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Strider a running part of scene
By JOE SHAFRAN
The runner of the week is Ron Bowman of Annapolis. Every time you blink your running eye, you see Ron Bowman. Last Saturday, I not only blinked an eye but did a double take when I saw that Bowman had as a speaker at his Strider's Marathon training class, Rick Nealis, the Director of the 32nd Marine Marathon that will have 30,000 at the start line this year. I did the double take because Nealis, other than being on the network morning news shows usually makes one appearance and that’s as a speaker at the pre-race exposition for the Marine Marathon in late October. Bowman says he and about sixty other Striders will run the Marine. That was Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, you would see Bowman working the exposition and packet pickup for the Sunday Annapolis triathlon. In addition to being a distance runner, he’s also considered an expert on triathlons, including the Iron Man at Kona in Hawaii, and if you blinked your eye anywhere on Sunday at the triathlon, you would see Bowman assisting in the logistics of the Sunday event in a location that’s very familiar to him, the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, and a portion of the running route of the Annapolis Ten Miler that he has also directed. On many other occasions in the blink of an eye, you will see Bowman running the ultras, the JFK 50 miler in Western Maryland and also some of the hundred milers. They say Bowman began his running before he graduated from the Naval Academy a couple decades ago. He’s an official with NASA at its headquarters in Washington D.C.
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At the Women’s Distance Festival 5K at West Annapolis in July, I came across a couple of enthusiastic women who introduced themselves as graduates of Evan Thomas’ Beginner’s Running Program for the Striders and the record showed that they finished the 5K in respectable times. Turns out they met as mothers of a bride and groom who will be married the first of next month in England. Both these mothers took up running, as I see it, not to reduce their dress sizes for the wedding, but rather to be ready to run a popular race in England that much of the bridal party will run on September 30th. The local women are Llz D’antonio and Jane Corner both nurse practitioners. Jane’s daughter Katherine Corner will marry Liz’s son Jonathan Horwath on October 3rd at Langley Castle. They planned the event around the GNR, a popular half-marathon in England . Turns out the fathers in both families are also seasoned runners and will also compete. The bride’s father is Keith Corner, whom I am told is a longtime member of the Annapolis Striders. And the groom’s father Dr. Michael Horwath of Fairfax Virginia, is also a distance runner. And as Jane Corner tells me, Katherine’s sister and various other English lords and lassies are all runners. Jane and Liz will wear T-shirts reading “Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom”.
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Race directors beware. You may have heard the story out of New Haven Connecticut, last week, that two race volunteers were arrested and taken down to headquarters as suspected terrorists when somebody called the police to report they was pouring a powdery mixture on the streets. They were Hash House Harriers putting down the arrows for race directions.
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Race of the week…. The annual Victims’ Fund Run, the 5K at Severna Park on Sunday, Sept. 23rd put on by the Anne Arundel County States Attorney’s Office and the County Bar Foundation with proceeds going to the fund. It’s a well organized and well-attended race that has been know to feature post race Krispy Kreme donuts in the past but that this year I’m told will try something different, the individually made Fractured Prune donuts.
Hint of the week. This is another of the ten commandments that Ken Mierke a runner and trainer here in Annapolis promotes on runner’s posture and foot work, something to which we might not lend a lot of weight. And maybe because I didn’t lend lot of weight to Ken’s commandments, that I am limping a bit this week with plantar fascia that some call a heel spur. It kicked up again after ten years. Ken’s 3rd commandment is: land on the balls of your feet and keep the heel unweighted throughout the foot strike.
Ken's commandments are on the web at www.evolutionrunning.com
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Running Calendar:
Sept. 23: Severna Park, 8:15 a.m. Victim's Fund Run, for the State's Attorneys Office and Anne Arundel County Bar Foundation.
Call Judy Feldt at 410.222.1740, Ext. 3872. 5K run and 2 mile walk.
Sept. 23: Washington. Navy five miler.
7:50 a.m. for wheelchairs and 8 for others.
Online registration closes Sept. 17. On the web at www.active.com
Sept. 30: Quiet Waters Park.
8:30 A.M 5K run. Volunteers on the Run. Junior League of Annapolis.
Register and get information on www.active.com
Sept. 30: BWI Thurgood Marshall Midfield Cargo Complex. Linthicum.
8:50 a.m. 21st annual 4-mile run and 2-mile family walk. Benefits children with Downs Syndrome at Kennedy Krieger.
Call 410.993.RUNN.
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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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