Running Wild Adventure Race organizers regroup after wildfires

In early May, retired attorney Jamie Kee was preparing for the Running Wild Adventure Race, a 3.75-mile course on a ranch he owns with his brother near Mooreland. The race was organized to raise money to support Legal Aid Services of Oklahomans Woodward office and was scheduled for June 14. But the race was postponed after wildfires on May 4 scorched the ranch.

“We have   about   2,500   acres   and about   2,400   acres   burned,” Kee said. “We had to move all our cattle.  We only lost two or three head of cattle, but we had major issues with fencing.”

Although Running Wild was planned as an adventure race with natural and man-made obstacles, Kee and his two event co-chairpersons, Erin Kirksey, Kee’s daughter and a Woodward attorney, and Richard Kirksey, Kee’s son-in-law, were forced to postpone the race.

“It was not a clean site,” Kee said of the fire-scorched ranch.  About 80 percent of the trees on the ranch were destroyed.

“We have had cattle roaming free because the fire destroyed a lot of fences,” Kee said last week.

But now the ranch is starting to turn green again after recent rains, fence builders are coming to the ranch and the race has been rescheduled for Sept. 20.

“After the fire it looked a bit like Mars with the Oklahoma red dirt,” Richard Kirksey said. “But it is starting to green up again and it will be fine for the race.”

Richard and Erin Kirksey live in a house on the ranch.   They thought their home had been destroyed by the wildfire.

“We talked with the fire chief and he said the house was probably gone,” said Richard Kirksey, who works for American Fidelity Assurance Co. “So we assumed the house was gone.”  But when they returned to the ranch after the fire, their home was still standing.  The fire got within about 15 feet of the house.

“We  went  back  down  there to  see what   happened and  sure   enough the house  was  still  sitting  there,”  Richard Kirksey said. “There was this little plot of green surrounded by black, but after the   rains   things   are starting to turn green again.”

Now  Kee,  his  son-in-law, daughter and  other race  organizers are  working to  prepare the  ranch for  the  rescheduled Running Wild.

“We have to rethink the course a little bit but it is still going to happen,” Kee said. “We had some hilly areas that were remote, but the trees burning changed things. But we will still have some of the same obstacles.”

Tires that were going to be among the obstacles burned during the fire.  “We had just put the tires out when we had the fire,” Kee said.  K&S Tire in Woodward is providing replacement tires for Running Wild, he said. Major sponsors for Running Wild are Big Dan’s and K101-FM.

“We will also have natural water obstacles,” Kee said.  “We have a live creek running through the course but we will try to avoid the snakes as much as we can.”

The course will also include canyons, ponds and mud.

Running Wild is part of efforts to raise money for the Woodward Legal Aid office.

Kee has been working with area attorneys and church and community leaders to raise money to hire another family attorney for the Legal Aid office.

“We would like to raise $40,000 to $50,000 or even $60,000,” he said. The money is needed.
The Woodward Legal Aid office services 15 northwest Oklahoma counties, said Gwen Meier, a paralegal and one of two staff members along with attorney Nancy Prigmore. Prigmore also oversees an office in Weatherford with two attorneys, a paralegal and a receptionist.

“We sometimes forget about the families in our community who struggle to make ends meet, and who live in fear and desperation,” said Kee, who recently retired after practicing law for 38 years.

Kee’s career started with Legal Aid.  “My first job was with Legal Aid in Oklahoma City,” he said.  “I interned there when I got out of law school.”

Kee said he hopes Running Wild will attract participants from across Oklahoma. Registration information is available at www.runningwildrace.com.

Plans call for Running Wild to be a recurring event, he said.

“The people of Woodward are known for helping their own,” Kee said. “I am confident they will want to make sure that people who need Legal Aid can obtain that help, and either get back to work or take care of their children.”