Sherlynn Everly and her husband, Jim Clark (no. 8594) finish the 2005 8K Run on the bricks of Saginaw Street.

Has it really been 30 years?

Thirty years since former state House Speaker Bobby Crim dreamed up the idea to help the fledging Michigan Special Olympics movement? Thirty years since Lois Craig took on the leadership of what has become one of the best-known races in America?

Thirty years since Ed Wiberg started off in the noonday sun to run 10 miles through the City of Flint in dress shoes? Thirty years since Mark Bauman started the second of his two running streaks; the Crim and the Boston Marathon?

Thirty years since England's Steve Kenyon hastened down the red- brick streets of the birthplace of General Motors? Thirty years of featuring stars such as Greg Meyer, Herb Lindsay, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Ed Eyestone, Joan Benoit, Patti Catalano, Catherine Ndereba and Brian Sheriff?

Thirty years of one of the great apres running parties of all time?

Thirty years of outstanding race coverage by the Flint Journal?

Thirty years in which the thrill of the race was captured by Jim Gaver, Kathrine Switzer, Joe Henderson, Scott Hubbard, Jennie McCafferty and the cameras of ESPN, WFUM and GLSP?

Well, not quite. But when this year's race starts begins Aug. 26, the 30th Crim will blast into history.

One constant through Crim's three decades has been the excellence of its race directors. It began with Lois Craig, then the torch was passed to Laurie McCann, Anne Gault, Sherlynn Everly and Deb Kiertzner.

They are the Grande Dames of the Crim. Their leadership has taken the race from its modest 10-mile debut in 1977 to a world-class event that successfully added an 8K in 1987, a 5K Family Walk and Teddy Bear Trot in 1988, then became the Crim Festival of Races in 1992.

Craig established Crim as one of the world's great 10-mile road races. The event's first director visited other high-profile U.S. races to invite top athletes to Flint. She became a bigtime director during her tenure; luminaries such as Fred Lebow would swiftly return her calls.

She fleshed out the director's position from a volunteer role to where there was money to hire a staff. Craig got ESPN involved in the Crim, gaining national coverage and elite U.S. road race status.

Craig served from 1976 to 1993 and has tons of memories of her efforts. Some of her favorite runners include Meyer, Sheriff, Brian Myers (who was blind), Jerry Traylor (had MS and ran with the help of crutches) and three-time winner Lisa Wiedenbach.

She remembers other contributors who made the Crim great, like Dean Howe of the Flint Journal, Jon Harpst who assisted her in the early days, the legendary Wiberg, Gaver of WFUM-TV, and the inseparable John Gault and Bauman. She said Bauman, whose running streak includes 38 Bostons and all 29 Crims so far, had the sexiest legs of all the runners.

Crim officials honored her efforts by naming one of the festival's runs The Lois Craig Special Olympics Invitational.

McCann, the second of the Grand Ladies, continued to build on the foundation prepared by Craig. She added the 8K and Teddy Bear Trot to the schedule, and began to offer prize money instead of appearance money. She continued to expand the scope and market for the run.

McCann, now marketing director for the Rock Financial Showcase in Novi, said her experience with Crim was instrumental in positioning her for the job.

If you are a Michigan runner, Anne Gault has probably supplied your results to a race director. She and her husband, John, own and operate Gault Race Management, one of the premier finish-line companies in North America.

Anne began assisting McCann in 1994, then replaced her, serving as race director from 1996 to 1999.

Gault expanded the Crim through a year-round focus. She helped found the Crim Training Program and Feeling Good Mileage Club, a school running effort, working with youth coordinator Marty Austin on the latter.

She began and developed the Crim Kids Classic. She increased staff by adding a fulltime marketing director, a part-time office administrator, and a technical operations and youth director.

Gault said a highlight of her involvement was drawing more than 15,000 participants in 1996.

Everly was a convert to the Crim in action and deeds. In taking the reins from Gault, she became a runner who sampled one of her own products in her last days as race director.

Everly, who served from 1999 to 2004, felt her biggest accomplishments were to maintain the festival's excellence and national exposure. She was one of the first women on the Running USA board.

She got involved with Crim training programs and went through one of them. "I knew you could prepare for the Crim in 15 weeks, because I did it myself," she said.

Among Everly's favorite memories is the relationship she developed with Ndereba, one of the world's best runners. "I remember when Catherine bought her whole family over during Crim week. It was special," she said.

Everly did a year of consulting and speaking after she left Crim, then jumped back into management when the Flint Industrial Mutual Association (IMA) directorship opened up. She has a large staff and is putting her considerable skills to work there. She continues assisting Crim youth running programs too.

We met Crim's new management team, CEO Gerry Meyers and director Kiertzner, at an open house introducing them to the community. Board president Mark Yonan announced big plans for the festival and was excited about their ability to follow through.

Kiertzner and Meyers brought a nice touch to last year's 29th running by sharing race history via panels in the Genesee Bank building, which also served as the media area. The display allowed runners old and new to observe the past greatness of the event.

The new team has brought additional resources to the festival, including a three-year, half-million-dollar grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation. Funds will be used to maintain and expand fitness programs, with an emphasis on Flint's youth.

In her 15 months as director, Kiertzer says she has been overwhelmed by the runners' passion and the community's support.

The 30th running of the Crim will bring more excitement to the community. The Journal's Christofer Machniak says the newspaper is preparing a book, "The Long Blue Line of the Crim" for the event. It will be a "coffee table" type volume, Kiertzer says.

Michigan Runner will feature its usual array of print and online stories for this year's race, and also beef up its television coverage with interviews of past and present race personalities including Kenyon, Rodgers and Kim Merritt.

Crim week will begin Thursday evening with a reception for the 25 persons who have run all the Crims so far. A panel, called "The Legends of the Crim," will discuss the event on Friday.

Meyer, who these days recruits elite athletes for the Crim, has put together another great international field and will be a part of the "Legends" panel. So will Gaver, the recently-retired director of Flint's WFUM-TV, which has telecast every Crim since the station signed on 26 years ago.

So mark down that date, Aug. 26, for the 30th running of the Crim.

Art McCafferty is the publisher of Michigan Runner. MR