Marathon 2011
Dayne Barron can still recall the lanky photojournalist from the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper dropping in at his childhood home in Topeka, Kan.
“He came over to our house as part of a series on homemakers and their favorite recipes” – said Barron, now manager of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District. “I remember there was a picture of my mom making a batch of cookies and her cookie recipe.”
The photojournalist didn’t inspire Barron to whip up a batch of cookies. Rather (he inspired him to run distances) both in high school and much later as a marathoner. Barron is one of half a dozen runners from Jackson and Josephine counties who will be competing in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 18.
The photojournalist was none other than world-class distance runner Jim Ryun – a 1970 graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in photojournalism. Ryun (who later served a decade in Congress) was a three-time Olympian and the first high school athlete to run a sub-four-minute mile with a 3:59 time in 1964.
“As a kid, I used to see Jim Ryun running around our Topeka neighborhood” – Barron said. “He definitely had an influence on me. And, in high school, we had some track and cross-country coaches who actually went out and ran with the team. That also impressed me. I wasn’t a star or anything — I ran the half-mile and cross country. I was pretty much a ‘B’ teamer but I like to run.”
Fast forward a few decades.
Barron, 54, who has a bachelor’s degree in forest management from the University of Montana and a master’s degree from Colorado State University, took up running again in earnest about five years ago.
- Mumbai - Marathon 2011.
David Pete enjoys running year-round, especially around the Charles River and South Boston’s Castle Island. He started training in fall 1999 and ran his first Boston Marathon in 2000.
In more than 10 years since, he has run countless marathons including Boston 11 times: Chicago, Ocean State in Providence, the Baystate, the Marine Corps in D.C. and the New York Marathon.
In the past – David has run to raise money for charities such as the Judge Baker Children’s Center for at-risk children, the Boston First Night Committee, the Hopkinton Athletic Association and the Ashland Police and Fire Departments.
This year, David was lucky enough to get a number through the Hopkinton Running Club.
“All of the charities and causes that people run for are incredible” – he said. “It is really moving on Marathon Monday to see how many people’s lives are affected and inspired by the various charities” – he said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5vFPqRS3D8
When Chantal Murphy-Lalonde first led a group of 50 or 60 students on a short run around the Chapel Hill Catholic schoolyard in Orléans last week, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But a group of teachers who were watching from inside the school told her she was on the right track.
“When I came back in, they said the kids are smiling all the time when they’re running” – says Murphy-Lalonde, a Grade 3 teacher at the school.
“And they said I am, too. I hadn’t even noticed I was.”
Murphy-Lalonde is one of many teachers across the city who have started running programs in preparation for the Y Kids Marathon at Ottawa Race Weekend. The event was started three years ago as a way of introducing children to fitness and running. Children run a kilometre, or do an equivalent amount of activity in another sport, 41 times in the weeks leading up to race weekend, then run 1.2k on the morning of the marathon.
They get a race kit, a T-shirt and a medal for crossing the same finish line as the marathon runners.
The Y Kids Marathon has sparked a number of teachers to start running clubs at schools, to help kids get their 41k in before race day. At St. Andrew School in Barrhaven, teacher Julianne Shelton gathered students from Grade 3 to 6 in the gym and gave them a presentation about the kids marathon.