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Running: This time, I chose not to run
By JOE SHAFRAN, For The Capital
I don’t know if it was the smartest thing I‘ve ever done, but perhaps the most satisfying. It was to unilaterally cancel the charity 5Krun/1mile walk that I had organized for Labor Day morning in my hometown in Western Pennsylvania. It was to help raise funds to maintain the park where I started my running career decades ago. But back on September 1st , when we began to realize the enormity of the situation along the Gulf Coast, coupled with the remembrances of 9-11, I got this sinking feeling that I couldn’t get myself to go have some fun at a race, so I just canceled it and, not surprising, found general agreement from the folks back home. It was an inconvenience all around, but everyone seemed to agree that the last thing we needed was a running race while some folks didn’t know what the status of their relatives in the storm area was, that we should better focus our resources on the Katrina relief effort. And each day, as the events unfold, I feel it was a good decision. . However, as I’ve found over the years, a good quiet contemplative morning run is good personal therapy and, like others, I know that life must go on. As I’m out there in the morning, I begin to imagine what happens to running races, in those places hit by the hurricane, races that were in the works and the traditional annual runs like the Sugar Bowl, the Mardi Gras and the Big Easy Marathons. One hopes they will ever be revived. While my hometown race was canceled ,we’ve got some big ones coming up such as the Baltimore Running Festival on Saturday, October 15th with its full and half marathons. It’s just been announced that the marathon will be routed through Fort McHenry for the first time and underway here is the Striders training session for people who want to advance from a 5K to a 10K run. That course started this past Tuesday evening, but Donna Cogle, one of the trainers reminds that they’ll still take you if you show up for the second class on Tuesday at 6:15. The trainers will do a quick review of the first session and then go on to week two of the ten week course that gets you ready for the Cold Turkey 10K, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It begins at the South River School on Central Avenue in Edgewater, November 20th. On Tuesday, the class meets at mile marker one on the B&A trail which is near the McDonald’s and the Shell station at Arnold Road just off Ritchie Highway ( MD. Rte 2) .The sessions are Tuesdays at 6:15 p.m. and Saturday’s at 8 a.m. at various locations to be announced, then on October 11th there’s a switch a bit up Rte 2 to a meeting room at the Big Vanilla Health Club. You should only know if you are in the class how lucky you will be to be tutored by not only Donna Cogle, but by Penny Goldstein, Kathy Hanson and Joe Ross, people who have never been known to known to pass up or help out at a race .Mention of the 3 women and one mn, Joe Rosss brings up a point. This class is not just for ladies. Men can learn , also. And the cost is in line . Twenty dollars if you are Strider member and if not, $35 makes you a member and pays for the sessions. And also, this course is good for people who are already 8 and 10K runners but who can stand a few valuable pointers. E-mail Donna at rundonna1@ aol.com or call her at 443-623-6628. Join the class and astound your friends by telling them you will be running a 10K race, and you can tell them its a little more than six miles .
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As I predicted some months ago, a new development is occurring in running races both here and elsewhere and that it would be noticed. And while I’ve witnessed it myself, I heard it first hand from a runner who did the Striders B&A 10K this past Sunday in and around Glen Burnie. It wasn’t necessarily a complaint, but the comment was that many of the top finishers were Midshipmen from the Naval Academy, men and women, all very highly trained and most all of whom list their home address as Annapolis. They are distinguished in a race by their age, all in the late teens and early twenties and wearing a Navy jersey. They are members of the somewhat new Naval Academy Marathon Club. From now on, we should get accustomed to having them around and to begin adjusting our running pace to either keep up with them .or do the impossible and beat them. Their coaches are civilian volunteers, led by a no-nonsense Annapolis runner, Nathan Nudelman , a recently turned 30-year-old in law enforcement, who apparently insists that these Mids, male and female either win the race or finish very close to the top or else. The interesting thing is that the coaches run the races with the club members, and seem to hang back a few seconds to urge on the stragglers. They will be running at the upcoming Chicago marathon on October 9th, the JFK 50 miler in Western Maryland on November 19th and numerous other runs in between. I say it is something to behold. I do have it on good authority, that the club recently expanded from about 25 to 50 runners, if that doesn’t tells you something.
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And if you can get enough nerve up to run in a kilt, drive to Baltimore Saturday morning and do the Men (or Women) in Kilts 5K.There will be bagpipers at the start, at splits and the finish line and the $12 entry fee gets you a pass to the Irish Festival where they boast they will have the best Irish bands in Baltimore, plenty of Irish food, tanker trucks of ice cold Guinness and a possibility that Martin O’Malley will bring his band. The run begins downtown near Howard and West Biddle, near Myerhoff. Call Jim Adams at the Falls Road Running Store for details at 1-410- 296-5050. They say they’ll rent you a freshly dry cleaned “one size fits all” kilt, if needed.
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Running Calendar
Sept. 17, Columbia, 8 a.m. Howard County Habifest 5K run/walk. 410-480-8120
Sept. 17, Laurel. 8 a.m., Palloti High School , 10th Annual Laurel 5K Run and Walk/ Call Mary Ann Ascherl, 301-776-6471
Sept. 18, Ellicott City. 9 a.m. (Centennial Park) Howard County Police 5K and 1 mile fun walk. Call 1-410-313-2105
Sept. 18, Severna Park High School, 7:30 a.m. Maryland Army National Guard. Freedom Run 5KRun/Walk.Call 410-979 3897
Sept. 24, Kinder Farm Park, Jumpers Hole Road, 8:30 a.m. Run for the Harbour, 5K Run/Walk and Family Fest. Call Becky Decker, 443-394- 3760
Oct 2, South River Colony, Edgewater, .Second Jodi Reitz Commemorative 5K fun run/walk Registration at 7:30 a.m. Proceeds go to Anne Arundel County Court Appointed Special Advocate Program for abused and neglected children. Call Ginny Meerman, 410-798-0124
Oct. 9, Kinder Farm Park. Jumpers Hole Road, 10 a.m., the Cliff R.Roop memorial run to raise funds to place automated external defibrillators in public buildings. Call Jo Jones, 443- 306-6277
Race Results
B&A 10K Top 10 finishers (274 overall): 1. Wallace Miller, 21, Annapolis.33:54:27. 2. Kai Siegele, 22, Annapolis, 33:54:73, 3. Curtis Prentice, 25 , Berryville, Va., 34:56, 4. Brian Daughterty, 45, Severna Park, 35:39, 5. John Rashap, 21, Annapolis, 36:23. 6. Eric Makovsky 32, Hanover, 36:35. 7. Douglas Marsh 20, Annapolis, 36:37. 8. Nathan Nudelman, 30 , Annapolis, 36:50. 9. Dr. Tom Hattar, 44, Davidsonville,36:51. 10. Matt Davis, 19, Annapolis, 37:10
First 10 females B&A 10K: 41. Andrea Williams 34, Annapolis, 40:58. 46. Jill Hargis, 45. Arnold, 41:11. 50. Sheryl Kline, 42, Arnold ,41:27. 57. Alison Suckling,50, Annapolis, 42:42, 74. Cheryl Gilman, 37, Annapolis, 44:58. 75., Suzanne Strasser, 32, Ellicott City, 45:03. 82., Uvetz Davids, 38, Annapolis, 45:58. 84., Laurel Bell, 43, Crownsville, 46:16. 89. Mary Lang , 51, 46:34. 94. Helene Leclercq, 31, Baltimore, 47:01.
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