Almost like it was yesterday, I remember the weekend afternoon when my running friend Bob Willey came rambling up on my front porch and tapped at the door. Willey had his dog in tow, as he often did on his daily afternoon run that passed by my house. I knew his interlude at my home was to try and get me to join him on the jaunt up Mitchell Creek road to a place he had named Sequoia Glen. He took that beautiful journey up the mountain to his peaceful spot religiously, and on most days, I laced up the old Asics Tigers and joined him.

But not on this day.

Being a basketball fan and certainly a follower of most Colorado sports teams, I was surprised that he wasn’t watching game number 7 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs between the Denver Nuggets and Seattle Supersonics.

“Hey Willey, I’m not going right now,” I said to him as he entered my house. “The game is in the fourth quarter, and the Nuggets have a chance!”

With a jovial and a bit of a mesmerized look, he stretched out in the easy chair that I usually vacated when he entered, and we watched history in the making as the Nuggets became the first-ever #8 seeded team to knock off a #1 seed in NBA playoff history.

Everyone is familiar with the story and the final TV shot of Denver’s 7’2′ center Dikembe Mutombo cradling the ball like it was his first born, prone on the Seattle Center Coliseum floor after grabbing a rebound of a last-ditch Sonic shot. The look on Mutombo’s face is one of pure elation and it has been chronicled many times through the years on NBA promotion ads. Willey and I were jumping around for joy, as I would imagine most of the city of Denver was.

During Mutombo’s tenure as a Nugget, Willey had often talked about staging a run that was 7.2 miles in length, in honor of the big man from the Congo’s height. We would all do the long loop up the Scout Trail and come down the southern exposure through the Linwood Cemetary. He said we would call it the Mutombo Grumble due to the rough and hilly nature of the run.

As we bounced along together up the hill that day after the game, filled with youth, guile, and spunkiness, Willey mentioned the Grumble again. We both felt now would be as good a time as any, with the calendar saying April and spring in the air. Not to mention the Nuggets now seated in the captain’s chair on cloud 9.

Unfortunately, we didn’t pull it off, words never morphed into action. Willey has been gone 10 years now and Dikembe Mutombo recently passed away in late September. Both men fought a brave battle with cancer.

When I heard about Mutombo’s passing, and with Willey’s run up to Sequoia Glen now being my running ritual, I decided that my mantra should be, “Better late than never.”

So even though it’s not run on the Scout Trail and it’s less than half of Willey’s desired 7.2 miles, the Mutombo Grumble has been born! On Sunday morning, November 10, the run up Mitchell Creek to Sequoia Glen (and back down again) will take on the identity of the Mutombo Grumble 5k. It’s certainly not an easy run, and it’s actually 3.25 miles, but it honors a couple of legendary fellows and follows a course that I believe is filled with beautiful spirits.

The Grumble will start at 10am and the $10 entry fee will be sent entirely out to local animal shelters. I will even have some horse treats on hand if you want to stop and feed some of my four-legged friends along the way. Race morning registration will start at 9:30. You can call 970-618-7980 if you have any questions.

No humans or animals ever go away from this earth completely if you keep them in your heart. Come out on the 10^th and run or walk. Take time to remember and run for a good cause. It’s the best way to spend a morning.

Glenwood Springs native Mike Vidakovich is a freelance sports writer, teacher and youth sports coach. His column appears monthly in the Post Independent and at PostIndependent.com.