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In this edition of "Running Backwards", we're taking a quick little jog to 2009. The biggest theme running through the 2009 Interval newsletters was memories of Mardie Brown, who passed away that year. You mean you thought that the Doc & Mardie 5k was a reference to Back to the Future? Shame on you!
The February 2009 edition of The Interval started off with an article by Julie Millard about being a runner and aging. Eleven years later, we're happy to see that Julie is still running marathons and doing her best to fight off the pesky effects of aging.
It looks like the January Thaw that year had a pretty low turnout (Perhaps it was a bad weather year?). Of the 16 finishers, only Jim Moore is still a member of the Striders.
It was announced in the February 2009 newsletter that the Striders changed their email address.
[It should be noted that this is not the current Striders email address]
Mike Brooks wrote a review of the "Niptuck" marathon from the previous summer. This review provided a few laughs. If you right away thought of "Nip/Tuck", the television series that was on the air at the time this article was first published, you aren't alone. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), this appears to have been a typo and the real name is either "Nipmuck" or "NipMunk", since the race's webpage uses both spellings. Also, this has to be one of the only times that enemas are mentioned in a race review or at the start of a race. Needless to say, it doesn't sound like Mike Brooks was very impressed with this race.
Both the June and July 2009 issues of the Interval featured articles by several members about their memories of Mardie Brown, a member of the Central Maine Striders at the time. Since I didn't move to Maine until 2017, I never met Mardie, but based on these memories, she seemed like an amazing woman and a great representative of the Striders.
An extended obituary can be found here.
by David Benn
That's right... Mardie Brown wasn't only a runner. She also held a world record in masters swimming!
In the 2009 Sugarloaf marathon, Julie Millard proved that aging is just a state of mind. It should be noted that in 2018 (nine years later), Julie's Sugarloaf time was less than two minutes slower. I think most of us would be more than happy if we only lost a couple minutes off our marathon times every decade.
We all know that Ron Paquette ran Mount Washington more than a few times, but as far as we know, he never changed his name to "Ran Paquette."
Aging and mortality seemed to be on the mind of several Striders that year. David Benn added a positive spin to it by remembering how his first race led to hundreds more over a twenty-five year period.
Some familiar names were amongst the results of the Common Ground 5k that year. But who is this "Nedicus" guy? Was a Roman gladiator running a 5k in Maine in 2009? It almost sounds like it. However, he failed to beat current professional runner Matt McClintock and two others.
This gem about Jim Moore's first race was in the November 2009 newsletter (the race was in 1980). Jim, I think every Central Maine Strider out there is glad you ran that first race, found our club, continue to be a member to this day, and continue to be seen running on the streets of Waterville. I don't think there's a more consistent and dedicated runner out there.
Although Colby history professor Paul Josephson gets the byline, the December 2009 Interval had a great article about Julie Millard and her great uncle Fred (who just happened to win the Boston Marathon in 1910).
Ron and Donnajean had a couple of short race reports in the December 2009 Interval. Both featured races that were super bargains! A five-dollar marathon and a three-dollar 5k!?! Wow! Those were bargain races.
And the final race results listed in the 2009 Intervals, included Susan Brooks and Julie Millard's finishes at the Champions 10k Thanksgiving race.
That's all for 2009. Congratulations on making it to the finish line! Only time will tell where, or should I say "when" we jog to in the next issue.
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