With all the events swirling around this past
weekend, it is a little difficult to know where
to take up the tale of the Wissahickon Wanderers
at the Philadelphia Marathon. After all, there
was the water stop, the relay, the Expo, and of
course the marathon. However, the story must begin
with two Wanderers entering their first marathon.
Tony Cafagna and Justin
Fogarty not only completed
their first marathon, they smoked it. Justin finished
in three hours and sixteen minutes, and Tony ripped
off a 3:39-minute marathon. These were amazing
performances.
No less gallant were the performances of Wanderer
veterans Hard Core, Hard
Boyle, Scott Quitel and
visiting Wanderers Beast
of Burden and Richard
Gardner. Conditions
for the race were deceptive. The sun seemed to beat down harder and harder
as the race wore on, and many scenes of suffering
were observed out on the course.
But these Wanderer foot soldiers persevered. Hard Boyle registered a personal
best of 4:12 lopping a generous six minutes off her previous record time. "It
hurt like the dickens," Megan wrote in her field report. "Manayunk
nearly killed me and I thought I might stroke out 100 yards before the finish.
But it was all worth it." Hard Core was robbed of a personal best
by a strained calf muscle during the later stages of the race, yet still finished
in 4:39,
less than 30 seconds off his previous best.
These two runners having completed collectively six marathons this fall have
now graduated to the level of Scott Quitel. Scott, a veteran of many Wanderer
relay expeditions, has now bagged too many marathons to count. It seems that
whenever a marathon is held in the region, Scott is there at the starting line.
This year, he finished the Philadelphia marathon in 4:40 minutes.
Beast of Burden and Richard Gardner in their distinctive manner
also registered remarkable performances. Richard was black and blue and running
with a broken
toe after being hit by a car in hometown Syracuse three weeks ago. Most people
would still be in bed recuperating, but Richard was out running the Philadelphia
Marathon in 4:34. The Beast followed a unique training routine for the Philadelphia
Marathon rowing out on the Quinnipiac River in hometown New Haven three times
a week, and running maybe once a week. There must be some merit to this preparation
because she finished in 4:41.
Polly Jansen brought order out of chaos in organizing the two Wanderer relay
legs. One of the teams finished in 3:55, and the results of the other Wanderer
team were lost into cyberspace, but I am sure were remarkable. Team One consisted
of Kylie, Leslie, Melanie and Stefanie, while Team Two was made up of Polly,
Carnage, Brian and Pam.
A lot of hard work was put in at the water stop which was managed with the New
Freedom Striders. Bill McClellan and the Striders as usual gave a clinic on how
to run a water stop. Many thanks to all Wanderers for sacrificing their Sunday
to help out. Also, a special thanks for Jen, Matt, Chris and Leslie who helped
out Wanderer West Coast Field Rep John Moore at the table for club sponsor Clif
Bar at the marathon Expo. It was great to see John back in town.
Special recogn ition also goes to Matt, Babs, Chris and Leslie who performed
so brilliantly for the Wanderers at last week's Harrisburg Marathon,
and then returned to put in a full day of support at the Philadelphia Marathon.
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Selected pics:
Tony. More photos >>
Megan. More
photos >>
Melanie. More
photos >>
Dennis. More
photos >>
Pat and a 'Strider'. More
photos >>
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