Find this page online at www.coolrunning.com/results/97/nh/health97.htm
Find this page online at www.coolrunning.com/results/97/nh/health97.htm
Healthsource Gets Record Field in Manchester, NHby Dave Camire
Complete Final Results
Manchester, NH - No long registration lines, an abundance of porta-johns, frequent PA announcements telling you where to go and what to do, lots of smiles. Am I in heaven? No, I'm in Manchester, New Hampshire. Whenever I go north of the Massachusetts border, the world seems to get calmer and the pace relaxes. So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived at Veteran's Memorial Park in Manchester for the Healthsource 5K only find one of the slickest produced road races north of Madison Avenue. Now don't get me wrong, I mean this in the nicest way. However, it did catch me off guard. First, there were very few clues indicating the magnitude of this event. I entered the city without getting caught in a major traffic jam - this was good. I then parked about 100 yards from the park, for free, 30 minutes before race time - this was very good! Try this in Boston - NOT! A big time race without the big time hassles.
So, how LARGE of a race is Healthsource? Try 6300 entrants LARGE. How BIG of an event is Healthsource? It's Frank Shorter BIG - that's how BIG! Shorter, the man who led the nation into the running boom after winning the Gold Medal in the 1972 Olympics (the only American male to do so since 1908), was on hand to compete - that's BIG. It's funny; I've always had a larger than life image of Frank Shorter. To me he is the John Kennedy of running. Tonight, he had to be pointed out to me several times because I was having difficulty identifying him as he blended so well into the crowd. Surprisingly, autograph hounds didn't deluge him. Not because his signature is not coveted, (I wished I'd remembered to bring his book Olympic Gold with me so he could have autographed it), but he is so unassuming it is difficult to pick him out. When I finally approached him to ask a few questions, not expecting much of his time, he gave me his full attention and lots of his time. I would find it hard to believe that any other athlete of his stature in another sport would be so accommodating.
Shorter was at the race because George LeCours, who he has known through business for years, invited him. "You know it's funny," said Shorter. "I've never been up here, but when I mention George's name everyone says 'Oooh, George' and they laugh. So you know George must have some impact here and I think his reputation is pretty good because he has always been a big supporter of running." LeCours, who is in charge of retail sales for Saucony, has been very active in New Hampshire running over the last decade. Shorter couldn't say enough good things about LeCours and his involvement in bringing him to New Hampshire. As he put it, "He [LeCours] arranged to get me up here," he said, LeCours told him about a 5K race that was really growing and was quite something. He told him, "They run it in the middle of the week at night." According to Shorter this was key because he'll go anywhere to race if he doesn't have to get up in the morning. Shorter will be in New England through the weekend so he can participate in the 25th Falmouth Road Race. He will then return in September to be the "Dean of Fitness" at Fitness University, a program run by the Nashua based Gate City Striders to promote youth running. "I like the idea [Fitness U]. I really think we're going to have to get going on the grass roots aspect of running," Shorter explained. "Obviously there are enough of us baby boomers as the demographics of this race show," he continued. "It would nice to expose kids to running so we find the ones who actually enjoy doing it."
Shorter's own running goal is to run under sixteen minutes as a fifty-year-old. He is only two months away from that magic mark. "I'm pretty close now. I ran 17:20 today. If I ran intervals I'd probably be a minute faster, so that means I have about 30 seconds I've got to gain." When asked about how he would match up against Bill Rodgers, he replied, "Bill's running well. He's at least a minute faster than I am for 5K. That's my goal - just to get close to Bill again." While Frank Shorter represented the past glory of road racing, today's winners represented its future. Christine Reaser of Hollis, Maine won the women's title with a time of 17:32. "I saw the time from last year, 16:19, so I didn't think I'd win," she said. "I got a really bad start, so I couldn't tell if there was someone up there. After the mile they were yelling 'first woman' and I was really shocked." Reaser, who is training about 80 miles per week, had a few problems early in the race. "My calf knotted up on me because I got here 10 minutes before the start and I thought I was going to have to drop out." Unfortunately for second place finisher and hometown favorite, Gina Sperry of Manchester, she didn't. What's next for Reaser? "I'm looking forward to cross-country season, I'm really looking forward to that."
John Mortimer of Londonderry won the men's division over fellow New Hampshire runner Mike O'Brien of Durham. "It went real well, " Mortimer said. "It's a good tune-up for some upcoming races I have." Mortimer, who hasn't been home in a while because he has been studying architecture abroad, will be off to Italy next week to compete in the World University Games. "I haven't run anything on the roads for a year, I've been on the track."
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