Rob Rose Running Column 2/8/07

It was late when I returned home from the Runners of the Year

banquet a couple of Thursdays ago. Five hours earlier I had made

the trek over to Tom's Tavern in Wrentham laden with citations,

plaques and two framed T-shirts for that night's festivities.

The goal that evening was for everyone to have a good time and

to distribute all the hardware to the deserving recipients. But

as any race director knows the odds of walking away at the end

of the day without any extraneous trophies, plaques, medals or

commemorative glassware, is extremely slim. I carried back into

the house that night a plaque and a citation. Ryan Collins, the

Mansfield High School cross country phenom, had an English paper

due the next day and was unable to attend.

The attic, basement and trunk of my car have become

repositories of an increasing collection of past awards. There's

the 1999 Runner of the Year trophy for Run For Humanity 5K race

director Jim Whelan. Why is that here? Oh, yeah. It's spelled

WHALEN!

The only redeeming value for having this stuff lying around is

that there is hope that I will eventually get rid of it. But

behind every trophy is a story.

In the attic are three trophies that will never find homes. In

1997, the Sun Chronicle initiated the Home Town Champions for

the Ro-Jack's Five Mile race. The top male and female in the ten

towns in the Chronicle circulation area were awarded beautiful

walnut base trophies with a metal loving cup atop. However, that

first year, no woman from Norfolk appeared and the trophy landed

in the attic. The next year it happened again, no women from

Norfolk came to Ro-Jack's and the '97 trophy had a companion. I

took no chances for 1999. Late that summer, I started recruiting

Norfolk women to run the race. Three came to Attleboro on race

day and Kris Porell got the trophy. I was so grateful that I

wrote a story about her. Two years later, Norfolk women deserted

Ro-Jack's again and the trophy duo became a trio.

Sean Tynan was the Foxboro male champion in 1997 with a sub 25

minute race but he didn't wait for the awards ceremony. When I

called him to make arrangements to make the transfer, he said he

was moving to Albuquerque the next day. I told him I would leave

the trophy on my front porch. He never came.

Cathy Nowak won the Foxboro trophy in 2000 and Johanna

Fertitta in 2002. I carried those trophies in the trunk for

years, hoping that I would meet them at a race and make

delivery. That never happened.

Area race directors are more pragmatic than I when it

comes to trophies and most employ a similar practice to reduce

waste; they recycle. "I order the same trophy every year so I

can pull the engraved plate off and use the trophy again," said

Arnold Mills race director Tom Kenwood. "I will recycle trophies

by getting new name plates to attach," said Attleboro Y race

director Bob Withers. ""I have just had new engraved plates to

put on the awards so I can use them for races," said

Crackerbarrel 5K's Rich Katno. "It is pretty easy to do by

prying off the old and replacing the new ones. This saves us

some money in the account from having to order many trophies."

Billy Kelly race director Keith Purrier uses plastic drinking

mugs as his awards with just the race name on it. No expiration

date to constrain one.

It needs to be pointed out that race directors are not cold

hearted capitalists with no feelings. They do make the attempt

to seek out the impatient who leave early. "I try my best after

our races to contact the winners and arrange a pick up time for

them to claim their trophy," said Withers. "A few times I have

actually mailed a trophy to a winner that lived out of state."

Unfortunately as a last resort, he lamented, "they go to the

dumpster."

My trophies won't go to the dumpster. Ryan Collins will get

his awards. Over the years, I have tracked down many award

winners and had them come by the house to pick up their awards.

Then there are the elusive Cathy Nowak and Johanna Fertitta. I'm

optimistic we will meet so the trophies are back in the trunk of

my car and waiting for that day.

Footnotes - The Attleboro Art Museum and the Wampanoag Road

Runners are conducting a series of seminars devoted to women

runners; the sessions will be held at the Attleboro Art Museum

on Feb. 20, March 13, April 3 and April 24 from 7 to 9 p.m. and

will cover a variety of running related topics; contact Sandy

Sheehy (508-643-0626 or ssheehy@mindspring.com) for details ....

of the 50 teams registered for the Feb. 25 Hyannis Marathon

Relay, 25% are from the Attleboro area; nine Wampanoag Road

Runner teams and one Runaways ... after 14 years, the Frosty 5K

is no more; per race director Jill Jessup, the mid February

Newport race was canceled due to increasing costs that wasn't

consistent with the sponsoring organization's, the Leukemia

Society, fund-raising goals ...this is the column where each

year I advise runners that the Wampanoag Road Runner bus to the

Boston Marathon has seats available; not this year; all 55 seats

are taken and there is a waiting list ... a moment of silence

please; the DB Sports van, after 22 years of service, expired

last week; that white Chevy Astro was a fixture at area races

for many years ....