‘RUNNING WITH THE BULLS’: Annual Musk Ox Farm event a community favorite

PALMER — Grins belied the gloomy Sunday sky at the Musk Ox Farm on Sunday, where dozens gathered for the 14th annual “Running with the Bulls” race and related festivities.

Farm director Mark Austin said the crowd was a bit smaller than usual, but no less enthusiastic about running 1, 5 and 10-kilometer distances around the musk ox pens.

“I love looking out and seeing all these people enjoying this property,” Austin said, of the 75-acre farm.

The low-key race has become a tradition for many participants, making the event as much a reunion as anything else.

Colony High School graduate Kenny Conaway (2010) said he’s been running with the bulls for about 8 years now, ever since he joined the cross country team in high school. As an animal lover — he currently works at Wasilla Veterinary Clinic — the race quickly became a favorite.

“I like running through the fields with the musk ox,” Conaway said. “It’s fun to watch them run past me.”

Although participants and musk oxen are separated by fences at all times, the creatures do often run during the race, literalizing the attention-grabbing name of the event.

In fact, Austin said, the name of the race is what drew the foreign, female 10k winner off the highway and onto the farm for the competition. Austin said she came to Alaska from France to go sightseeing with friends, and left shortly after her finish to continue her tour of the Matanuska Valley.

Closer to home, but experiencing the race also for the first time, was 9-year-old Wasilla resident Eric Edwards, who completed the course in a wheelchair with the help of Palmer runners Allison Qualls and Stefan Johnson.

Edwards has cerebral palsy and is mostly nonverbal, but smiled big when asked if he had fun.

Qualls said she had run the race once before, two years ago, but never pushing a wheelchair.

“It was definitely a different experience,” she said. Qualls, a 2015 graduate of Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, said she got to know Edwards through her mother, who works for the Mat-Su Borough School District and Alyeska Therapy Center as a physical therapist. Qualls also works at the Alyeska Center now, and often assists with Edwards’ care.

She said she’d like to run with Edwards again, but maybe “something with more pavement” next time.

There’s something particularly special about the Musk Ox Run, though, as it is also called.

Anchorage resident Terri Morganson, who’s run the race five or six times now with her husband Mike, said she loves an excuse to visit the Valley, and especially the farm. “We love coming up here … not because it’s a 5k, but because it’s an event at The Musk Ox Farm,” she said.

“Running with the Bulls” is one of three annual fundraisers held at the farm, along with a Mother’s Day celebration to kick off the tourist season in May and the newly minted “Oxtoberfest,” which debuted last year with Alaska Farmland Trust. This year’s Oxtoberfest is set for Saturday, Oct. 1.

Austin said the race doesn’t always haul in an ox load of money, but is clearly loved by the community.

“It’s not always a good fundraiser, but it’s always a good fun-raiser,” he said.

Bob Fairchild, of the local Sourdough Biscuits band, who’s played at the event the last few years, agreed.

“Even though it’s people here to run, it’s always a very appreciative audience,” Fairchild said, while solo bluegrass musician Melissa Beck was serenading the crowd. “Seeing the kids sing and dance along definitely makes it worthwhile.”

Austin said the event wouldn’t be what it is without the door prize sponsors, musicians, vendors and volunteers.

“There’s a lot that goes into it,” he said.

This year, for example, about 20 volunteers came from the Anchorage crisis intervention organization Standing Together Against Rape (STAR) to help out. STAR will host its own race at The Musk Ox Farm on Sept. 16.

For more information about the farm and upcoming events, visit www.muskoxfarm.org, www.facebook.com/muskoxfarm.org, or call 745-4151.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.