Boston 2009

The 2009 Boston Marathon is in the can, mi agmigos y amigas. Marathoners trained through a winter with 20 inches more snow than normal (but around here what's "normal"?) and were rewarded with a day with good air save for the fact that it was moving too rapidly in the wrong direction for too much of the race.

I watched the start from the press room, then ran to the Kenmore stop and caught the Green Line out to Woodland at the 17-mile mark. (That used to be so easy; now everybody does it and the cars are jammed. What's more, everyone's tracking "their" marathoner on i-phones all the way out and all the way back in.) Got to see some folks, missed a few others when the numbers on the road thickened. Great fun, so it was.

This is not a complete rendering of GLRR finsihers by any means, but a quick "Ho-way" and congratulations to:

Mark Reeder -- 2:43:25, 4th-place in the men's 45-49 age group. Mark never seems to run a bad race here, no matter what the conditions; he runs tough and he runs smart, as befits a mathematician (the "smarts" part at least). BC didn't make him a full professor for nothing.

Dave Oliver -- 2:48:53, 7th-place Senior division. The co-GLRR male Runner of the Year (with Bill Dixon) also belongs on the 'consistently good Boston' list. Whirlaway's Ephraim Ezekiel sneaked up on Dave in the Boylston Street stretch, passed him, and Dave battled back to take the "top New England Senior male" title.

Adam Sherer -- 3:16:12. Well done . . . You'll be recovered in time for the Bedford 12K, right Adam?

Gerard Ottaviano -- 3:31:14. Gerard isn't technically on the racing team list, but he is among that rarefied group who have run consecutive Bostons for more than a quater-century, 27 years and counting to be exact. And Gerard isn't satisfied with "just finishing" -- he trains hard, is always looking for that extra edge, and gets out there and races -- like a true athlete. Plus he's the guy who organized the very FIRST-ever club bus to the start many moons ago.

Patty Foltz -- 3:39:08. The #7 Veter-woman overall and the fastest from New England. Fabulous! She's probably on the golf course as we speak.

Tom Foltz -- 3:39:57. That last mile after Kenmore must have been fun, Tom. ("I can see Patty, but I can't quite catch her . . . !")

I'm sure there are others, but this is what I know off the top. Congratulations to all, and to all who had a hand in arranging the GLRR bus, pre-and post-race massage, hotel rooms, etc. Y'all done good.

NEXT USATF-NE GRAND PRIX RACE: THE BEFORD (NH) ROTARY 12K, SATURDAY MAY 16 AT 9:00 AM. CONSIDER THIS THE FIRST CALL FOR ENTRIES, AND LET US PUT A LOT OF FULL TEAMS ON THE LINE!

Congratulations to Patty Foltz, Bill Dixon, and Dave Oliver, named last evening as the 2008 GLRR Runners of the Year at the club's annual Hall of Fame dinner. So too to new Hall of Famers George Davis (the club's first coach and long-time coach at UMass-Lowell), introduced by fellow HOF-ers Dave Dunham, Dave Camire and Peg Donovan, and Mark Coddaire, introduced by Phil Riley and Tom Carroll.

Boston tomorrow. To paraphrase Tiny Tim, 'Go Get 'Em, Every One!'

Monday, 16 March 2009

re: "Dave Oliver, again the #1 senior dude in a PR (!) 1:06:02"

As much as I (and Dave) would like to stand by the accuracy of that time, it should have read "1:16:02".

Oh and one more New Bedford factotum: About the time Brigham was doing his thing in Fairhaven, it's where "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." (Or was it the other way around?) But as we know from the old Chad Mitchell Trio tune, "You can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts (Massachusetts is a far cry from New York)!"

Monday, 16 March 2009

A quick yet hearty Congratulations to all hardy Greater Lowellites who ran the New Bedford Half Marathon on Sunday, the second stop on the 2009 USATF-NE road racing grand prix! It was an unusual day for a New Bedford Half -- neither too cold nor too windy, and what wind there was was at your back in the last four miles instead of in your face.

Particulars:

Dave Oliver, again the #1 senior dude in a PR (!) 1:06:02;
Liane Pancoast, again the #2 senior dudess, 1:34:56
Patty Foltz, again the #1 Veteran dudess (yaawwwwn), 1:39:13
Mark Reeder, a tres-superbe age-49 1:13:47
Senior men, 2nd by a mere 50 seconds (no thanks to yours truly) yet with a tightly-packed team finish (if only five counted instead of three . . .)
Women's team scoring #18 Open, #6 Masters, composed of one Senior (Liane), one Master (Melanie Hire), and one Veteran (Patty).

An Observer's Note: It has been my wont, since the first time I ran New Bedford, so take an hour or so to explore town before heading for home. The cobblestoned historic distrct is fascinating, anchored by the excellent Whaling Museum, the Seamans' Bethel (of Moby-Dick fame), and any number of good shops and (yes, Phil) pubs. But the highlight has been the short trip across the harbor to Fairhaven, cutting through town to Phoenix State Beach at the head of the harbor, site of a Revolutionary War skirmish and the still-poised guns of a Civil War battlement. The magnificent harbor view is, however, at least equaled by the mind-blowing architectural display clustered in the center of this otherwise unassuming town, unavoidable if you make the trip to Phoenix Beach. The high school, town hall, library, and Unitarian church all look like they might have been designed by H.H. Richardson. It turns out that they were at least Richardson-influenced, all done by Charles Brigham, a Watertown native whose own credits include the MFA and Christian Science mother church in Boston as well as several Back Bay masterpieces. But why Fairhaven, and all the major civic buldings therein? Turns out that it was home to one Henry Huddleston Rogers, #2 robber baron of Standard Oil after Rockefeller, and Rogers wanted to reward the place in his robber-barony way. Hence one of the most remarkable clusters of period architecture to be found anywhere in small-town America. Go see 'em for yourself next time you're in the area: http://www.davidjrusso.com/architecture/brigham/buildings/DesignList.php.

Next up: the Bedford, NH 12K on May 16th . . . THIS IS THE MOST LOCAL GRAND PRIX RACE OF THE YEAR BESIDES BAY STATE SO DON'T NOBODY MISS IT . . . LET THERE BE A BODCACIOUS GREATER LOWELL TOEIN' OF THE LINE IN BEDFORD!

jb

Monday, o2 March 2009:

Fellow GLRR Racers ("Greater Lowell Road Runner Racers" - now ain't that a tad redundant?) --

While no doubt everyone who ran the Jones 10-Miler on Feb 22 complained all week (with total justification, we might add) about weather, wind, and course, by now you have had plenty of chance to reflect on this: What if it had been a week later? You don't even want to think about that. (You CAN think about the fact that Stu's 30K, another tradition-rich New England race, was held yesterday as scheduled.)

A slew of stellar results from L'Affaire Amherst last week, however, starting with a squeaker team win by the Senior men. Led by Dave Oliver's outstanding division win, Dave was backed up by Tom Offenbacher in his Greater Lowell debut and Veterans' division hands-down champeen Bill Dixon. The total margin was les than a minute over Whirlaway (now with Reno Stirrat in its stable), 3:05:37 to 3:06:33. Given the close finish, and that Tom represents that new FODO ('Friend Of Dave Oliver' -- thanks for the remninder, Tom Foltz, I'd forgotten I came up with that) breed, we can safely say that this was a FODO-finish.

Turning heads on the women's side, however, was long-time GLRR-er Liane Pancoast with a fine 1:13:03 for third, just half a minute out of second. Hip problems behind her at last, Liane must be getting tired of daughter Stephanie, a Cornell track standout, hogging all the family athletic headlines. We can't wait for the challenge race; the only question: What distance will it be?

"Dixon and Foltz and pray for rain." Okay, it doesn'r rhyme like Spahn and Sain but the effect is the same. With Patty and Bill on the starting line, Las Vegas stops taking bets. It's over. They're the Veterans division champions, end of story. Of course it's never that easy as they'll be the first to tell you (Bill, in fact, rose bravely from the chiropractor's couch at the last moment), but . . . . wow. How about something like: "Foltz and Dixon and you're gettin' a lickin'?" "Dixon and Foltz, we're nags, they're colts." (Or in deference to Patty, perhaps, "Patty and Willie's like racing two fillies."

It bears noting as well that the GLRR masters women (Liane, Patty, and Melanie Hire) finished in 7th position -- with an average age of 52.

In case you missed the other extraordinary GLRR result from that day, Mark Reeder, age 49, blasted 15:56.60 for 5000 meters at the USATF-NE indoor meet at Harvard, placing 11th in a field of 21 against open (i.e. all-age) competition. We are duly humbled.

New Bedford is just around the corner, two weeks from yesterday, March 15th . . . Please contact myselves and/or President Glenn (and/or Tom F. if you're over 50) if you are in the hopper for this one. My list, which is perennially behind it seems, show the following:

Women -- Pancoast
Men -- Barbour, Jacobson, Offenbacher, Reeder, Stewart.

I look forward to receiving many many many corrections & updates,
John B.