TF North teachers run 50 miles in 50 hours to raise money for scholarships | Sports

For the second straight year, the TF North teachers and friends ran to raise money for scholarships for the school’s seniors.

After being launched last year as the Endurance 24 Challenge and covering 24 miles in 24 hours from Cedar Lake to Calumet City, this year’s event was upped to 50 miles in 50 hours.

As before, they finished with eight laps around the TF North track on an overcast Sunday afternoon, accompanied by about two dozen family and friends — as well as one dog.

Adding additional legs made for some interesting logistical hurdles as well as better scenery.

“I think some of the memorable moments were sleeping on some blow-up mattresses out of the back of my car,” Altenburg said.

“The weather was rather adventurous,” Russo said, with Altenburg adding, “the heat and the hills were not my friend.”

This year’s itinerary expanded to include high school stops at Mount Carmel in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood and Shepard in southwest suburban Palos Heights. Dan Burke, Mount Carmel’s cross country coach and a classmate of Russo there in the class of 1998, joined them for the entire 50-mile odyssey.

Whatever logistical challenges there were from hauling gear around were offset by the beauty of their new routes, according to Russo.

“It was the coolest part of it — going to different locations and different sites, Lake Shore Drive being one of them,” he said. “We met up with the cross country team (at Shepard), the coach and maybe seven or eight runners.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, where do you want to go?'”

That wound up being a four-mile trek on the area’s trails. “Made it a little bit more difficult, but definitely more scenic and one of our cooler routes,” Russo said.

Through Sunday afternoon, the event had raised $12,181, a number that’s expected to grow as more donations are finalized.

That will help Russo and Altenburg fund their third round of scholarship awards. The first, announced last spring, and the second, revealed earlier this month, provided aid for nine TF North students.

This year’s recipients, who received $1,000 each, all are college-bound. The fund also can cover costs of students headed to the military or trade school.

“Our hopes are that this is something they remember and down the road, it’s something they pay forward,” Russo said. “That’s where change happens. It doesn’t just happen overnight, but it’s small things that hopefully do (make it happen).”

Russo and Altenburg already are talking about next year. That’s both in terms of coming up with a different challenge — maybe eight straight hours of running in a relay format — and bringing in more schools to partner with.

The Endurance 24 Challenge began earlier in the pandemic, when the organizers saw an especially clear need to help their students navigate the COVID era’s challenges. But however the event looks next year and whatever happens with the pandemic, the need isn’t going away.

“This was something we talked about regardless of COVID,” Altenburg said. “That was just kind of an added-on thing that some of our kids go through. The stories that we heard this year — it’s something that was needed regardless of the pandemic. 

“Whether COVID is here or it’s gone, (the help is) going to be something that some of these kids need, that some of these families need.”