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Together, locals conquer 100-mile race
By JOE SHAFRAN
A couple of weeks ago, in the Talk of the Town Column in the Capital , the writer issued one of those body motion challenges that had you turning your foot in a clockwise motion while you turned your hand counter clockwise and being amazed as your foot changed direction.
I have one for runners. After a long run, before removing your shoes, try walking a straight line heel to toe for about 50 feet. If you can do it, you are in good shape. You have good balance. This is one of the tests that police use in making a DUI determination. Two weeks ago, on one of my morning runs, I happened upon a demonstration of one of those police sobriety check points and did submit to the heel to toe test and I flunked. I was a runner, not operating a motor vehicle and was sober and so I did not come under the DUI law. This all happened at the helipad outside the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, where state, county and local police were holding a press conference announcing Checkpoint Strikeforce for the Labor Day Weekend and for five months beyond. This looked like a big deal. The Governor was there, as was the head of Maryland State Police, and the Doctor who is the head of emergency services at the Medical Center. I say I “happened” upon a press conference while on a run. I couldn’t have missed it. I had to duck and almost got blown away along Jennifer Road when the State Police Helicopter came in for a landing on the Medical Center helipad. Give that heel to toe thing a try without a bunch of dignitaries watching.
And what would you say about a driver who takes almost three hours to go about twenty five miles? And this is in a late model car without any problems. In my day we called him a Sunday driver. Turns out the driver is one of our more accomplished runners. This man ran a hundred miles without flinching a few years ago. This man is none other than Charles Muskin, Esq., a lawyer and Master of the County’s Juvenile Court. We all know him as Charlie Muskin who has success in handling every tough job the Striders throw at him. A more modest man you will never find. I mentioned Muskin in a previous column when he “crewed” for Matt Mace when Matt ran the killer of all races, the Western Sates Hundred Miler earlier this summer. In that column , I reported simply that Charlie “crewed” for Matt .I didn’t give it a second thought but have come to find out that crewing for that type of race is literally the sole support for someone doing the hundred and this is where that Sunday Driver matter comes in. In this hundred mile race, in part through the Sierra Nevada mountains, , the runner is doing it “as the crow flies” so to speak, but Charlie, the crew, carrying vitally needed food and supplies and encouragement for the runner is in a car going not as the crow flies, but on mountainous winding roads,sometimes in snow, taking those three hours in the twenty five miles, ending up having to leave the car and climbing the last mile up the mountain with a 50 pound back pack to the aid station, hopefully before the runner gets there. Now, if I have you concerned, understand that both Charlie and Matt Mace have done a hundred mile run, in Vermont, so Charlie knew exactly what he was getting into. Mace, also a lawyer, did the Western hundred in 29 hours and lived to tell about it once his blisters healed. To unwind, Mace did the recent Annapolis ten miler and finished among the first 70 out of nearly 5,000. Muskin was seen the week before the race helping stuff the runners packets at South River High.
And from time to time, I mention some oddities that I encounter in my never-ending quest for good running routes in this area, aside from Jennifer Road past the helipad. This deals with the 6:06 Running Club of Annapolis, the band of runners that starts off from Church Circle every weekday morning and does a half dozen miles around town and the Naval Academy. Did I not observe about a month ago that at the end of that run, about 7 A.M., a group of the runners, forming one of those arches of hands , under which the so-called leader of those runners, a local lawyer, Gill Cochran, in ceremonial fashion, stooped down a bit and ran and then get into a waiting black SUV with tinted windows to be whisked away? Not necessarily believing what I was seeing, I inquired and was told that this so-called leader, does a personal run at 5:00 A.M.most mornings , then swings back for the start of the 6:06 run and on the particular day I saw him getting into the chauffeured SUV, he had done both his 5 and 6:06 o’clock runs and looked in seemingly in good shape No one in that 6:06 group seemed to have any problem with this perk. So, I ask, what is this running business coming to ?
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Running Calendar:
Sept. 24: Severna Park, 8:15. Victims Fund Run, .5K and 2 Mile Walk, 410.222.1740, ext. 3829
Sept. 24: 8 a.m. Washington, Navy 5 Miler, West Potomac Park, 202.685.0896.
Oct. 1: Southern High School, Striders Metric Marathon (26.2K, about 16 miles). Call John Gallagher, 301.855.0744.
Oct. 1: South River Colony, Edgewater, 9 a.m., third annual Jodi Reitz Commemorative 5K. Call Ginny Meerman, 410.798.0124.
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