COEUR d’ALENE — A few hundred people ran or walked the 45th Hangover Handicap in 10 degrees on New Year’s Day.

Almost all were bundled up in shirts, coats, pants, hats and gloves.

One was different.

One ran with no shirt and no gloves. That was Joe Gibbs.

“I’ve always run shirtless,” he said as he trotted along on the snow-covered North Idaho Centennial Trail next to the Spokane River.

Despite the freezing conditions, the 21-year-old conceded nothing to Mother Nature, insisting on doing it his way, sans shirt, for the 5K course that began and ended at Riverstone Park.

It’s something he started doing years ago and can't stand the thought of going back to shirts.


“I think it’s more fun,” he said.

Gibbs, who grew up in Cataldo and attended school in Kellogg, is a senior at the United States Naval Academy. He was home for winter break.

He said he was a little cold during the run and his hands were sweating, but he was grinning, waving to other runners and having a good time.

“I feel great,” he said.

As he finished speaking, his father, Scott Gibbs, ran by going the opposite direction.

But this isn't like father, like son.

Gibbs the father was fully clothed. A sister, Christina, was also running the Hangover and unlike her younger brother, she too was dressed for winter.

“I’m the only one in my family that does this,” a smiling Joe Gibbs said.

Scott Gibbs of Rose Lake laughed when asked about his son’s bare bones dress code for races, whom he could see a few hundred yards ahead, closing in on the finish line.

“Someday he’ll get his common sense,” he said, smiling.

Every year a family member tries to give Joe Gibbs a coat. Every year, he declines.

“The kid just doesn’t like coats. He’s hot blooded, I guess,” his dad said.

The Hangover Handicap is a fundraiser for Tesh, which helps people with special needs learn new skills so they can live independently.

It has traditionally been held near the east end of Sherman Avenue, behind Michael D’s Eatery. It had long been a five-mile race that went along Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive.

It was moved to a new site this year and the distance was shortened.

The senior Gibbs was running about mid-pack. It was his eighth time in the Hangover Handicap and he figured it was a good reason to drop drinking on New Year’s Eve.

“You can’t wake up hung over and do it,” he said. “That’s too painful.”

But hopefully, not cold.