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FLRC Newsletter - January 2005 |
| Run for the Diamonds | |
Thanksgiving doesn't always resemble a Norman Rockwell painting.
Instead of attending my favorite Pie & Glove 5K in Corning, or dining on turkey and pumpkin pie, I picked an unconventional way to spend the holiday. My sidekick John Stiner and I headed to Berwick, PA, for the 95th Annual Run for the Diamonds. Where else do disenfranchised orphans go on the holidays?
Most races don't survive 25 years, but this classic 9-mile race (not a 15K) has survived almost a century. The rural community of Berwick has lovingly kept this jewel alive and healthy, and you know it's had more than one tireless race director in its 95-year history.
I've been running 27 years, but I had never competed in the Diamonds race. John, who has run 28 years, did race the Diamonds once because he had relatives from the region.
The Diamonds' impeccable reputation has always been clear, and this fact I knew: runners literally race for diamonds. The first seven men to finish win a diamond ring; the first seven women are awarded a diamond pendant. The first male and female masters (40–49), veterans (50–59), and seniors (60-over) division champions also win rings or pendants. There are also abundant age-group, regional, high school, and team awards—just don't expect diamonds.
The race is not easy in terms of the course or your odds of winning the gems, but the Run for the Diamonds is a sweet, unassuming Mayberry, RFD version of the slicker, more pomp-and-circumstance Utica Boilermaker.
Like the Boilermaker, the Run for the Diamonds has a long history of hosting elite U.S. runners, former Olympians, and international contenders. You wonder how world-class runners found their way down Red Rock Mountain to Berwick before sophisticated transportation and the Internet? But somehow they did, and so did American legends who gave up a homespun Thanksgiving to race far from home.
The late Johnny Kelley of Boston Marathon fame raced the Diamonds 26 consecutive years (1933–1958) and won the event four consecutive times (1942–1945). Clarence DeMar, who won the Boston Marathon seven times, also was a fixture in Berwick in the 1930s.
Two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger holds the Diamonds course record of 42:20 (1980). During the 1940s and 1950s, Olympian Browning Ross established the Diamond record for most victories (10), with a personal best 46:38.
Finally, in 1972, women made their first appearance in the Diamonds run. Laurie Ruggeri won that inaugural women's race in 65:62, a time that would not have been fast enough to win the veterans' division in 2004. Katy Schilly, formerly of Syracuse, set the current course record of 50:54 (1981).
The 2004 Diamonds race entry fee was $18 pre- and $25 post, and included a long-sleeved T-shirt, an official program book, ChampionChip timing, and food. For an extra $6, the Elks Club served up a homespun, prerace pasta dinner (modest), which we attended. The local Super-8 Motel offered runners a special room rate of $39 plus tax.
The trip to Berwick is roughly a two-hour drive from the Twin Tiers. It's a harrowing but straight shot down the map from Sayre. We did it in the pitch dark, with driving rain and no visible road signs. But we put our egos away and stopped immediately when we thought we were lost. I'd recommend going routes 81 and 80, a faster and safer route. That way you'll miss Red Rock Mountain!
Weather warnings, with high winds and torrential rain, greeted runners race morning. But, by the 10:30 am start, it was dry and 60 degrees. We ran into Runner's World's Budd Coates in Dunkin' Donuts, and he lightened up to chatting with us when John asked about his beloved dog, now deceased. Coates, now 47, won a masters award in the race.
At the starting line, I found Wineglass Marathon women's champion Lori Kingsley of Wysox, her daughter Rebekah Schrader, Towanda's Mike Hudyncia, Randy Lehman of Bath, and Doug D and Fred Josyln of Binghamton. Just before the gun fired, we all listened to both the American and Canadian national anthems. Then we were off!
The Diamonds course is the most difficult 9-mile/15K race I've ever done. It's flat and festive for almost two miles, then you ascend a hill that goes on for almost two miles. Until I reached the summit, I had flashbacks I was climbing Mt. Washington again. With lots of spectators along the route, the course then rolls, with some screaming downhills, and flattens out the final two miles to the finish in downtown Berwick. I made up almost four minutes in the final four miles.
The race hosted 1016 runners, with Pennsylvania's Mark Stallings (45:25) and Becki McClintock (54:18) taking the overall titles. Joslyn came in seventh for the final men's diamond. Hudyncia finished third M40–44 in 56:52; Kingsley placed a coveted fifth among women (58:43) and won a diamond pendant. Kingsley daughter Rebekah clocked a 1:06:40 for an age group F16–19 award; and Lehman ran an impressive 1:03:44. I claimed fifth veteran in 76:20, and Doug D. came in a minute or so behind me. John opted for spectator support.
The high point of our adventure was spending time with Ed Whitlock, the 72-year-old Canadian who set an age-group M70–74 world record in the marathon (2:54:47) in October at the Scotia-Bank Toronto Marathon. He took a liking to us and actually hung around with us. We put a bug in his ear about coming to the Hartshorne Mile to set a world record in his age group. He didn't say yes, or no.
Whitlock also won his second Diamonds senior title, this year clocking a 57:45 at a 6:25 pace per mile. We asked him how he trained for the world record attempt at the marathon, and he said he ran three hours, every day for 21-straight days before the marathon, and he did it on a small, paved loop inside a cemetery near his home.
Then he proudly showed us his diamond ring.
It won't be long and the centennial edition will be a happening.
For information on the Run for the Diamonds, visit www.runfordiamonds.com.
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