Old Cerberus, new tricks: Now in 70s, founders form Gate River Run band for Saturday race

Nearly half a century ago, they helped Jacksonville's distance racing tradition to a running start.

Now, Jay Birmingham, Bob Fernee and Rodney Smith are writing a new chapter in their Gate River Run history.

Birmingham laughs: "We're serious runners way past our prime."

Now in their 70s, the three — all among the founders of the original River Run in 1978 — are trading in race-day running shoes for acoustic guitars, firing up Saturday morning's runners as a musical trio on River Oaks Road near the turn onto Hendricks Avenue.

In all, a record 15 bands are set to encourage Saturday's runners along. Somehow, a septuagenarian band called Cerberus — named after the fearsome three-headed hound of Hades from Greek myth — is the oldest, the newest and the most deeply steeped in Gate River Run tradition of them all.

"They've gone from running themselves to being there to entertain the runners," race director Doug Alred said.

For the first time after performing together in a trio for a couple of years, they're set to play before an audience of more than 10,000 — not that runners have time to stick around long to listen.

It took Hercules to capture the original Cerberus. It might require the strength of Hercules to pull the members of Cerberus away from the Gate River Run.

"We're not polished," Birmingham said, "but we have a lot of fun."

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The voices of Cerberus

What transformed serious runners into Cerberus? As it turned out, it was Father Time who let the dog out.

"The appeal of dragging along at the back of the pack, which is what we'd be doing, is kind of gone," Birmingham said.

For all three heads of Cerberus, River Run roots run deep.

Fernee was a Gate River Run streaker — one of the runners to complete every edition since the race's 1978 founding, a list of runners that has dwindled to 22 — until ending his streak last spring.

Birmingham, already a nationally known runner in the 1970s for his celebrated coast-to-coast run, was the person in charge of measuring out the race's original course using a calibrated bicycle in 1978. Smith is a charter member of the Jacksonville Track Club (now JTC Running) and remains the only runner to complete every edition of the Last Gasp cross country race, traditionally at Jacksonville University, since its 1977 founding.

Though their times have slowed, their passion for race day hasn't faded. Once Fernee, 72, decided the time was right to step away from the grueling 15K, the idea of bringing Cerberus to the Gate River Run really took root.

"We said, 'We should do something different next year,'" Fernee recalled. "Why don't we play at the race?"

They approached Alred about the possibility of filling in, just in case one of the scheduled bands dropped out. As it turned out, there was no need for a withdrawal: Alred designated an entirely new band location for them, near the 4-mile mark in San Marco.

"There was a bigger gap in that spot, so there was already room there," Fernee said.

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'A runners' band'

For those whose last intersection of sports and music was Rihanna's performance at Super Bowl LVII, get used to something a lot simpler.

"We've got a little canopy to protect us in case of rain, an amplifier, microphone, three guitars and three voices," Birmingham said.

Of the trio, Fernee is the one with the most musical experience. He's been playing off and on for decades, although he acknowledges he "never hit the big time."

"Bob is the good guitar player and the better singer," Smith said. "Jay and I kind of follow his lead."

Smith's background is more on the country music side — Fernee jokes that he's "the one who never made it to Nashville" — and Birmingham didn't even play the guitar until purchasing his first instrument a little more than two years ago.

Practice isn't easy these days, not when the three all live in different counties. But they get together regularly and even scheduled a pre-race warmup performance Wednesday at The Stout Snug in Murray Hill.

Birmingham said they've been assembling their set list for Saturday, with a focus on older rock and country tunes — "upbeat, high-tempo, sing-along songs."

"As runners, we knew what we liked," Birmingham said. "You go by a band that's playing something slow and dreary, that's not very exciting. We wanted to be a runners' band."

Who says you can't teach an old Cerberus new tricks?

"We're looking forward to it," Fernee said. "It'll be something to see all these people running past us."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gate River Run: Jacksonville race founders form band to boost runners