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Boston's no sweat for Arnold's Curley
By JOE SHAFRAN
Lately, I’ve been hearing about runners trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon in April. Depending on age, the Boston Athletic Club historically requires even the stragglers to do it in well under four hours. Dr. Bill Tham of Annapolis is coming close and while he may have missed it this year, he’ll continue to shave off those minutes and get it down to about 3 and a half hours. Yet, it’s no sweat for Nika Shields of Davidsonville .She qualifies for Boston every marathon she runs and no doubt will run it in 2007... But the last person in the world who I would ever expect to hear was trying to qualify for Boston is John Curley, the runner from Arnold. John will be sixty his next birthday and has a running rap sheet like you wouldn’t believe. He enumerated for me all the marathons and ultra marathons that he did in just 2006....Feb.19, the George Washington Birthday: March 5, The B&A Trail: March 25, the HAT 50K : April 8, Ocean City: April 30, Frederick: October 8, Steamtown in Scranton Pa: October14, Baltimore: October 29, Marine: Nov. 5, New York:Nov.18, The JFK 50... and yet he says his goal for 2007 is to qualify for and run Boston. This is the man who does a daily morning run as a 6:06er in Annapolis and who the City singled out this year to give a License To Sweat that restricts his wearing down the 300 year old brick surfaces in town and specifically prohibits him from dripping sweat on patrons at the sidewalk cafes...
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I think of some very good golfers who at various outings qualify to become part of a foursome who get to play with a pro. This happens in running also. People want to run with a marathoner from California, Dean Karnazes. Erin Kelly, 26, of Annapolis did get to run with Karnazes at a recent 26.2 miler in Delaware. Karnazes makes headlines whenever he runs. His latest Jack Lalane type feat was running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.
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Older runners never die, they just become traffic cops. Richard Hillman, one of those who 40 years ago started the running craze around here and in later years served as the Mayor of Annapolis was seen by this columnist, doing a superlative job of directing traffic at Quiet Waters park during the recent Strider anniversary run. While he can still do a good run or climb a mountain, he seems most comfortable organizing directing, timing or staffing a water stop at a race, but and on a recent Sunday morning with a broad smile on his face, was wildly swinging his arms keeping runners and cars from colliding at a main crossing. The only things missing were a reflective vest, a badge and and a whistle which gave me the impression that he just voluntarily stepped into the breach at a critical time.
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In just a few days away, you are invited to come run at the City Dock race in Annapolis on New Years morning at 9. This is one of those races where there is no registration fee, as a matter of fact there is no registration, no race bib to be pinned on no nothing. Just come as you are with your hat and horn if you choose and if you are among the first 150, you get a neat tee shirt. Call Adeline Welch, Esq. at 410.849.2809.
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Race Results:
Striders Anniversary 15K, Quiet Waters Park, Sun. Dec. 10
1. Matt Urbanski,54:39.79. 2. Dale Irons, 55:40:43. 3. John Heller, 57:36:11. 4. Matt Mace, 58:12. 60. 5. Dr.Tom Hattar, 59:14:97. 6. Nate Nudelman, 59:15:28. 7. Paul Serat, 59:32:08, 8. Josh Dorsey, 59: 39.25. 9. James Fitch, 59:43:84. 10. Ryan Melhorn, 59:49:29.
First female was Kristen Malloy, 1:01:26.Second was Sheryl Kline, 1:01:42, placing 17 out of over 200.
Running Calendar:
Sunday, Dec. 31, 11A.M. Bates Field,Annapolis. First session of the Striders New Years Beginning Running Program. Prepares you to do the Valentine’s Day 5k on Feb .11, 2007. There are Tues and Thursday individual workout sessions. See the Striders at www.annapolisstriders.org
Jan. 4th to 7th. Buena Vista, Florida Disney World Marathon Weekend. Visit www.disneyworldmarathon.com
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