Editor's note: The 45th annual Switchback Scamper will start at 2 p.m. Sunday in Summit Hill and finish at Mauch Chunk Lake. Here is a story of one participant.

My connection to Carbon County goes back to the roots of the Heycock Family, to the 1850s when the first Heycocks came here from Wales to mine coal. My father Jack was born in Summit Hill, the son of a coal mining family.My family lived in Jim Thorpe when I was young, as my father brought us back to the area when he got a job as a teacher and coach in Jim Thorpe in the late 1950s. My father was inducted into the Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame and is a two-time inductee in the Jim Thorpe Sports Hall of Fame.Several years later, when the running boom started, my father took up running, or jogging, as it was then called. I was in college and hadn't run since high school, but in the fall of 1973 my dad asked me to run with him in something called the "Switchback Scamper."My father finished well ahead of me that day, and that was the end of my running for almost 10 years.In January of 1984 I decided that it was time to do something to increase my level of physical activity, so I took up running, something that I had done 14 years earlier as a cross country runner and a two-miler at Mechanicsburg High School. When I started back into running I struggled to get in a mile without feeling totally exhausted. But I kept at it, and 32 years and 66 marathons later, I'm still running.After finishing the 1984 Switchback Scamper I decided in my heart to always return. As long as there was a Scamper, I would be there.This year will mark my 32nd consecutive participation in the Switchback Scamper. I've run it with my father, my son, many dear friends, and for the last 10 years with my beloved running companions, our Hungarian Vizslas. Shortly after running the Scamper in 2011 with Gulliver and Duncan, Gulliver was diagnosed with canine lymphoma. We continued to run together for another 13 months before Gulliver finished his race against canine lymphoma.I brought Gulliver and Duncan to the Scamper in 2012, but decided to do the 5K walk, as that distance would have been less stressful on Gulliver.Gulliver won first place in the 5K walk that year, two weeks before he died.I have a picture of Gulliver wearing that medal, with Duncan beside him, in front of the pavilion at Mauch Chunk Lake Park.In 2013 I ran the Switchback Scamper with Duncan, our elder Vizsla, and Maisey, our youngest Vizsla, sort of as a remembrance of Gulliver and years past.That year we started a trail run, "Gulliver's Run," at Gifford Pinchot State Park to raise money for the fight against canine cancer.Last year, 2014, my son Ryan, along with Duncan and I, participated in the 5K walk with my father Jack, who at 86 was the oldest participant that year. My father is also a World War II veteran, a 26-year cancer survivor, and has had two knee replacements.)I'm planning to run this year with Maisey and possibly Duncan, who is now almost 11.If my father is able, we will do the 5K walk with him instead. My son Ryan, a second year student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, will join us if his schedule permits.For me there is just no escaping the lure of crisp fall air, the glorious sight of multi-colored leaves, or the crunch of the old switchback railroad bed underfoot on the third Sunday of October in Carbon County.Twenty years ago, the day after our wedding, we drove 125 miles so I could run in the 25th Annual Switchback Scamper. And my beautiful bride helped serve the bean soup after the race!This race will always be special for me. It brings back a lifetime of wonderful memories and presents me with a challenge to continue to follow a tradition in this area which will always be connected to my family's heritage.For information about the event, call Walter Schlenner at 570-325-8342 or Bonnie Hoffman at 610-554-3528.