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| Meeting a Pioneer - Part 2 |
| Tuesday, April 29, 2008 |
After getting home and discovering who Sarah Mae Berman was I really wanted to contact her to thank her for asking me about my marathon and also to tell her what an honor it was to meet her. I took a shot by sending off an email to the business she and her husband run and to my delight I got a wonderful email response. One of the first things she did was correct my reporting of her time when she almost broke 3 hours back in 1971. Her official time was 3:00:35. Another pioneer of our sport, Ted Corbitt was also in the race, setting one of his many age group records.
Sarah Mae filled me in on some of her other marathons. She was third in 1971 in the NYC Marathon on the old loop course in Central Park in a time of 3:08. Besides the three times she won Boston in '69, '70 and '71, she also ran it in '72, '73, '77, '78 and '79. What an amazing woman. |
posted by Steve @ 9:47 AM  |
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| Cheering for an Icon |
| Friday, April 25, 2008 |
The women's Olympic Trials qualifying race was the day before the Boston Marathon and even though I wanted to sleep in, it was too good to be missed. They had set up a multiple loop course that was very spectator friendly. I took my chair to Memorial Drive along the Charles River in front of MIT. This was a prefect spot to watch because Memorial Drive has a beautiful grassy median divider. The race came by going in one direction, went about a half-mile and came back on the other side of the median. This vantage point enabled me to see the runners eight times during the race.
The race for the three coveted Olympic team spots was exciting. Magdalena Lewy Boulet went out hard and at one point had almost a two minute lead. When she went by me at 18 miles her lead was 1:42. When Deena Kastor came by in second you could tell by the look on her face that she was going after the leader. When I next saw them at 24 miles, Deena had caught her and was leading by about 10 seconds. Magdalena held on for second, with local Boston favorite Blake Russell taking third.
For most of the spectators, the race up front was almost secondary. We saved our loudest cheers for 50 year old Joan Benoit Samuelson. She was easy to spot with her yellow Livestrong cap. Each time she came by the cheers were explosive. I'm sure it was like that the whole 26.2 miles of her race. Where I was there was a group of 6 shirtless college guys, each with a big letter painted on the front of their chests and bellies: J O A N I E. Each time Joan came by, they lined up to spell her name and cheer for her. The first time she saw them her game face flashed into a huge smile as she gave them a thumbs up.
Joan had set herself a rather tough goal. She wanted to break 2:50 at age 50. Her form was never great, needless to say it hasn't gotten any smoother since she won her Olympic gold medal 24 years ago. Still, she powered along, looking exactly the same at 40K as she did the first time I saw her at 10K. Looking at her split at 40K, I knew it was going to be close. She achieved her goal, finishing in 2:49:08, setting a new American age group record. She says it's her last competitive marathon. I'm really glad I got to cheer her on. |
| posted by Steve @ 9:12 AM |
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| Meeting a Pioneer |
| Tuesday, April 22, 2008 |
| There are a number of stories from this trip to Boston. I think this one deserves top billing, although watching Joanie at the trials is hard to beat. It happened on a very crowded subway on our way back from the marathon to my daughter Sarah's house. I was holding on to the same pole on the train as a short women a little older than me. Since I was carrying my marathon bag she asked me how I did and what my time was. When I told her my time, her comment was, "That's ok. Not great, but not too bad." I asked her if she ran and she explained that she had run years ago, but now only cross country skied. So I asked if she had ever run a marathon. "Oh yes, back in the late 60s and early 70s." Wow. It turns out she had run Boston in 1969, 1970, and 1971 and she was wearing a medal they finally gave her years later. She showed me the back with her name and the years inscribed on it. When she told me her best Boston was 3:05, my comment was something about flirting with 3 hours. She said she had given 3 hours a valiant try at another marathon and run 3:00:18. She's probably been thinking about that 18 seconds for over 30 years. The one thing she did not tell me was that she is now listed as the unofficial women's winner (women still were not allowed to run) for the three years she ran Boston. Fortunately, I was able to remember her name and google her when I got home today. Check out these two web sites. Article and Winners I wish the train ride had been longer! |
| posted by Steve @ 3:56 PM |
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| Boston |
| Friday, April 18, 2008 |
Twenty-five years ago - 1983, the last time I ran the Boston Marathon. We had an absolutely perfect day to run: temps in the low 50's, overcast and a little tailwind. Can the running gods supply such a day again?
One of my most vivid memories of that race is of listening to the transistor radios along the course that spectators were using to follow what was going on at the front of the pack. All the talk was about Joan Benoit and her suicidal pace. They kept saying she was going to die big time, no way she could maintain her pace. Yet everytime I heard another radio, there she was, well under world record pace and floating along. It must have inspired me because I felt great the whole way. Joannie did slow down a little the last few miles, but still set what was then a world marathon record. She finished almost exactly 10 minutes ahead of me. My splits stayed pretty even the last few miles so I was actually gaining on her (ok, she was 10 minutes ahead) the last few miles. The other thing that sticks with me from that race is I remember with 5K to go thinking, "I've never felt this good in a 10K with 5K to go."
Joannie and I are both going to be in Boston this year. She is running the Olympic Marathon Trials on Sunday. She's now 50 years old and the oldest qualifier in the race. What an amazing woman! She's hoping to break 2:50 at 50. No way I'm only going to be 10 minutes slower this year. If I'm within 40 minutes it will be a victory for me. |
| posted by Steve @ 8:13 AM |
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| Some Changes |
| Wednesday, April 16, 2008 |
Hello it's Josh here!
I just wanted to let everyone know about some exciting changes to the runtuff website. First off, you can now tell people to go to www.runtuff.com and they will be automatically directed to this site!
Secondly, I have added a discussion board to the website. The link is located on the left side. You don't need to register to read or post but if you want to use some of the cool features like private messages, posting polls and such you should.
Enjoy!
Joshua Perks |
| posted by Steve @ 3:46 PM |
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| Apologies |
| Friday, April 11, 2008 |
To all of you who check in here occasionally to see if anything new has been added, my sincere apologies. It's been awhile since my last update. Most of the time I've spent on the computer lately has been doing stuff related to MHRRC business. There have been lots of inquiries about the track workouts and the training group. My mailing list of veterans and possible newcomers is now up to 86 people. If everyone decides to show up at once the track is going to be busy.
As you probably know, the MHRRC team for the Race Around Briggs ended up with 34 club members running. A great turnout. Thanks to all of you who came.
Wow, Boston is now only about 10 days away. As Mark Wetmore says to his runners in Running With the Buffaloes, "The hay is in the barn." Now it's mostly just time to relax and be ready to run. By the way, if you haven't read Running With the Buffaloes by Chris Lear, you're missing one of the most inspiration running books out there.
I finally got out for the first bike ride of the spring. Just an easy cross training day of about 15 miles. The hardest thing about getting back to serious riding is getting the butt used to the bike seat. |
| posted by Steve @ 9:30 AM |
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| Announcements |
MHRRC track workouts are scheduled for:
Tues. July 22
Tues. July 29
Tues. August 5
Tues. August 12
Tues. August 19
please email me at
runtuff@hotmail.com
with any questions.
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