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Crofton's Conroy proves bridge run notion is all wet
By JOE SHAFRAN
The breaking running news last Sunday morning was that the Governor’s Bay Bridge Run was cancelled about an hour and a half before it was supposed to start. I’ll get to that in a paragraph.
In my previous column, I had said that after careful research, I couldn’t find that a Governor had ever run or had ever shown up for the race. I said the closest was last year when Kendel Ehrlich, the state’s then first lady, ran the race. A reader of this column, Bill Conroy, of Crofton, an Annapolis Strider and a well known runner around here until his knees gave out, let me know last week that on the wall of his den is a picture taken at Sandy Point State Park after the 1986 Bridge run of him getting the award from Governor Harry Hughes for being first in his age group. We now know 21 years ago a Governor was on hand. I stand advised. Conroy hasn’t given up on athletics. Instead of running across the Bridge which he did for many years, he now swims under it in the annual 4 mile dash to Kent Island. He’s become so proficient as a swimmer that he was chosen a few years back to participate in a relay swim across the English Channel. This may be a pure coincidence, but you may recall that in an earlier column I reported that Jonathan “ Jody Goldsmith ” also of Crofton, might have taken the same route. He was a marathoner until he got leg problems, but still athletic, he too swims under the bridge to Kent Island, rather than running across the Bridge. Goldsmtth, an Army paratrooper who rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, is now a civilian after serving 20 some years. But rather than graduating to the English Channel, Goldsmith has taken up serious biking along with his swimming. But now, back to the cancelled bridge run.
When Brad Chapman of the Annapolis Striders hierarchy was working with the volunteer Saturday set-up crew last week at Sandy Point State Park, preparing for the Sunday Bay Bridge Run, he saw the just-put up finish line banner wildly flapping in a stiff north wind. His sailor instincts told him to expect trouble. And before dawn on Sunday morning at the Bridge Command and Control Center, Al Stott, also of the Strider hierarchy, heard on the broadband two-way radio that the port-a-potties, as he called them, were dancing across the ground at the Stevensville starting line, whipped by the wind. He knew right then and there that the next voice to be heard would be that of the Bridge commander calling off the Governor’ s Bay Bridge Run and also the walk across the bridge. And sure enough that was the announcement. But back at the Park, veteran race director Melissa Currence had 3,000 runners already loaded on busses ready for the ride to the start line. In a cool move, she quickly put Plan B into effect, got the 3,000 registrants off the busses and sent them to the start line of a makeshift 5 K run though the Park, which was won by a 22 year old Patrick Reaves who did it in a few seconds over 15 minuets, and the first female was Sheryl Kline of Arnold at 18.57.
So now with the Bridge run set for next year, I have noticed that these past three weeks have brought attention to some non-stop runners. I reported a few weeks ago that April 15 was the 30 year anniversary of daily running for Annapolis lawyer Gill Cochran. At the post Bay Bridge gathering Sunday, Mark Courtney, (who is head of Runners High of Grove City in Western Pennsylvania, hired to time the 10 K on the Bridge, 0 instead joined in on the 5 K run telling me it was the 10,000 th consecutive day that he has run. And Saturday, on our Baltimore radio talk show, we took a call from Dane Rauschenberg, 31, of Arlington Virginia, who last year ran 52 weekend marathons in different states. Interestingly, on Saturday he phoned in to the show from the 30 mile Avon breast cancer charity run and walk from Washington D.C. to Silver Spring Maryland, on his way to the Frederick Marathon on Sunday, which he did in his usual sub three and a half hours. Not including his run at Frederick, he says he HAS raised over $50,000 in the past year for charity.
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Hint of the week… If you don’t think warm-ups and stretching are necessary before exercise, try this demonstraton often used by ballerinas and runners to motivate them to stretch first. Place a rubber band in the freezer overnight. The next day remove it and stretch it.
Guess what? You just tore a muscle, so to speak, So remember learn to stretch and warm up. This is from Dr. Patrick Clune’s book on exercise and fitness.
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Race of the week… The .05k run over the Spa Creek Bridge this Saturday put on by the Maritme Republic of Eastport. Net proceeds go to charity. I will run it but I swear they keep moving the finish line. My time each year gets longer and longer... I’m now up to a minute and five seconds. If that 19 year old midshipman who does it in 17 seconds shows up, my time will be shameful. I did say it is a point oh five kay, didn’t I? It goes at the crack o’ noon unless they raise the drawspan as happened one year.
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Runner of the week… 31 year old Dane Raushenberg, the runner from Arlington, Virginia, who personally raised over $50,000 to benefit charities last year.
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Running Calendar
May 12: Hillsmere School, Annapolis, 8:30 a.m. Annual Vincent's run for charity. Visit www.vincentsrun.org to register.
May 12: Fort Meade Pavilion. Tank Corps Joe 5K run, 8 a.m., and People and Pet Walk at 2 p.m. Recalls the World War I tank era at Fort Meade when the dog, Joe, was the tank-riding mascot. Call 301.677.1486
May 20: Delaware Marathon. Wilmington, 7 a.m. Call 302.654.6400
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If you have a suggestion for the runner of the week,
please e-mail me with a contact number.
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