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B&A Trail events run without a hitch
By JOE SHAFRAN
The ingredients seemed to be just right for the world famous B & A half and full marathons at Severna Park Sunday, March 5th . The temperature was in the 40’s. It was dry and clear. There was a manageable crowd of about a thousand runners, well choreographed, so everything seemed to come off with no hitches that I know of. In years past there had been some snow and at another time, a family from Ohio missed the marathon turn around and ended up near Glen Burnie and there was no official AAU method of subtracting the time they needed to come back to the finish line in front of the Severna Park High School. This year, Kavon Hakimzedah, 39, of Alexandria Virginia, will be pleased to see that he finished 346th in the half marathon in a few seconds over 2 hours despite the fact he wasn’t there. He had to be in Tennesee on business and encouraged a runner friend, Tanya Sharrah to pick up his race packet and do the half which she did coming a few seconds behind her brother Lt.Col Michael Harvey, of Northern Virginia. Tanya is with Team in Training and needed the practice for the San Diego marathon in June. And inside the school house, in addition to the finish line bagels and bananas, were mammoth containers of new and used running shoes deposited by the registrants for the Adopt A Family charity presided over by Nadine Katikian, to be sold and with the money being used to improve lives in Africa. There’s a similar collection during Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy when the Mids trying to climb the lard-covered monument toss their shoes at the monument once it’s mounted. There is then a group of Mids who de-lard the shoes before sending them off for charitable purposes.
Also, for the last few years in the B&A half marathon, there’s been a fellow named Eddie Burnham of Kansas City, now 86, who brings up the rear. This time Eddie did a little better and finished 629 out of 631 finishers. Every time I see his name, I think of the late Eddie Benham, the marathoner from this area who would now be near 100, but never missed a B&A. Eddie was a jockey, all 4 feet ten inches and 100 pounds of him. The Benham Eddie started to run marathons in his late seventies. A friend, Fred Rodriguez of Turkey Point gave me some of the press clipping on Eddie. It brought back memories. I had met Eddie Benham at a Marine Marathon in which he bettered my time of three and a half hours.
Perhaps as well known as the B&A runs, there is the 21st annual Bay Bridge 10 K coming up the morning of Sunday May 7th, preceding the Bay Bridge walk. We cross our fingers on this one. The past years have been problematic. Last year the race was canceled as well as the walk for security reasons. Two years ago, 3,000 runners were already at the Stevensville start line when the race was canceled because 40 knot winds were driving a rain horizontally across the bridge. This year, Melissa Currance, has the honor of directing the race and reminds that there are still some open slots. Please go to the Strider website to register. This is called the Governor’s Bay Bridge 10 K that ends at Sandy Point State Park, but no one can recall when a governor last ran it.
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