By Ernest Joseph
Several club members ran Steamtown Marathon on October 10th, 2004. Logan Scott, Bill Carpenter and Olga Carriel were making their marathon debut, while Steve Ozer and Tom Gannon were on their annual pilgrimage to Scranton as usual. Also running were Kathy Mahoney, Peggy Marzell, Pat Parietti, Josephine Patten, Lisa Ashford, JC Santa Teresa and Ernest Joseph.
The marathon starts in Forest City, PA and ends in downtown Scranton, with a total elevation drop of 900 feet. There were about 1700 starters and they were treated with an excellent race organization and spectacular foliage along the course. RRR was well represented as you can see, and all of us ran sub 4-hour marathon! We even had our own RRR cheering squad all along the course: Jerry and Myrna at mile 6 or so and then again at mile 20, Teresa Kenny and Grandma Killeen at mile 10 or so and Kathy Daley at mile 16 or so. Here are some comments from the very elated RRR finishers:
Lisa Ashford: “I was glad to be running with Bill Carpenter, because around mile 23, my quads were screaming and burning, but running with Bill helped and we both finish in 3:53”.
Olga Carriel: “Dear Ernest & JC, Congratulation for such a great times in Steamtown Marathon, you did fabulous guys & thanks for a good training. I did have a good time at Steamtown”. Note – Olga, being modest, actually had a great time, considering this was her first and in 3:52. Her next goal is to qualify for Boston.
Ernest Joseph: “JC and I had planned this run a year ago, deciding to run together, which was a first for me but as you may know, a common gesture for JC. Our goal was to run 3:30 or better, and the pact before the race was that I would not leave his side, but JC can do so after mile 20. Well, JC took me upon that and finished strongly in 3:27 and I followed in 3:31, very satisfied with our results. I think this effort was more satisfying for JC, considering that he had to remove his right sock at mile 11, because it was bothering him and restricting his strides and run rest of the race without a sock!”
Logan Scott: “My first attempt at doing a marathon in 2003 ended with a training injury. As many people can relate to, it was a frustrating experience. With the help of my fellow RRR’s, I was able to train smarter this year and get to race day feeling healthy.
After a restless night in the hotel, I was eager to jump on that bus and get to the start. It was comforting to see fellow RRR members soon after arriving. Being around so many experienced marathoners helped to calm my first-timer jitters, and I was very relaxed as the cannon boomed to kick off the race.
I ran the first three miles under the confident tutelage of Ernest Joseph and JC Santa Teresa. They were exactly on pace. Of course, I had too much adrenaline coursing through my system to be that sensible for long. I ended up surging ahead on a steep downhill stretch. I then ran an erratic pace for the remainder of the first half (serves me right).
I went through the half marathon checkpoint in about 1:42:30, and then settled into a much more even pace.
The miles clipped by and I continued to feel strong. Those crazy runs we did up in Harriman Park and all those track workouts with Bernie Casserly and Bill Fortune were really paying dividends.
I finished 20 miles in 2:35. I realized I was on pace for a negative split, but my quads were starting to tell me otherwise. When I passed the 22-mile mark, every step was a new personal distance record. My quads held up though, and I was able to maintain my pace through the hills in the upcoming miles.
The cheers I heard from the RRR supporters throughout the race were really fantastic. I heard Myrna Rivera screaming words of encouragement at about the moment I realized that I would definitely finish. I was able to harness the energy and pick it up for the last miles. I sprinted like a lunatic on the downhill finishing stretch spurred on by the cheers from my wife Teresa.
The finishing photo shows me nipping someone at the line. He is looking at me like “who is this jerk sprinting for two hundred and seventy something place”. It was not the place or the time I cared about. I was just thrilled to end the long journey of accomplishing my first marathon”.
Bill Carpenter: “For me, the start of the Steamtown marathon was more the end of a journey than the beginning of a race. I had been a pretty serious runner in the late 80’s, completing several 10K’s and a half marathon in Iowa City. I ran a few races after moving to New York, but gradually my running lifestyle had slipped away. Perhaps that one half marathon would be my high-water mark?
The fires of my marathon ambition started to be rekindled on New Year’s Eve, 2003, when I resolved to lose some weight. Eventually, by the time I toed the line in Forest City, I would be a lesser man by some 60 pounds (South Beach diet – but that’s another story). In March, as winter loosened its grip, I hit the roads with a low-key group of running friends in Stony Point. Lisa, who was to become my Steamtown training and running partner probably remembers me wheezing my way up the 1-mile hill on Suffern Lane. After a few weeks the wheezing improved to panting and finally to cruising, but the thought of running a marathon this year was still little more than a flicker of an idea. By May, however, I had fallen in with bad company – the 6:00 group at Rockland Lake – whose war stories of marathons past fueled a growing desire. A few days before the deadline, I applied for New York. Then …… disappointment. Not accepted. Oh well, there’s always next year. But, what about this Steamtown marathon that my work buddy Ernest rates so highly? It’s not as prestigious, and its 4 weeks earlier, so even less time to train, but the more I heard, the more intrigued I became.
So, I kind of backed into Steamtown, but after the decision was made, everything clicked. My favorite running quote is the one from Juma Ikangaa, winner of the 1989 NYC Marathon: “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare”. So prepare I did, with the help of just about every running buddy, acquaintance or complete stranger in Rockland County. The recollections of the marathon itself will always be golden in my memory, but they are crowded on all sides by flashbacks from that long summer of training, when all my running was fresh and new again. The 6:00 group at Rockland lake, new friends now as comfortable as an old slipper. Coffee at Sparky’s after Saturday morning runs in Stony Point. The shared pain of the track workouts in Pearl River. Running “Golf Course Hills” on Fridays. The Haverstraw trail, reopened just in time. The South Nyack 10-miler, just at the right time for a pre-marathon tune-up, and a confidence builder (according to some arcane prediction formula) that I could break 4 hours on the day.
I only made it to one of the “Bear the Mountain” runs, but it was a transcendent experience. Runners from Rockland and Westchester, old friends and new, disembarking from their cars in the early morning stillness of the Silvermine parking lot. A light drizzle sifting softly through the trees. Mist rising like smoke from the lakes bordering the road that unwinds ahead of us. Congenial companions talking about what runners talk about – the nagging injuries they carry with them and the races they should have done better in. Fourteen miles slips by like a dream, a new distance milestone for me, but there’s much more to come. Long runs of 18 and 20 miles come and go, stored away for the future like winter firewood. My last long run is scheduled for September 18th, the day Hurricane Ivan finally gets here and the planned Bear Mountain run is washed out. Some last minute e-mailing secures 5 or 6 runners who will run at least part of the way, and Lisa and I splash our way round Rockland Lake for a final 20-miler. It’s done. The hay is in the barn, as someone is fond of reminding us. Time to taper.
The day of the race dawns colder than any day that I’ve run in training. That’s good, actually, but it just adds to the first marathon nerves. Will my singlet be too cold? What should I eat? How much should I drink before the start? I settle on my “Bear the Mountain” shirt – a good choice because the bright yellow stands out in the crowd. I breakfast on waffles, and I drink too much for a cold day, requiring two pit stops in the first 14 miles! After a seemingly interminable bus trip from downtown Scranton (are we really going to run all the way back?), we unload at Forest City high school, where we are treated like royalty. Only after hearing the horror stories from New York do I realize how lucky I am to have chosen Steamtown for my first marathon. There’s plenty of familiar faces inside, if not always familiar names. Quicker than I expected, it’s time to line up outside, and we’re off! “Don’t go out too fast” is the mantra that has been drummed into my head whenever I’ve asked for advice in the preceding months. So I don’t. Ever the scientist, I have the intended splits for every mile taped to my wrist, and Lisa and I pretty much stick to them, showing up at the 7.7 mile viewpoint within seconds of the time we told our families to be there. We’re running a relaxed pace of 9 minute miles, giving us plenty of opportunity to enjoy the Pennsylvania countryside, the fall colors luminous in the early morning sun, and the small towns we pass through, main streets lined with spectators and well-wishers. The halfway point passes easily enough, and we hit an 8:35 pace before we stop briefly at the mile 16 viewpoint to gel up and exchange a few words with our families. It’s a bit of a grind through mile 20, but we keep the pace and we are on target to break 4 hours. It’s what lies beyond that worries me, it’s all uncharted territory from here. Still, there’s only 6 miles to go, we can almost taste it, and we are both running strong.
At mile 23, Lisa’s quads begin to cramp up. Here’s a dilemma. We’ve trained together, and run this far together, but what if we fall off the sub 4-hour pace? Will I leave her behind, or stick with her? But Lisa’s a tough competitor and I don’t have to make that choice. Grimacing and groaning softly, she’s still holding a 9:02 pace, and we’re passing people going up the hills. Two hundred yards shy of the finish, we spot our spouses and my daughter for the last time, then we are across the line, the time on the clock is 3:54 and change, and we made it!
Some people cross the finish line of their first marathon and say “never again”. My first thought was “this is great, when can I do it again”. So perhaps this Steamtown marathon was the beginning of a journey after all. A longer journey than I ever imagined at the beginning of the year, and one that has no final destination. In the words of a song: “The road goes on forever and the party never ends”.
Reflections on Running & Life 