Nearly 120 runners at the Build Blue and True 5K trail run on the UNC cross-country course Sunday morning had a lot to talk about. The weather, recent rains and balmy morning breezes, the bog-like conditions on the race course. They talked about the traffic, the economy, training and nutrition.

But not a solitary word about basketball. One weekend before the climax of the NCAA Final Four teams -- and nary a word was heard.

Instead blue truly stood by blue. Light blue stood shoulder-to-shoulder with royal blue.

Duke Blue Devils ran stride for stride with Tar Heels at the UNC Ranson-Hamrick Cross Country Course near Finley Golf Course in a cooperative effort by students; the erstwhile rivals came together for the common good of supporting the local Habitat for Humanity.

"Out checking the course earlier, we were talking basketball some," Duke track and field runner Anna Farias-Eisner admitted. "It was just fun though. It was nice to put the rivalry aside for a common purpose."

Farias-Eisner helped direct the event along with UNC ex-swimmer and 2008 graduate Kelly Woodruff.

"The teasing back and forth has been fun," Farias-Eisner said, suggesting that some Blue Devils wanted to paint over a Carolina logo on a bridge over the course trail.

"We weren't having any of that," Woodruff said, "but they did draw Duke 'Ds' all over too."

"We compete on the court and the field, but we're all working hard for the same cause," Farias-Eisner added. "When it comes down to it, you have to keep everything in perspective in life."

The seed of Sunday's race was hatched when a coalition of UNC and Duke student-athletes first partnered to create the race nearly 16 months ago.

"We always see each other in competition and see each other at different sporting events," Woodruff said. "Working together on this project has been great."

Neither Carolina Blue nor Duke Blue was any more welcome on Sunday morning than the blue skies that broke wide open in the wake of a stormy week.

"We were so lucky with the weather," Farias-Eisner said. "Sure, it's a little muddy, but you can't have a decent cross-country race without a little mud, right?"

"It was a quagmire," said Andy Reynolds, a UNC professor who finished first among all UNC-affiliated runners. "In the meadow [portion of the course], you could hardly stand up. If you were running, you were slipping and sliding everywhere. ... It was fun though."

Weathering the wet terrain and crossing the finish line first overall was Duke club cross-country and track and field runner Harrison Potter, who was slowed only slightly by the soft conditions.

"I usually run (5K's) in the high 16s, so with the mud to have run in the low 18s, it was pretty good," Potter said.

Just off the winning overall pace was Duke track and field coach Liz Wort.

"It was muggy, but once the [men's leader] got ahead, I decided to run it like a tempo run," Wort said. "I'm going to be a 'rabbit' for some people at a meet this weekend. I'm going to try to take a 1500-meter runner through the 800 (meters) in around 2:17, and I'm hoping I'm going to be able to do it. Our runner's hoping to break 4:20."

Cricket Lane, UNC's assistant athletic director for student-athlete development and outreach, credited Farias-Eisner and Woodruff for getting the show on the road.

The cause

Woodruff initially helped put a running trail near a Habitat for Humanity development in Durham, and then some UNC runners who also helped started calling it "Build Blue and True," Lane explained. "It took off."

Originally, the planners had hoped to incorporate N.C. State runners, Woodruff said, but it became infeasible. Meshing schedules of two schools was hard enough.

"There were five or six of us all trying to get together for meetings," she said, "and that was tough. We started talking about this in December of 2007 though, but we didn't have time to get it all together for last year. Logistically, we started wondering if it was ever going to happen."

Due to the logistics of staging a cooperative effort, organizers decided to put the race off until 2009.

"We actually came up with the idea last year and started putting the ball in motion," Farias-Eisner said. "It was a little late for setting a date for the race last year, however, so we decided to get planning out of the way and recruit people to help us put it on. Then we went for it."

"Anna and I were walking around this morning," Woodruff said, "and we were like, 'I can't believe where we were has brought us to where we are now.'"

"The weather was really the biggest challenge," Duke Assistant Athletic Director Leslie Barnes said. "Overall, though, we're very proud of our student-athletes -- both the students that had the idea and the ones that have come out to help today. ... I was very happy with our turnout."

The winners

Also happy with the results were men's and women's age group winners in the 17-and-under bracket, Brian Tanner and Anna Weeks, respectively. In the 18-24 division, the men's winner was Alexander Keller, while Elle Pishney took the women's crown.

Among 25-34-year olds, Kevin Germain took the men's title, and Liz Wort ran away from the women's field.

"I graduated a couple years ago, and I help coach at Duke now," Wort said. "I'm half in-shape. I was training for the Olympic Trials in the steeplechase for a year, but I got injured. I'm coming back from that injury now."

Todd Biggs struck gold in the men's 35-44 division, while Jen McLullum was tops among the 35-44 women. Owen Astrachan took the men's 45-and-older category, while Kelly Collette was first among 45-plus women.

The rewards

Potter won a trophy and a men's basketball poster signed by the Duke team. Reynolds took home a trophy and a poster signed by the UNC men's basketball team.

Farias-Eisner gave credit to numerous sponsors who chipped in to make the event both an economical and a nutritional success -- food donated from Nosh, coffee from Francesca's and Joe Van Gogh, Panera and Fresh Market. "Plus, we had a ton of volunteers," she noted.

Woodruff said she hoped to see the event become an annual method to combat early-spring blues.

"Originally, we talked about the race course going back and forth [between UNC and Duke]," she said on Sunday. "For now, we're just getting through today's event, and then hopefully it will be an annual event either way. It's cool to see it happen, and it's perfect running weather."

"Everything has run pretty smoothly," Farias-Eisner said. "Next year, we just want to get even more people registered to raise more money for Habitat for Humanity. This is the first year we've put it on, and we're hopefully going to make it an annual thing. The majority of us are still going to be around next year."