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Thoughts running through my mind - What will we do without Bay Bridge race?
By JOE SHAFRAN
I wasn’t necessarily insulted a few weeks ago when the nearly seven foot tall Bob Ferry of Annapolis said he saw me walking and might hereafter call me Walking Joe. Ferry, as you may know is, of basketball fame among others of his achievements, I did not reveal to Mr. Ferry that over the years I have secretly envisioned a society of physically able people running or jogging everywhere, rather than walking.
The closest this vision ever came to being was seeing the men and women of Town Park in Annapolis do valet parking. I also thought of it when I read the obituary in the Washington Post on Friday the 14th of 88 year old Ted Corbitt, who the Post headlined as the pioneer of distance running. In the write-up, we are told that Ted Corbitt ran just about everyplace he went. He ran to work for many years. He was an Olympian in the early fifties and he was one of those who showed us that the human body was capable of doing more than just running a marathon, and took us into the ultras... It is said that in his prime Corbitt, an African American, ran 200 miles a week.
Speaking of walking and running, what are we going to do about suffering through a couple more years of not having the local Governor’s Bay Bridge Walk and 10K run? It’s been cancelled for at least the next two years because of bride construction. .As an alternative, I thought of the bridge run they have had at the Tidewater in Virginia but that, too is no longer. I checked with Yvonne Aasen of the Striders, whose son, Curt, also a runner, teaches at the college there, and here is what Curt Aasen reported: “The Bay Bridge-Tunnel marathon was canceled well over a year ago (it was not held last year) due to lower than projected participation. The City of Virginia Beach set a target participation rate to achieve within three years, which the race fell well short of. The City and the Bay Bridge/Tunnel Commission did not want to shut down vital highways and streets for just a couple thousand runners. It was not a Tidewater Striders race”.
So with all this bad news, might I offer an alternative, most assuredly not to be canceled...? While it isn’t a 10K and it’s not the 4 mile Bay Bridge, how about the .05K bridge run and walk each spring in downtown Annapolis put on by the Maritime Republic of Eastport in conjunction with Dog Day afternoon? I’m really kidding. Can you imagine . 50,000 walkers and 3 thousand runners converging in the historic district. . I know the MRE Premier Mark Traviglini would like nothing better than to host the thousands, but it would be impossible. I do know that the MRE can accommodate about 25 more runners for what I call the shortest sanctioned race in the world .Watch for it in early spring. Last year’s winner did it in about 18 seconds.
And what about that forecast of a wintry mix this past weekend? We may have lucked out . We got the rain and that didn’t stop runners, but watching them play football in the snow Sunday in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, we realized where the wintry mix went. Around here we seem to get hit hard in late winter. I recall the inaugural Frederick Marathon about five years ago in March when the blast of the starting gun may have jiggled the snow clouds a bit.By the time the lead runners got to the finish line in three hours, they were trudging though 4 inches of snow and it was still coming down.
About that six foot banana at Quiet Waters Park earlier this month at the 15K run… There was a person inside the costume, cheering on the runners near the Blue Heron Pavilion. It was Donna Cogle of Strider running and coaching fame. This was a banana that gave hugs to various lucky people.
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Race of the week: The Resolution 5K on New Years Day in Baltimore. Thank goodness this is a race that allows one to get a good night’s sleep It starts at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Runners of the week: Tom Bradford, Brad Chapman, Dan Symancyk and Susan Zevin, hard at work at the Strider’s 15K 29th anniversary run at Quiet Waters Park on Sunday, December 9th. Never to miss a race and not listed on the race manifest, these four got in the “workers” run, Zevin was race director and Bradford was the timer. Having done marathons in the 50 states, Bradford is now doing marathons in the Canadian provinces, following in the footsteps of the tall, bearded Milt Taylor of Odenton. A former state trooper and now in his seventies, Taylor has done marathons in all the states, the continents and the provinces in recent years and is never one to pass up a 15K on a Sunday morning.
Tip of the week… Why water? It’s the basis of life. You should drink at least 8 cups daily mostly water, but juices, milk, soups and caffeine-free tea and coffee count toward the 8 cups. Do not use too much ice (it makes it hard to tell just how much water you are drinking).This tip is from the Learn-to-Live hand-out at many races by the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.
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Running Calendar
Dec. 31, 4 P.M. New Year’s Eve day…
MADD Red Ribbon 5K
Campus of George Mason Univ., Fairfax, Virginia.
Go to www.racepacket.com
Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Jan. 1, 2008 New Year’s Day
2 P.M Patterson Park, Baltimore
Resolution 5K Run.
Call Kelly Dees, 410.308.1870.
Sunday, Jan. 13. Disneyworld Marathon, Buena Vista, Florida
Sign up at www.disneyworldmarathon.com
Race Results
Striders 29th Anniversary 15K run, Quiet Waters Park, Sun Dec. 9th
(from the Strider’s web site)
1. Derek Oskitis, 20, 52:56. 2. Billy Garland,20, 53:24. 3. Erik Westlund, 23, 54:34 . 4. Matt Fortin, 23, 54:53. 5. Erik Bates, 21, 55:25. 6. Robert Tisch, 36, 55:47. 7. Anthony Yeager, 20, 57:08. 8, Dr. Tom Hattar, 46, 57:22. 9. Jim Anderson, 47, 58:20. 10. Caroline White, 22, 58:26.11. Matt Mace, 47, 58:38.12. James Fitch,43, 59:28.13, Patel Sailesh, 43,59:30. 14. Paul Serra, 51, 59:36. 15. John Ward, 43, 1:00.
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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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