Centre Elite Gymnastics
- Drayer Physical Therapy Institute
activities are dated by the coming year, so the 1998 First Night 5K was held on December 31, 1997)
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| 2006 | 2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
| 2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
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| 2019 | 2020 |
2021 (No Race due to COVID) |
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| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Race Information
- First Night 2025: The 28th First Night State College Resolution 5K will be held on December 31, 2024
- Results of the 2024 race are here.
- Race Registration: Registration for the 2025 race will appear here.
- Course Description, Map, and Elevation Profile from the NVRC Maps Pages. Note: The course is being changed a bit this year. It will be similar. We'll post a map when available.
- Runner's Gazette story on the 2000 First Night Resolution Run 5K.
- Marty Mazur on First Night Y2K.
- First Night T-Shirts Through The Years
- Romance On The Run: From Runner's World Women's Weekly, January 7, 2002.
- For information on the First Night Resolution Run 5K, contact Jayson Jackson at Jayson Jackson This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Men's event record: Gavin Gaynor, 1997, 15:11
Men's course record: Artie Gilkes, 2006, 15:15
Created 01/07/04
Knights of Columbus State College Adventure 5K and Kids Races (Historical)
- Details
- Written by Administrator Administrator
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Knights of Columbus State College Adventure 5K
and Kids Races
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| Race Information | Race Sponsors |
The Knights of Columbus Race was retired from the Nittany Valley Running Club calendar in early 2015. This page is being maintained for historical purposes.
History: The Knights of Columbus 5K began in the late 1980s as a family oriented 5K run in a residential neighborhood of State College. After a 4 year hiatus from 1996 to1999, the Knights race was revived in 2000 and has been growing strong. And starting in 2005 the Knights Races included a free 1/4-mile and 1/2-mile races for kids 12 and under!
The Knights Race returned to the Knights Hall in 2014, and to the course that had been run for several years up until 2012. The course is a mix of streets, bike paths, trails, and grassy hills. Because of the mild challenges the course sets, it's a great race for a beginners to take on for their first 5K. With special kids age groups, 5 year age groups for adults, and generous prizes, it's a great race for all!
- Race Day: The Knights of Columbus 5K was offically retired from the NVRC Racing Calendar in early 2015.
- Youth Run: The Youth Runs are held immediately after the 5K. They're held at Orchard Park, a short walk from the Knights Hall. There will be a 1/4-mile and a 1/2-mile race.
- Beneficiary: The Knights of Columbus 5K Race benefits the Schlow Centre Region Library Children's Department.
- Age Groups and Awards: 5K: Overall 1st-3rd place men and women runners. 1st-3rd place for men and women runners in the following categories: Youth: 12 and under, 13-16, 17-19 Adults: 20-24, and 5-year age groups through 80 and over. No awards to runners/walkers finishing after 50 minutes.
- Course Information: Here is a map of the course.
- Beginning Runner's Challenge: The Knights of Columbus 5K is the official NVRC Beginner's 5K. While runners of all abilities run the Knights race because its relatively easy course helps ensure a good finishing time, we will have special incentives for beginners to run the race. If you're a beginning runner, start the Couch-To 5K Program outlined on our Coaching Pages.
- More Information: If you have historical results of the Knights race from years prior to 1995, please contact Marty Mazur at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
(The NVRC would like to collect results and memories from the entire history of
the Knights Race. If you have results from past races, or pictures you'd like to share,
please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Knights of Columbus 5K Results From Some Previous Years:
| 1991 | 1992 | - | 1994 |
| 1995 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| 2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
| 2007 | 2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
Created 06/05/04
Arts Fest Lore
- Details
- Written by Administrator Administrator
by Marty Mazur
(a shorter version of this article appeared The Voices of Central Pennsylvania, July/August 2003)
The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts Road Race will be held for the 28th time on Sunday, July 13. The “Arts Fest Race” is regarded with a mixture of affection and dread by the local running community. It’s always been one of the longest races in town, and is certainly one of the most grueling. It will be a hot, humid morning. Arts Fest kind of guarantees that. The locals call it “Arts Fest Weather”. And winners of the race, after replenishing their fluids and electrolytes, will relish their victory in “a race steeped in lore”…
The Arts Fest Race started in 1976 as the brainchild of Marie Doll, an avid local runner and community volunteer. Marie got the race going with the help of Penn State track coach Harry Groves and the Nittany Valley Track Club. The race started out as a small affair, with 125 runners finishing the first race. Prizes were acquired from the artists (mostly local at the time) whose booths and tables lined the Festival sidewalks. The Nittany Valley Running Club, as the old Track Club is now known, has kept up the running tradition in State College and continues to put on the Arts Fest race.
In the 1970s and early 80s, American distance running was in its heyday, and the Arts Fest race rode the crest of that phenomenon. The race was fed by a very strong local running community, which included world class runners, not only at Penn State, but in the surrounding area. Companies such as HRB Singer had strong running clubs. By the early 1980s, race attendance was near 1000 runners. The State College running community was close knit. Large post-race barbecues replaced the fluids and calories lost by runners during the morning’s exertion.
The Arts Fest race started out as a 10 miler, with the course changing a little bit every year. The course used to start out on Fox Hollow Rd close to the airport, head down the steep decline on Rock Road, up through Houserville, out onto Rte 26, and then up the long hill on East College, finishing in front of Penn State’s Allen Street gates. In the mid-80s the race was changed over to a 10K, in large part because of a wane in the fanaticism required to run 10 miles in blistering Arts Fest weather. Now the race makes two loops of the University Park campus on a certified, wheel-measured course that starts and ends near the Intramural Building. At least that’s the theory. Summer road construction and Penn State’s perpetual building boom have forced race planners to continue the tradition of “a different course every year”. The upside is that every year produces a new “course record”.
Greg Fredericks has fond memories of the early Arts Festival races. Fredericks ran track and cross-country for Penn State in the early 70s. He set an American record in the 10,000 meters on the track in 1972. After graduating, Greg continued to compete, winning the American cross-country championship in 1975 and landing a spot on the 1980 Olympic team in the 10,000 meters. The 1980 team never saw Olympic competition due to the American boycott of the Moscow games.
Greg is now 53 years old, and though he can still run people half his age into the ground, he hasn’t raced in 17 years. But local runners remember that Greg owned the early years of the Arts Fest race, winning six of the first seven races. In the early races, Greg’s main competition was the Penn State running teams, whose members tried in vain to beat their older rival. The only Penn Stater to win the race in the first seven years was George Malley. The year was 1980, and Greg Fredericks was in Berlin for a pre-Olympic track meet. In the storied early races, the lead pack could be counted on to run the first mile in under 4-and-a-half minutes and blaze through the 10 mile course, sometimes in less than 50 minutes. Now, it is unusual for runners to break 5 minutes per mile on the shorter course.
The most often told Fredericks story centers on his efforts to get to the 1978 race. On the morning of the Arts Fest race, Greg was returning on the red-eye from Berkeley, California, where he’d run a race the previous day. Despite a nearly sleepless flight, Greg was determined to make the starting gun at the Arts Fest race. At a 6 AM changeover in Detroit, Greg changed over to his running clothes. The next flight took him to Pittsburgh, where he had arranged with the pilot of a small plane, who looked for any excuse to fly, to take him to State College. Greg was on the ground in State College at five to nine, and Greg’s wife Anne drove him down the road to the starting line in time for Greg to do a toe-touch to warm up. The starting gun went off at 9. Fredericks started well behind another Penn State great, Paul Stemmer, but gained on him the entire race and finally caught him about a mile from the finish.
Like the Tour de France, the Arts Fest race has its share of legendary five time winners. Sue Crowe was the first woman to take the laurels five times. Sue won the race three times when it was a 10 miler and twice since it became a 10K. Sue preferred the race when it was longer and ended in front of Old Main, but still shows up for the double looper, taking a Master’s prize now and then. Sue, 47, and her husband Bob have raised six kids, all runners. The older ones have distinguished themselves in high school and collegiate running, and the youngest are showing a lot of promise in that direction.
Wendy Nelson-Barrett has also won five times. She dominated the race while a student at Penn State, taking the title in 1989, 1990, and 1991. She later returned to take the crown in 1993, and again in 1998.
The Arts Fest race went through a few lean attendance years in the early 90s when the sport was on the wane. But the race has been gathering steam again. Last year the race attracted over 500 runners for the first time in years. The Nittany Valley Running Club wants to attract people from all over the region, and is looking forward to a 1000-runner race soon.
Marty Mazur, a Penn State researcher, is active in local running. He edits the Nittany Valley Running Club newsletter. The club web site is http://www.nvrun.com. Marty can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..