The Beer Belly Two Run/Walk is a Wisconsin tradition Beer Belly Two walkers wind through Suamico on Sunday morning.This year, the event brought in between 26,000 and $28,000 and had 1,745 participants, said race director Kim Viduski (photo by Tina Gohr). By Monique Balas News-Chronicle Participants in this year's Beer Belly Two Run/Walk might have had different reasons for coming, but they were all variations on the same theme: Having fun. Some were more creative than others. "You know the runner's stretch?" asked Tina Jourdan of Oneida. "That's our stretch," she said, demonstrating her personal pre-walk warmup by taking another sip of beer. Jourdan was at the race with her husband Dan, his sister Marilyn, and friend Netty Kruse of Sobieski. Kruse and Marilyn Jourdan are good friends, but busy schedules prevent them from seeing each other very often. Although they have been doing the walk for years, it was Tina Jourdan's first time. "Everybody's so happy-go-lucky," she observed. The runners and walkers are separated, but each gets to stop at half-mile markers and enjoy their choice of a small cup of either Miller Lite, Titletown Brewery's Sno-Cap brew root beer or just plain old water. "Truthfully, all I want is the water," said thirsty Suamico resident Linda Raisanen. This was not the case with softball teammates Beth Hanson, Tammy Rausch and Jim Mispagel. The three had set up camp just past the first the first half-mile mark in their boat, the S.S. Beer Belly. They and fellow teammates were dressed up as characters from the television show "Gilligan's Island," and even their drinking methods fit with the theme. "Our softball team gets bored in the summer, so we do stupid things," joked Rausch of De Pere as she used a straw to sip beer from a coconut. Mispagel, playing the part of the show's professor, drank his beer from a beaker. Although the participants enjoyed being out and about on a beautiful Sunday morning, some also pointed out they liked the impetus behind it. "We know it's a fun cause," said Raisanen, who has done the race for three years. "It's nice to see the money being used in the community." FYI: In its 15th year, the Beer Belly Two Run/Walk benefits local organizations, including Families of Children With Cancer, Paul's Pantry, the Family Violence Center and the Mandy Hermans Angel of Light Fund.