People Movers

Running along the River Path the other day I encountered a squadron of Segway riders. These weren't just any Segway riders, but trusty tourists visiting the sights of Philly... at a blazing 9 mph. And how do I know they were going at this smoking pace you may ask. Well, I passed a pack of adventurers on the way out on the River by the Art Museum. On a downhill nonetheless. And I was not running that fast, maybe 6:45 a mile. On the way back I "rolled" up on...and I use that term loosely because I wasn't running that fast...another gaggle of 10 riders stealthly traversing the wilds of the Schuykill Path. Now it's great that these seemingly able bodied individuals are pumping dollars into the city's economy. But what happened to biking, walking, running, etc? A Segway is one sexy piece of equipment, don't get me wrong. Especially when a rider is rocking a helmet, and stands completely erect on the blazing apparatus. But really, less than 10 mph, can't you just coast on a damn bike? Or be pushed by a friend in a shopping cart? Something that takes some physical exertion by at least one person involved. So my idea, which I think could really solve our societies aversion to sweating is as follows: a people mover on the scale never seen before to be installed in all major cities around the World. Imagine the sliding seat that elderly individuals take up and down steps when the climb legitimately is to much for them. Now instead of having the seat just going vertically, have a massive bank of seats connected to each other and attached to a moving rail. The hike from the Empire State Building to Times Square getting you all out of breath just thinking about it...no fear, sit on one of these massive people movers and any chance of a bead of sweat forming on your brow has now been eliminated. The walk from the Louvre to Notre Dame bumming you out...no worries my slothful friend, just hop on the people mover and you will be all good. To add to the fun, and to increase the blood pressure even more, gift cards will be handed out on the SlothMobile to KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King. Subway will be noticeably absent because of the chance of good health being obtained. I am taking applications for potential investors as we speak.

So, I ended up logging just over 70 miles last week ending Sunday. The total was actually 81, but since I did my 17 miler last Monday instead of the day after the race I just flipped those two days for mileage purposes. I ran a decent 16 miler this past Sunday in 1:43:45, which is around 6:30 a mile. The effort was pretty relaxed...except when I saw a recent Haddonfield grad and soon to be Princeton frosh, Boo Vitez ahead on the path with about a mile left in my run. I decided to run a bit harder to catch him, and had a nice but brief chat with him. Boo, who is the younger brother of Tim Vitez who I had coached when he was at Haddonfield, ended his high school career as one of the top guys to ever come out of my old high school. He broke 9 minutes this year for 3200 meters, and ran in the 15:40's for the famous Holmdel cross country course. The only other male runner who possesses accomplishments on par with Vitez was Jim Smith, who graduated in 1980 and ran 8:18 for 3k in high school and went on to be a star at Stanford. What has been so cool for me to see as an alum and as a former coach at Haddonfield are these kids that grew up coming to cross country and track meets to watch their siblings or because their Dad coaches there(long time coach Nick Baker's son Colin ran 4:09 in 2009, and is now going on to run at Penn this year), go on to excel at a national level and surpass the guys that came before them. That is what is supposed to happen, but so rarely does. It speaks volumes for the program that Nick Baker has run there for the past 30 years, and the countless number of runners that have kept the tradition not just going but improving exponentially. Ironically, Boo and I were both finishing a 16 miler...but it's safe to say his legs recovered in about a day faster than mine did. Sucks to get old.

This Friday I will be traveling up to Putnam, Connecticut for the Deary Memorial 5 miler. It is a race that was started over 20 years ago as a fundraiser for cancer research and in honor of one of my cousin's Cathy Deary who tragically passed away in her early 20's of the disease. Many of the Bonnette family have been going up to the race for years, and we even have our own team called TCT(The Cousin's Team, or Teddy, Cathy, Tommy(who respectively was the matriarch of the family and really to the town of Putnam, the baby of the family, and the oldest of the Deary family which was 13 kids strong). The race has raised well over a million dollars for the Day Kimball Hospital up in Connecticut, and is a huge event in that part of the state. The only time I have won the race was in 2000, with my cousin Aaron Rich taking a close second. I have taken 2nd at least 4 or 5 times(I know, what a choke job). My brother Breton has also taken 2nd a couple times, and has run well there a bunch of times. What makes the race even more interesting is the course. After 2 miles of relative flatness, you climb from 2 and a quarter miles to after 3 miles into the town of Putnam and out of the downtown. If you are running 5 min. pace, you will now be running 5:30 pace for close to a mile as you climb and attempt to recover from the long ass hill. You get about a mile and a half of gently rolling hills until you come to about a half mile from the finish. At this point there is about a 600 meter hill that takes a hammer to your legs and your spirit. You have about 200 meters to the finish at the top of the hill, and if you want to see some tired people and your fair share of vomit the finish at the Deary Race is where you should be. The fastest I ever ran there was 25:33...and it happened to be the year that former NCAA XC champ Keith Kelly from Ireland and Providence College decided to show up. He went out in 4:20 for the first mile, and ran around 24:10 which is the course record. You just never know who will show up for the race, which also makes it even more interesting. I've decided that I will be taking the watch off for this one, and will be going for it. Because the time really doesn't matter, but the place certainly does.

Eric