Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

A competitor in Tuesday's all-comers track meet rounds the first corner of the Homer Bast Track at Roanoke College in the adult 400-meter race.

Three-year-old Clara Harding is coached by her father (right) as she prepares to run in Tuesday's all-comers track meet.

Caleb Kingery (left) shakes hands with Natalie Woodford following the adult 400-meter race on Tuesday.

A baton exchange is made in the 1,600 relay at Tuesday's all-comers track meet, held at Roanoke College.

A baton exchange is made in the 1,600 relay at Tuesday's all-comers track meet, held at Roanoke College.

Four-hundred-meter runners Natalie Woodford and Clara Harding pretty much exemplified the atmosphere at a track meet Tuesday evening at Roanoke College.

A recent graduate of Patrick Henry High School, Woodford starred on the track and will run for Virginia Tech next year.

Clara is 3.

"It's not a big competitive thing," Woodford said of the all-comers meet hosted by the Star City Striders running club and Roanoke College. "There's no pressure.

"It's all about having fun."

Woodford wondered briefly about the non-competitive part when she saw former Northside High and current Arkansas Razorback star Catherine White show up. But White was actually just stopping by while on a training run.

In all, the meet attracted about 30 competitors, a number that caught organizers off guard.

Pre-registration was so light that Finn Pincus, the head track and field coach at Roanoke College, showed up with only about 20 numbers.

Those who didn't get real numbers got numbers scribbled on notebook paper.

The crew was also short on medals, primarily because the plan was to present the awards to all kids who raced.

Fortunately, Pincus had some medals in his office.

"Those are nice medals, like what you'd get at regionals or state," said Woodford, who got plenty of them in her time at Patrick Henry.

The big turnout left head official Bryan Lewis both flustered and excited.

Lewis just graduated from Hidden Valley High School and will run track as a walk-on at the University of Virginia next year.

He helped launch the idea of an all-comers meet in the Roanoke Valley.

"Originally I wanted something to do over the summer so I wouldn't have to get a job," he said, grinning.

Lewis wanted to do something involving kids and running, and was originally thinking about something like a youth track league. But he quickly realized those plans were too ambitious.

His high school coach, Dan King, brought up the idea of an all-comers meet and Lewis ran with it.

A second meet will be held at Roanoke College on Aug. 11.

Amy Rockhill, president of the Striders, said the club was glad to get involved after member Pincus pitched the plan.

"We're hopeful," she said. "We'll start with two this summer, maybe have three or four next summer, and hopefully it will grow."

In some running-crazy communities, all-comers meets are huge.

Immensely popular all-comers meets held on the University of Oregon's famous Hayward Field in Eugene are given some credit for helping fuel that small city's running obsession.

Mike Crossman, who was helping with timing Tuesday evening, said he saw enormous meets while working in Holland.

"They'd have eight heats of the 400 meters," he said.

Tuesday's meet included a mile run, 100- and 400-meter dashes. And a 1,600-meter relay.

The 100 and 400 featured separate heats for boys, girls and adults.

But everyone was lumped together in the mile.

As the field shot off, a lot of attention was focused on 6-year-old Sofie Ingraham, by far the youngest runner on the track.

"She said she wanted to run the mile," said her mother, Malanie Ingraham, shaking her head.

Many assumed Sofie would quickly peel off.

But the little girl never stopped, finishing in about 10 minutes.

The hardest part?

"The running," she said.

Her folks were proud.

"I wasn't sure if she was going to make it," said Malanie, who walked the Turkey Trot 5K with Sofie last fall. "But she's a determined little cuss."

So is Clara Harding, one of five siblings (out of 10) from the family who raced Tuesday.

As former William Byrd standout Caleb Kingery was smoking through the open 400 meters, Clara was basking in the attention of finishing her race.

"One more race?" she asked her mother.

"There aren't any more," replied Harding.

At least for a few more weeks.