Run to Win

I got this note in my email the other day and thought that I should pass it along:

The Portland City Council will be recognizing the tremendous accomplishment of some of our running comrades (Todd Coffin, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Peter Bottomley, and Christine Snow-Reaser) for winning SILVER in the recent USA Cross Country meet in Ohio. The PPH failed to recognize this MASTERS TEAM for its achievement. However, we can show up at the Council meeting to pay homage to these outstanding athletes.

Anybody that is interested in cheering on the masters runners from Dirigo who did so well at the national cross country meet in December can do so tonight at 7:00 pm at the Portland City Council meeting.

Pete Bottomley wrote an excellent race report of the masters’ race if you’d like to refresh your memory about how everyone did.

The following race recap was written by Pete Bottomley, the Director of Sales & Marketing at Coast of Maine Organic Products, Inc. Pete is a masters runner for Dirigo, R.C. and competes in mostly middle distance races in Southern Maine. He ran his first marathon this past April in Boston, and this past weekend traveled out to Ohio to compete in the USATF Club Cross Country National Championships. Pete is also the race director and primary fund raiser for the New England Mile.

Dirigo splashed onto the front pages of the National running scene this past weekend at the USATF XC NATIONALS in West Chester, Ohio.

Our team was represented by Christine Reaser in the Women’s Masters and Todd Coffin, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan and me in the Men’s Masters. I don’t know how to describe the course other than to say it looked like the Alaskan tundra, but more stark and the permafrost was melting! The recent 3-4 inches of slushy snow obscured the bumps and ruts in the prairie trails on which we would race the next day.

We went to bed wishing we had brought 1” spikes and hopeful that the snow would be gone by race time.

In the morning, the snow was still there and we headed over to the course telling each other that this situation was actually perfect for us Mainers!!!
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