Rob Rose Running Column 2/19/07

For John Mortimer, Sunday morning became an early house

hunting excursion at the Old Fashioned 10 Miler in Foxboro. The

Waltham resident, who was scheduled to tour homes in the

Attleboro area at 1:30 yesterday, vanquished the 448 runner

field in addition to taking the time to view the available

housing stock in Foxboro. He cruised to a seemingly effortless

52:11 to win the ten miler. Vermont's Kasie Enman took the

women's ten in 58:33. North Andover's Mike Masse won the 5K in

17:46 with Providence' Heather Crosby the women's champion in

19:00.

In his first appearance at the OFTM, Mortimer got the jump on

the field, bursting into the lead as the runners embarked from

ice covered Pond Ave. Within the first half mile, he had

extended the lead to thirty yards and the field began to recede

into the background. It was at that point when the second tier

of runners began to rally. Lowell's David Hinga began a push

that brought him back into contention. When the duo hit the mile

mark in the Foxboro rotary in 5:02, they were running stride for

stride.

What made that sight unusual was the fact that neither runner

was a member of the Boston Athletic Association. Over the past

ten years, the B.A.A. has dominated this race, with the winning

male usually wearing the blue club singlet with unicorn logo. On

Sunday, the race was controlled by two others, Reebok (Mortimer)

and Merrimac Valley (Hinga).

For the next two miles, Hinga and Mortimer continued to set

the pace, turning to each other to occasionally exchange

remarks. The decisive moment in the race came as the two were

negotiating a small rise on Prospect St. shortly before the

three mile mark. Suddenly, Hinga stopped, shifted his weight to

the right then cleared his nostrils. That brief pause was all

the opening that Mortimer needed. After glancing back, he then

quickly accelerated to open a ten yard lead. "He said he wanted

to push me a little bit," Mortimer said. "He helped me through

the first three miles and then called it a day. He said that's

all he had." Hinga, who was running without a number, fell back

and never officially finished the race.

Mortimer pushed on, having little difficulty with the series

of hills that populate the midsection of the race course. By

mile four (20:46), his margin over the pack was over hundred

yards. His insurmountable lead allowed him to view prospective

new dwellings, high five some small children on Cross St. and

frequently converse with the occupants of the press truck.

"I enjoy the sport; get out there and have some fun for ten

miles," he said. "Couldn't beat the weather. Good effort; I

wanted to test myself a little bit; get a sustained effort. It's

tough to get in some good training with some of this weather

unless you get indoors. I'm hoping to run Boston this April and

ideally get an Olympics Trial qualifier for November."

The respect for Mortimer's talent was evident by how his peers

viewed their mid race prospects. "He wasn't in sight so we just

forgot about him," said third place finisher Terry Shea. "We

never thought that we could catch him but we thought that we

could close the gap," said second place finisher Ryan Carrara.

"We started catching him around seven or eight," said fifth

place finisher Matt Ely. "You know how good John is, even if we

had caught him he would have enough to hold us off. He was head

and shoulders above the rest of us Just him and the pace car."

Although the B.A.A. men were not successful in taking the top

spot, the B.A.A. women led by Enman were more than up to the

task. The Huntingdon, Vt. resident had no female competition to

contend with so she set her sights on an April goal. "I was

trying to run with a teammate or two to try to get a good

training effort in before Boston," said Enman, who qualified for

the women's U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon at Grandma's last June.

"We started off a little under marathon pace but I was trying to

pick it up throughout the race. I was trying to negative split

and I succeeded a little bit. I was kind of racing against my

pace, trying to keep my pace up."

Second place finisher Tammie Robie's adherence to orders may

have cost her a chance to contend. "My coach told me to go out

at 6:20 pace only because we were getting ready to run Boston

and it was only a workout," the Milford NH resident said. "At

the five mile mark if it felt good, pick it up. I felt great.

The woman that won was pretty much untouchable. She was gone

with the gun. She obviously was on a mission today. She looked

great. Maybe if I had gone out a little faster. Today it wasn't

going to happen. She was flying."