Wednesday, September 24, 2008

35 Years Running

Between my vacation and the hurricanes, I missed my 35th anniversary of running. I started running late in August 1973 as a 9th-grader with the Shrewsbury High School Cross Country team. I've been running ever since. There were several years when my children were young that I was only able to run once or twice a week. And I couldn't run much when I lived in a 440 foot long sewer pipe stuffed with 150 men, a nuclear reactor, a steam plant, and 16 ballistic missiles. But I'm running as much now as I was in 1973; maybe even a little faster ;)

Can you spot me in this picture?




How about the Winter Track team picture? We ran all of our races at the indoor track in Ashland (on the Boston Marathon route).

7 comments:

Bert said...

Congrats on 35 years! Quite a feat, and you don't seem to be slowing down much! I am at 38 years, started in 1970.

Pete Brockett said...

From the class of '77 I can identify: Steve Whiting, Steve Ball, Willis Dryden, Bob Perkins, Mouse McNamara, Danny Wall, Mike Berard, Danny O'Leary...

But not Me ...or You...

Frank Carroll turned in a 4:20 mile that year in spring track

Nuke Runner said...

Frank Carroll was amazing. I'm third from the left on the fourth row. I think that's Steve Whiting just above my left shoulder. I think Danny Wall and Tony Gully are directly below me.

Nuke Runner said...

I moved to Southern California just at the start of 9th grade, and then to Denver for 12th grade. But Shrewsbury had the best Cross Country and Track programs.

Pete Brockett said...

My brother Dave tells the story about running against some skinny freshman from Wayland in a XC meet that year ('73)in a district race. I don't think he beat Frank, but came pretty close.

His name was Alberto Salazar - you may have heard of him...

Nuke Runner said...

That is cool. I remember watching Frank in the varsity races. Our first meet was an invitational in Boston's Franklin Park that had some of the best teams in New England. I didn't get to run so I was able to see much of the race. I wouldn't have recognized Salazar though.
I remember there was a guy from Worcester who was on Frank's level that used to hang out with the SHS team. I can't remember which Worcester school (Burncoat?) but the school had lost its accreditation and he was having trouble getting into college.

Nuke Runner said...

I'm second from the left in the top row of the Cross Country picture.