Flashes of Panic

Well, here’s a guess. Gary Allen is race director of the MDI Marathon, and also ran his 50th sub-3 hour marathon before the age of 50 (or 51) at New York this year. Gary’s pretty savvy about PR stuff—he’s the guy who launched the Lunar Marathon a couple of years ago, and he has also run the Boston Marathon course at 6 a.m. on January 1 the last few years to become the year’s first Boston runner. So… he gets my vote for this medal presentation. Of course, you should know all these things about Gary, including his family’s ownership (???) of Great Cranberry Island, where he does all his training on a rather wee out and back strip.

correct. This has become an annual tradition, I bring Fred a medal from our event at each NYC Marathon. I had the honor of meeting him in the early 80s and never thought I would one day found and direct a marathon myself. This is a quiet salute from one RD to another. Strangely, I have been compared to Fred even the feisty side, so I guess its fitting that I say hey each year.

I (and all RDs) owe him a debit of gratitude for paving the way for what we all do. Yup, I cracked by 50th sub 3 at age 50 at NYC which was a long attempted goal realized at Fred’s race. Without sounding to mushy I dissolved into a puddle of tears as I crossed the finish line and I’m not exactly an emotional chick flick crier type. Maybe meeting my goal with Fred looking on was part of it? I’ll never know for sure.

My family did settle on Great Cranberry Island in the 1700s and my guess is running is easy compared to everyday living back then so I guess running is in my blood. Who cares of the main rd is only 2 miles long. 10 lengths still equals 20 miles. Funny if you have no route options it isn’t hard to run back and forth.

I have indeed run the Boston Marathon course on New years morning over last 3 years. (planning to be there on 1-1-08 for #4) I start at 6am again as a quiet salute to what is arguably the greatest stretch of road known to running. I guess a side benefit is I can lay unofficial claim to being the 1st in the new calendar year to cover this almost sacred ground. Best of all on New Years morning there are few if any cars to be seen. So far I’ve yet to be able to lure anyone to join me. If any of you want to see the Boston course in its purest form see you in Hopkinton on New Years morning!

the view ain’t so bad…speaking of running back and forth on a small offshore Maine island….plenty of time to think while not worrying about where you’re going.(you have to turn back when you reach the end anyway)

With that said I have always believed that everything can be made better, even running shoes. I have hacked apart many a running shoe over the years trying to come up with something better than air as cushioning. I think I have come up with something that would more or less revolutionize athletic shoes…I mean how many years did it take to come up with putting inner tubes in em…duh. Some things are right in front of us all along. I hope to find somebody who can help me further develop this? Nope, not a single waffle iron was sacrificed either!

here is a Downeast magazine spread (cover) on Great Cranberry Island.

https://secure.downeast.com/store/images/cache/464ad969c9151eb8d2fbcb4d50fea415.jpg

sorry about the URL I’m not sure how to put a pic on here? Anyway inside this issue you can see some of the views I suffer thru everyday.

cheers

I missed the medal. But, one year NYRRC gave out bobble heads of Fred for one the race named after him. My wife Julie and I decided that the best place for a bobble head of Fred was next to his statue. That must have been around 2000. BTW, it didn’t last more than a day, gone the next morning.