The 2000 Pine Run
By Jack McDermott
I know I missed the Sunday run, but please don’t get all mushy and teary-eyed. I promised to give everyone an update of the status of Jack “Mad Cow” McDermott.
I went to the Pine Run with Toma on Saturday to volunteer for the race. Basically I brought a designated runner … and a designated driver. (It was a Jack-Certified beer at the finish line race). As luck would have it, they had plenty of volunteers for the race and my “volunteering” turned out to be doing beer runs for Bill Lott and Ray Hanlon at the finish line.
Based on my directions, we took a rather circuitous route to the race and almost missed the start time. We were in such a rush that I dropped off Toma at the beginning and told her that I would sign her in. When I was registering her, the lady looked at me really strange when I marked the entry form “female”. (I guess “Toma” is an odd enough name she thought it could be me.) I told her that Toma was my wife and that she gave me permission to sign the waiver for her. The woman seemed delighted that I would do such a thing for my “wife”.
Not only that …. what a wonderful husband I must be (even for day) as I accidentally got Toma’s age wrong making her 30 instead of 31. (As an aside … I have also been practicing putting the toilet-seat down with mixed results in the unlikely event I do eventually get married).
The race looked like it was one of those that was more fun to spectate than participate. Oscar Baltadano, Jenn Sobon and Toma Wilkerson did especially well. John Kalin was there on his bike and said that according to his odometer, the race was really 12.9 miles instead of the 12.5 it should have been.
They may re-name this race the Bee-Run because there were at least four people I know that finished with bee-stings. (Janna Walkup, Craig Willis, Margarete Deckert and Thomas Williams). Someone must have stirred up a hornet’s nest — literally.
Other than that … I have just been tapering and bouncing off the walls in preparation for the Bay State Marathon. I ran 8-miles today with John Kalin’s morning group which turned out to be John Kalin and myself. I did the paper-cup trail … and I swear, if John weren’t there … I could see myself lost for days having to camp-out until another runner passed by. Either that or I would start banging two rocks together to start a fire with the hopes that my smoke-signals would flag down a rescue plane. If the Streakers ever do that run … I strongly recommend bringing a compass and three-days’ rations. I have signed up at TCC to take some orienteering classes to improve my sense of direction. I will keep everyone posted on my progress.