|
 |
SQRR Quarterly Newsletter |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dear Squannie, Welcome to the special and much anticipated "Groton Road Race" edition of the Squannie Newsletter. This year marks the 14th year of your featured event. As it turns out, unless the big meteor comes, it will be the 14th time I've run the 10k as well. Somewhere in the archives of the cable access station is an interview of me at 29 years young at the inaugural GRR. I remember they asked me what my chances were. I responded by saying that my chances would probably be better the following year when I turned another decade into a new age group. I think I ran 7:50's. I was totally psyched because my goal was to break 8 minute miles and I had been training for almost a month. At the time I thought that if I could just get up to 5 miles, 3 times a week, I'd be unstoppable. I turned in my best time a decade later with a 6:36 pace. It's funny how things turn out. After a self indulgent decade of dissipation after college, it was the GRR that gave me a reason to slowly start getting back in shape. It was this race that taught me the joy of running more so than any marathon. The GRR was the cornerstone, the anchor and the beginning of a decade and a half of running that has brought me so much joy and taught me so much about myself. When I ponder the question, "Why do I run?" the GRR is routinely implicated. We are graced to have in "SueX2" two strong and capable race directors with oodles of experience and dollops of patience (especially for self-important dolts like me!). This is YOUR race, this is OUR race. Please join me in being grateful and in sharing this gift with the people of Groton. With that syrupy preamble out of the way, it's time to buckle down and VOLUNTEER for a task or two that will make this year's GRR the best ever. There are a couple thousand people out there depending on us to build the framework on which they will hang their happy race memories. I hope you enjoy the Winter 2004 issue of the newsletter. Much of this issue's content covers the history of the race and some of the behind-the-scenes happenings that make it all come together. Enjoy reading! Chris Russell, Club President
The concept of a race in town goes back several years prior to 1992. When we first moved into town in 1998, we were amazed at the community spirit and friendship we experienced almost immediately. Our kids were elementary school age and getting involved with the school community was like nothing else we had ever experienced. In addition to regular PTA activities, we found ourselves organizing and decorating haunted houses. However we noticed something was missing from the Groton calendar and that was a community fun run. Given that New England has hundreds of community runs throughout the seasons we were somewhat perplexed there was not a fun-run on the very active Groton community calendar. Apparently there was an event at the beginning of the decade but for logistical reasons it only ran for a few years and died a natural death. We decided to perform some straw polling and see if there was any interest in creating a new Groton Road Race. We had worked with the well-established Groton Recreation department for three prior years on mutual fundraisers and determined that they were a very well organized, established and connected town-based group. If a Groton Road Race was to happen then Groton Recreation would have to be part of it. We were part of a well organized but loosely connected community group in town but we did not have a serious running component. In order to have a community fun run that would survive beyond one or two years, we would need to establish a local running club. How do you do that? One month in late 1991 we put some notices in the local Groton Herald to see if anyone would be interested in coming on some weekend runs. We wanted to test the water to see if there was a critical mass of runners in Groton to form the nucleus of a local running club. We were amazed that several enthusiastic folks did show up for those first runs which at that time, were held at the Groton Dunstable Regional School complex on Main Street. Some of the folks included Chris Shattuck, Skip Johnson and Billy McGuire from the Groton School. During these early days we served up the idea of developing a community fun run in town.
How, When, Where and What Events:
The Date:
Where:
What Events:
The Partnership and Proceeds: Our next issue will feature some other fun facts about the race. I hope you enjoyed this history lesson!
Our club treasurer, Linda Beneke, has been involved in the race for nearly ten years and has handled dispersing the race proceeds. We've consistently been able to donate a generous sum to the various organizations totaling approximately $40,000 over the history of race. From the early years, we have always taken care of the organizations that help us out on race day, including Team Hoyt, the Auxiliary Police, the EMTs and the HAM Radio operators. Since part of the SQRR charter is to foster the growth of the sport of running, several years ago we started the Groton Summer Track and Field Program and have supported it both financially and through management of the program ever since. In the past three or four years, we added a feature to the race where runners can recruit sponsors for cancer research and it has been very successful. Over $4,000 has been collected by runners in sponsorship money and sent to various cancer research facilities in Boston along with over $10,000 from our race proceeds. Since 1999, we have added the Groton Fire Department, the Groton Dunstable Regional School District Fine Arts Department, the Peter Twomey Youth Center, a Groton Dunstable High School Scholarship Fund and, in 2004, Habitat for Humanity to our list of recipients. As an example of how are donations are spent, the race donated a small sum of money to the school music department. There were several broken instruments sitting in a closet unused and the music teacher was very pleased to use our donation to repair those instruments.
We have very dependable groups of volunteers from the Pepperell Girl Scouts (5K course), the Groton Boy Scouts (10K @ 2miles) and a particularly rowdy and festive crowd who always barbeque and cheer at the home of Pat and Bill Kelley on Smith Street (10K @ 3 miles). We've had sporadic support from the Groton School (10K @4 miles), and I want to build up volunteers for this station. Last year, we learned that you actually can staff a water stop with only 3 people, but it's really not as much fun. The trickiest part of running a water stop, and the part for which we depend on volunteers is the setup on-site and, of course, the "passing of water". I very much recommend volunteering for a water stop at the Groton Road Race or at any other event. It is a thrill to furiously hand out water to a stampede of runners, and the appreciation they feel - and express - is very gratifying. When the "pack" hits a water stop, it is pandemonium, with the singular goal of passing out as many cups of water as you can possibly imagine. You'll learn a bunch of new skills, such as the "St. Pauli Girl" (in which you hold 4 cups in each of your hands) and the "Pinky Pinch" (the best way to hold a cup for handoff) and you'll develop a great repertoire of encouraging cheers. More than anything, you can't imagine how much it means to be there for your fellow runners and citizens. You'll get a year's worth of grateful and encouraged faces, and you'll go home inspired, satisfied and a little damp. See you next year!
Below is the schedule for Groton Road Race planning meetings. All meetings will start at 7:15 pm unless otherwise notified. Volunteers for meeting sites are appreciated. We won't make too much of a mess!
We have a total of eight new members who've joined the club since October. They are:
If you have something you'd like to add to the calendar, please let me know. We'll post it on the sqrr.org web site.
You might not expect it, but the running club is also a good activity for moms and kids - especially if they are small children. "What?" you say. Well, the Squannacook River Runners include many parents, and those of us with small kids frequently bring the toddlers along in our running joggers. Weekend time with the kids is precious, and so is our chance to exercise and socialize: so we mix the two, and the kids have a great time putting their parents to work. You'll do best with a large-wheel jogger, but we usually run on the Rail Trail or other kid-friendly venue. Sometimes, we go off-road and the kids have a blast bouncing along the trails. We have a pretty dependable turnout from running parents Jim Ray, Amy Schilp, Dave Wilder, Ted MacMahon, and Gordon Row, but we'd welcome more moms and kids on our regular Sunday morning runs. We also would like to form a core group of moms who are interested in finding time to run whenever they can make it work. If interested, contact Tracy Shea Contributed by regular stroller pusher, Gordon Row
The accompanying photo is irrefutable evidence that SQRR Masters Team "Masters of Da Feet" brought home a Mill Cities brick on Sunday, December 5th. Much credit goes to the LaChances, John and Sue, who put the team in great position with their sub 6:00/miles for the 2.5 and 9.3 miles legs. Teammates Brian Reeves and Mark Gerath banged out an aggressive pace for legs 1 and 2 for the handoff to the LaChance machine. There were some tense moments over the final mile of the race when Frank veered off the course briefly and then frantically made up lost time to pass the number three masters team in the final 200 ft. of the race. A hearty thanks to Mark Graf and Sue Hoxie for excellent race logistics. We'll be back next year! A hearty thanks to Mark Graf and Sue Hoxie for excellent race logistics. We'll be back next year! Editor's Note: SQRR had always prided itself on running "fun, non-competitive" teams. You can thank the Masters of daFeet for breaking the trend and putting us in a point-scoring position.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |