It?s a running festival for all ages. The youngest road runner is not yet 2, the oldest a shade under 91. The 13-minute-per-mile runners will be out there on the same road as 6-minute milers, all racing against the clock and against their own best times. The Baltimore Running Festival, this Saturday, will pay homage to the sport while showcasing some of the city?s finest athletes.
RUNNING AGAINST CANCER
Joe Shafran is just shy of his 80th birthday. He has survived heart bypass surgery and fought off cancer. But he still runs. He?s not as fast as he once was, nor does he run as much. But he?s still out there ? every other day, rain or shine, pounding out seven miles through his Annapolis neighborhoods.
At an age where his peers may opt for bridge over outdoor exercise, why does he do it?
“Because,” said Joe Shafran. “Because it is who I am.”
Known regionally as media personality “Jogging Joe,” he has been running since the early 1960s. Today, he is almost 80 years old and still runs every other morning around his neighborhood in Annapolis.
“I started in the ?60s for a couple of reasons. President Kennedy was trying to get America fit, and at the same time, I was entering the television industry and the GM said, ?We like skinny people,? so I started running and lost around 35 pounds.”
Shafran bought his first pair of real running shoes, Adidas, for $25. “Those days we ran in tennis shoes, and then Adidas made a shoe shaped for running,” he said. He hasn?t stopped running since, and has run through the stages of his life as though there were mile markers.
“I quit marathons 20 years ago,” he said, “when my dermatologist told me I had skin cancer and ordered me to stop running during the midday. That scared me.” Today, he runs seven miles every other morning before the sun gets too high.
In July 2004, Shafran was appointed to the Maryland State Advisory Council on Physical Fitness; his usual running loop around Annapolis? State House got Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s attention.
Shafran has suffered zero running-related aches and pains in his aging years. But his body has been put to the test by the aging process.
In 1992, he underwent a quadruple bypass,but six weeks later he was back in his running shoes.
In 2003, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma, a form of cancer, which affected his lower body. In 2005, after treatment and remission, he was cleared of cancer.
“I kept running and staying fit, although I had to slow down a bit to 12-minute miles instead of seven-minute miles,” he said.
Today, Jogging Joe will hear from his oncologist on the results of his PET scan.
“If the cancer still lurks, I say, ?Well, I?ve lived a good life, if it?s not meant to be, it?s not meant to be.? ”
Jerri, Joe?s wife, credits his running with preserving his life, and their 54-year marriage.
“He is one of these very focused people who never gives up. Exercise and running is part of his psyche and he needs to do it. It helps him think and make decisions.”
“We?ve all adapted to his schedule,” she said. “But no matter what, he has always been an exemplary husband and father and grandfather. Running has never taken the place of those major roles in life.”
Jogging Joe will be at the Baltimore Running Festival Saturday, as a fan and a supporter. “I am enamored with the running festival. It has really taken on a life of its own.”
?I RUN BECAUSE I CAN?
In Baltimore ? and around the nation ? running has surged in popularity, as seen in the increasing number of entrants to races and events.
The Baltimore Marathon began in 2001 after city dignitaries including Kurt Schmoke, Katie O?Malley and Catherine Pugh, along with Corrigan Sports Enterprises, realized the 13th largest city at that time did not have a race, said Chris Tomlinson of Corrigan Sports. “Being a destination city with the Inner Harbor, it just made sense and we were willing to take the chance.”
In 2001, about 9,000 people entered the festival. This year it has grownto about 11,000 runners, said to Lee Corrigan, president of the sporting events firm.
This year there are 2,400 runners entered in the marathon (26.2 miles), 4,750 entered in the half-marathon (13.1 miles) and 1,300 in the 5K (3.1 miles). So popular is the half-marathon that registration already has closed.
Ninety-year-old Franklin Leslie, a physician living in Towson, is the oldest entrant in the running festival. His health is excellent and he has been blessed with good feet and ankles, he said. He will be running the half-marathon.
“Running does certain things for me,” he said. “It helps me stay fit; it gives me a little lift when I finish. Also, I have been running for so long, it is a habit and part of my life. I guess at this point I run because I can.”
Leslie started running during John F. Kennedy?s presidency. He has completed three marathons, his last the year he retired from his doctor?s practice at 72. Leslie plans to finish the half-marathon in four hours on Saturday.
Luke Wordelmann, of New Jersey, is the youngest person to enter the festival at almost 2-years-old. He has been training to take on Leslie, but this year has set his sights on the 100-yard Kid?s Fun Run.
“Luke [and his 3-year-old sister] love to run,” said his mother, Theresa Wordelmann. Her husband, Bob, will be running the full marathon, shooting for a time of 3:30.
Has Luke been training?
“I have him out there running every day,” she said. “Both children like to run and play tag, and they want to be just like their Daddy who runs.”
RACING BEHIND THE SCENES
While runners will be stretching the day of the festival, Corrigan and his staff of seven will be behind the scenes making sure the event goes off without a hitch.
“We take a very important ?training? run before the event, stopping at key points and practicing what is going to happen there and how it?s going to look,” Corrigan said.
The best part of the route for runners, he said, is Mile 9 into scenic Fort McHenry.
The best view for spectators may be around M&T Bank Stadium. Within a half-mile radius, fans on foot can catch the start, the finish and the 6th and 13th miles of the marathon route.
Each entrant will receive a shirt from Under Armour, the title sponsor of the event. Other sponsors of the race include Legg Mason, CareFirst, Comcast, WBAL and The Examiner.
“We started working with the Baltimore Marathon when it first started in 2001 as a grassroots effort to test our product in the running market close to home,” said Steve Battista, VP of brands. UA?s Streaker line, is made specifically for runners.
“The runner is a very savvy consumer,” Battista said. “They are on top of technology and fabrication.”
Battista also is running the half-marathon this year. His favorite part of the course is in Waverly, where famous runner and fan Stuart Siegler gives away thousands of gummy bears.
His biggest worry?
Franklin Leslie, the 90-year-old racer. “He?s probably going to beat me,” he said.
WHY DO WE RUN?
The flocks of runners who will swarm Baltimore?s downtown on Saturday are a two-legged species often described as crazy, obsessive or insane.
There are no long-term physical consequences to running, said Dr. John Senatore, chief of podiatry at Union Memorial Hospital and past president of the Baltimore Running Club.
“If anything, running makes the bones denser and stronger and the muscles stronger, which takes pressure off of the joints into older age,” Senatore said. “The only people I advice against running are those that have already had major injuries, like an old football injury.”
The most common injury that Senatore sees is planar faciitis, a form of repetitive-stress injury causing heel pain. “For runners, this form of tendonitis can be caused by doing too much, by the wrong shoe or by an unlucky stride.”
Weak knees also can plague runners. Knee injuries result from weak muscles around the knees. “The biggest problem I see is runners who decide to run marathons at their mid-life crisis, having never run before. Their muscles are weak, and that can lead to injury,” Senatore said.
Though seemingly simple, the relationship between muscles, joints and bones is full of complex soft tissue vibrations and muscle toning. Leg muscles are constantly shifting and working to ease the load of impact.
“Studies show that the impact can be up to 10 times the runner?s body weight, especially downhill,” Senatore said. “It is especially important to make sure that the muscles are loose and to find the right shoe.”
Senatore said that with an awareness of good form and the right shoe, a person could run forever.
EXTREME DISCIPLINE
Elite runners are able to clock the 26.2-mille marathon in slightly over two hours. April?s Boston Marathon winner, Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya, finished in 2:07:14. Last October, John “Spider” Sillery of Baltimore came in 11th at the Baltimore Marathon in 2:38:34. Sillery was running 6.4-minute miles.
Dr. Brian Krabak, sports medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, has seen first-hand what happens when runners take themselves beyond the extreme, as the medical director of the Gobi March, a seven-day 250-kilometer (155-mile) running race through the severe temperatures and terrain of China?s Gobi Desert, sponsored by Racing the Planet. More than 80 athletes from all over the world competed.
“When you are out running in the desert, running a marathon a day, I would say it?s about 90-percent mental,” Krabak said. “It takes a certain amount of discipline to get up every day and get through.”
Krabak treated injuries, educated the racers on proper hydration and rest, and offered emotional and mental support though the tougher points. Runners were plagued with altitude sickness, dehydration and sunburn.
It?s this discipline, spirituality and competitiveness that many runners, from beginners to adventurer racers, recognize in themselves.
So, why run?
Why not.
WHY I RUN
I run to beat death. Somehow I have this feeling that if I can run 50 miles, I have beaten death for another year, paid in advance. It makes me self-disciplined, which extends to all other aspects in my life.
? Craig Phillips, NCR Trail Snails
I?m running the Baltimore Marathon as a pacer; it?s my volunteer effort for the race to return the favor from when I run other races and the volunteers support me.
? Ronald Reardon, Annapolis Striders
Running marathons and ultramarathons is one of my few social interactions that are not tied to family events, such as kids? soccer, swim team, cheerleading and dance. Running lowered my bad cholesterol by 30 points and raised my good cholesterol by 40 points!
? Jesse Leitner, Howard County Striders
I started jogging in the early ?70s because it was the thing to do to keep fit. We wore Keds at the time. I kept it up because I found friends who did the same thing, so we jogged and talked. I still have all those friends, we do get together several times every year to run, talk, and catch up at races.
? Evie Hersperger, NCR Trail Snails
I started running eight years ago after a friendof mine died of luekemia. I decided to do a marathon in her memory and signed up with Team in Training. I wanted to finish in under 6 hours, and I did it in 5:58:59.
? Nancy Hoffman, NCR Trail Snails
