By Matt de Simone
For four decades, runners have gathered in Fincastle each fall to test themselves on the hills of the county seat.
The First Bank Fall Run, then known as The Bank of Fincastle Fall Run, will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. But the history of organized road racing in Fincastle reaches back even farther, to a community event organized by Richard and Patty King several years before the bank became involved.
The Kings organized the first Fincastle race in 1981, holding the event in conjunction with the Fincastle Festival. With help from Danny and Elaine Kyle, the Kings put together a race intended to bring more people to the festival while giving local runners a competitive event of their own.
The proceeds went to the Fincastle Rescue Squad, while Sheriff Norman Sprinkle organized traffic control. Edith Noble, who operated an Art Barn off U.S. 220, printed the race T-shirts.
The first year featured a three-mile course. The following year, the event expanded to separate 5K and 10K races—a course layout that would eventually become the foundation for The Bank of Fincastle race and remains recognizable today.
The 5K course carried runners through Fincastle, with a turnaround near Cemetery Hill, before returning to the finish at what was then Botetourt Intermediate School, now Central Academy Middle School. The 10K followed the same route through town before heading out Muse Road and returning to the school.
The Kings handled much of the work themselves.
Rather than the medals commonly associated with modern races, winners received handmade wooden and bronze plaques in age categories ranging from 9 and under to 70 and older.
Race times were calculated manually with stopwatches, with results written by hand on a statistics board.
Despite the primitive technology, the event quickly developed a reputation among runners.
“It became a popular run for experienced runners because of the hilly course challenge,” Patty King recalled. “The competitive nature of the runners was evident.”
The race was held for three years, from 1981 through 1983. After the 1983 event, however, the Kings had to discontinue it after the festival asked that the race be moved to another date and the cost of putting on the event became difficult to manage.
The racing tradition did not disappear for long.
According to First Bank, the idea for a new road race in Botetourt County began with four men: Richard Pauley, Alvin Smith, Mark Bennett and Richard King.
Pauley, a business owner and cross-country advocate, approached the bank in 1985. The bank’s Board of Directors viewed the idea as an opportunity for community involvement and outreach.
Pauley continued to coordinate the race for 30 years.
Pauley’s recollection of how The Bank of Fincastle race came together provides another piece of the story. A longtime runner who trained for marathons, Pauley had noticed races being held in the Roanoke Valley and wondered why Botetourt County did not have a similar event.
“Why can’t we have something like this in Botetourt?” Pauley recalled asking himself.
Pauley approached his friend, neighbor and then Bank of Fincastle President John Kilby about putting on a race in Botetourt. Kilby encouraged him to present the idea to the board.
After Pauley made his pitch, Bank Chairman Harry Mac Williamson called him at home.
“We’ve decided to do it with one condition—we want it done first class,” Williamson told him, according to Pauley.
Pauley went on to serve as race director from 1987 through 2016.
The bank-sponsored event began in 1987 with 155 participants, according to First Bank.
The race quickly began looking for ways to expand its reach. Three years after the event began, elementary, middle school and open team competitions were established.
Those competitions would become an important part of the race’s identity.
Today, schools account for the largest portion of the race’s participants. The Fall Run awards trophies to elementary schools with the most runners and the highest percentage of runners participating.
The connection between the race and local schools has also helped make the event increasingly multigenerational. First Bank said participation by parents and grandparents alongside student runners has increased considerably over the years.
The bank’s involvement has remained consistent throughout that evolution.
While the race has changed considerably in some ways, First Bank said employee involvement and support have not diminished. Many of the volunteers who make the race possible are bank employees, while the bank remains the event’s major sponsor and continues to receive support from local businesses.
The course itself, meanwhile, has remained largely unchanged.
What has changed is how the race is organized and timed. The early event relied on manual systems, with organizers using physical charts, dots and clipboards to track participants. Today, electronic timing handles the process.
The evolution is something Pauley witnessed first-hand during his three decades coordinating the event.
Pauley previously described the race as “labor-intensive” during its early years, when organizers had to manually keep track of runners. Technology eventually replaced much of that work with electronic systems, phones and other tools.
The Kings also remember bank employees working intersections, cheering runners along the course and helping make the revived race a community event. Boy Scouts staffed water stops, while awards that had once been announced in the parking lot eventually moved into the school gymnasium, with Pauley serving as emcee.
The race’s competitive reputation also helped attract accomplished runners from outside the immediate area.
First Bank specifically pointed to Olympian Steve Taylor and his wife, Lori, as longtime participants and supporters, along with national champion race walker Ray Funkhouser.
File photos
In 1990, Steve and Lori Taylor set 5K course records that First Bank says still stand. Steve’s time was 14:49, while Lori’s was 18:35.
The race has also been part of the development of running in Botetourt County. According to First Bank, cross country and indoor track were not offered at the county’s high schools before the Fall Run began.
Since the race’s inception, many high school runners have won the event.
And not every memorable moment has involved a stopwatch.
First Bank recalls that a bear was seen on the race course before and during the event in two consecutive years.
The Fall Run’s connection to local students eventually extended beyond participation and competition.
The race’s scholarship program began in 1994 with a single $1,000 scholarship. In 2018, the program expanded to two $1,000 scholarships awarded annually.
Applicants must have competed in at least one Fall Run event, provide letters of recommendation and be involved in a running sport in high school.
In recent years, the race has continued to demonstrate the breadth of its appeal.
In 2023, 327 of the 546 runners—60% of the field—were 17 or younger, most representing Botetourt County Public Schools. The field also included 18 runners age 65 or older.
The 2023 race also included $2,000 in scholarships from First Bank and the Botetourt Rotary Club for students from James River and Lord Botetourt High Schools.
More than 600 runners took part in the 35th annual race in 2021.
The 2024 event attracted 636 entrants, the most since 2019, with all seven Botetourt elementary schools and both middle schools represented.
Last year’s 39th annual event drew 669 runners, according to First Bank. Despite an altered route necessitated by courthouse construction, runners once again filled the streets of Fincastle. The bank said at the time that planning was already underway for the 40th anniversary race.
For someone who has never participated, First Bank said the Fall Run’s appeal comes in part from its inclusiveness.
The race welcomes runners of all abilities without excluding young runners, the bank said, and provides the same quality of event for the last finisher as the first.
It also offers something that has remained constant since those earliest Fincastle races: a challenging course through a scenic part of Southwest Virginia.
For Patty and Richard King, the significance of the Fall Run is not simply the number of runners who now line up outside Central Academy Middle School each October.
They remember when the event consisted of a few local organizers, handmade awards, stopwatches and a course laid out through the streets of Fincastle.
They remember putting on the first races because they thought a community event would bring something positive to the festival and to the town.
And they remember watching the race they started eventually become something much larger.
Patty said the three original races “laid the groundwork and course” for The Bank of Fincastle/First Bank Fall Run that exists today.
“Those first three races ignited a spark and made the running community realize the fun, competition and mental health benefits a community foot race could generate,” she said.
Four decades after the Bank of Fincastle revived the event, that spark is still visible each fall when runners of all ages gather in Fincastle.
What began with the Kings’ small community race in 1981 was revived with the backing of The Bank of Fincastle in 1987 and evolved over the years through the efforts of the bank, schools, the Rotary Club, volunteers, first responders and countless local runners into one of the area’s longstanding community traditions.
First Bank said this year’s 40th anniversary is about more than reaching the finish line. It is an opportunity to celebrate 40 years of neighbors coming together, volunteers giving their time, local businesses lending their support and families creating memories across generations.
The bank said the community and its runners have, by and large, taken ownership of the event, with many participants returning year after year.
And for the 40th time since the bank took up the torch, the hills of Fincastle will provide the challenge.
This year’s First Bank Fall Run takes place Saturday morning, Oct. 17, at Central Academy Middle School.
Register now at https://runsignup.com/Race/VA/Fincastle/FirstBankFallRun.
