By Erik Lettuce and Tomato Squire

In June the Twilight 5k was held at SMCC in support of the Maine Cancer Foundation. When I found out about the college offering free registration to a small number of students I decided “why not?” Then came the difficult part; I had to somehow elicit a $100 minimum donation to participate. After trying for weeks to get a big business to sponsor me to no avail, I gave up and tried my luck elsewhere. I realized I’d have to go smaller and that’s when B-Good came to mind! B-Good is a Portland restaurant that buys from local farms and makes (as their slogan goes) Real. Food. Fast. Or as I like to call it, fast food with a heart.

I went to their 15 Exchange St location and talked to Bill Zolper (the owner of the place) to pitch my story. Unlike the big business, Mr. Zolper got right back to me and not only did he say he would sponsor me but also that he and two others would be joining me in the run. To my good fortune it turned out that they regularly ran in races such as the Boston Marathon and various 5Ks. There was one stipulation; he asked how I felt about wearing a burger suite. I thought to myself “Is that all?” “Sure!”

On the day of the race a lot of people came up to us to take pictures of the “burger brigade.” It’s not every day that people get to see four guys running around with tomatoes and onion rings attached to their waists. I’ve never heard so many burger jokes in my life!

After the race (I ran it in 23:01mins, oh yeah!) Bill Zolper, Logan Russel, Alex Kee, and I grabbed some great refreshments. There was even free beer, though not exactly my beverage of choice after running three miles. After cooling down a bit we joked about Mr. Russel thinking that he won a prize, only to later find out that he actually won 3^rd place in the 20-29 age division!

The entire evening was a very memorable event. It was fantastic running alongside such motivated caring people as the twilight runners. There were seventy year old runners who kept up with the best of us. Most of the people there were undoubtedly affected by cancer in some form or another and one could see the passion they felt and put into their effort.

I would like to extend special thanks to the guys from B-Good. That day you really were what you eat, GOOD burgers.