On the Run with John Stifler: Chocolatier runs Boston

The Boston Marathon has a pretty good system for keeping track of all participants. At the Boston Athletic Association’s website (baa.org) you can find, in the throng of approximately 30,000 runners, anyone who’s entered. During the race, you can see where on the course your runner is. Spending marathon day in the press room at the Copley Plaza Hotel, I searched for the runners from Hampshire County, and I found them all except for Kathie Williams, from Hatfield. I knew Kathie was entered. Why wasn’t she showing up on the screen when I typed her name? Because computers don’t always catch typos. As Kathie explained later, with appropriate amusement, she was so excited to be signing up on line for her first Boston Marathon that she typed her name wrong. If I had searched for “Kathie Willams” I would have found her, steadily making her way to the finish in six hours two minutes and 17 seconds.

As four-time Boston Marathon champion Bill Rodgers observed long ago, runners who take four or five or six hours to finish are working hard much longer than the winners are. Furthermore, while many hardcore marathoners are spending hours a day logging serious training miles, Kathie is busy managing the business she runs with her husband Brian, Richardson’s Candy Kitchen in Deerfield.

Priorities! Massachusetts does not need another sub-four-hour marathoner anywhere as much as it needs a reliable source of good chocolate. Besides, Kathie and Brian also direct the Tuesday night cross-country races in Northampton. In terms of training miles to prepare for Boston this year, Kathie reckons she averaged about twenty per week.

Twenty is not a lot. Professional marathoners may average 100. Serious amateurs and older age-group competitors may run 50 or 60 in a week. Thirty is often considered the base amount you should be running for a few weeks, after which you raise the mileage and increase your speed for a couple of months before the race. A runner who finishes a marathon on twenty miles’ training per week must have a very well developed understanding of her capabilities and knowledge of pacing.

This year’s marathon day was great. A women’s course record, a splendid breakaway victory by Kenyan John Korir, whose brother Wesley won Boston ten years earlier, a very strong performance by an American man (Conner Mantz, who placed fourth behind Korir and two other Kenyans, clocking the second-fastest time ever by an American, 2:05:08), and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of wheelchair racing at Boston. Amy Rusiecki of South Deerfield, another local runner who escaped notice in last week’s coverage, finished in a very respectable 3:42:40.

The local summer racing series are already underway, with a race every weekday evening. On Mondays you’re invited to the Empire One Running Club’s 3-mile cross country races in Westfield’s Stanley Park. Ten percent of the course is on pavement; the other 90 is on trails and fields. Through August. 6:30 p.m. empireonerunningclub.org.

We’ve already had four of the Tuesday night 5K’s in Northampton, this past week’s winners being Lindsay Smith, well recovered from his fastest-in-the-Valley performance at Boston, and Rosalind Scarro, a Hilltown Charter School eighth grader who’ll likely be quickly noticeable next fall when she’ll be running at Northampton High School. These races continue through August, starting at 6:30 p.m. next to the Community Gardens. sugarloafmountainathletic.org

Wednesday’s races are the Summer Sizzlers in Springfield’s Forest Park. Presented by the Greater Sprinfield Harriers, the series alternates weekly between a 5 km. cross-country race and an 8 km. road race, all starting at 6:30 by the Walker Memorial Grandstand. May 7 will be the 8 km. road race. www.harriers.org

The Empire One Running Club also offers alternating 5K’s and 8K’s, in the club’s Thursday evening series on the scenic course around the Ashley Reservoir. This year’s 8K’s started April 17 and continue May 15, June 19, July 17 and August 21. The other Thursdays are 5K’s. Starting at the Holyoke Elks Club through August at 6:30 p.m., plus Sept. 4th at 6 p.m.

Still my favorite race under five miles anywhere, the annual Lake Wyola Road Race in Shutesbury will be on June 8th this year. It’s 4.8 hilly miles around the lake, starting and finishing at the Lake Wyola Association Hall. Walkers start at 9:30 a.m., runners at 10, and a 1.5-mile fun run starts at 10:10. Nice prizes, refreshments, excellent atmosphere – and good T-shirts if you sign up by May 22. Visit getmeregistered.com and type “Lake Wyola” in the search window.

John Stifler has taught writing and economics at UMass and has written extensively for running magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected]