Favorite Defunct Races #3

Frick Park Cross Country

Frick Park, in Pittsburgh, is one of my favorite parks for running, and it just so happened when I finally had the time and vicinity to train there routinely when I moved to the city in 2004, there was a healthy series of races managed by the West Penn Track Club and sponsored by Saucony.

When they're not fielding teams of mercenaries who they happen to pick up the day before the Great Race, West Penn is a decent enough organization. I think one person exerts too much influence in the competition division, but I digress.

The rank-and-file members of the club are quick to volunteer to help hold a race, Janice Boyko does a great job organizing and Dave Sobal puts together safe and high quality courses.

Sadly, I was only able to make it to one of the three races in the summer cross country series because of conflicting road races. Each meet offered three different races:

2k- out and back on the Tranquil Trail
4k- out on the Traquil Trail, along the lawn bowling courts on Reynolds, right on the Horseshoe Trail, right on the Kensington Trail, left on the Homewood Trail and back on the Tranquil Trail.

8k- The 4k course, then up the Falls Ravine Trail, around the exercise circuit twice and back down Falls Ravine.

If they wished to double, 4k runners could continue on the 8k course.

I ran the 4k in July and broke the course record by one second (13:02). It still stands, but only because Saucony dropped its sponsorship after that summer and West Penn ceased the race.

The club still holds a fall race, the Pittsylvania XC Challenge, though it too has waned. There was talk in 2008 that West Penn would drop it, too, and I made a bid for the Hounds to keep it running, but once Janice took the offer to the board, it was swiftly quashed by someone in charge. The club later cancelled its Gold Medal Alumni 5k scheduled for the summer and replaced the Pittsylvania race. The new race raises money for scholarships dedicated to two camp alumni who died in car accidents in the late 90s. A noble cause, but the race now goes against the behemoth Spirit of Pittsburgh Half Marathon, and its growth will be somewhat limited as a result.

Favorite Defunct Races #4

Panhandle Trail 5k/10k- Yeah, believe it or not I am wistful for a Kevin Smith race. Shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh from Richmond, I was terribly bored and took to exploring new locales around the city and suburbs. I began wandering into the west, and hoped to find a race out there. It just so happened that a 5k/10k double was scheduled for mid-October on the Panhandle Trail, a frequent training ground over the previous few years. I usually started from Walker's Mill, on the eastern end of the trail, and these races started at McDonald, so it was a nice change of scenery.
I convinced my mom to come along, and on the drive to the race I saw something starling - a smoldering hole in the middle of a pedestrian mall in Carnegie. Not just any smoldering hole- the site of the former Red Hots, a wing joint frequented by my high school cross country team. It had recently become Red Onions, and even more recently -- like, a few hours before -- burned down. That's a shame.

The drive to McDonald was scenic and pleasant, and the weather, in the low 50s, was good for a race. The course wasn't a great race course, it's somewhere I'd run for free all the time, but since the fundraiser directly supported trail improvements, it gets a pass.

Unfortunately, my body at the time was not. I didn't warm up terribly well, since I had nine miles of racing ahead of me, and I basically pulled away in the last mile to beat some high school freshman in just over 17 minutes. After a quick jog, I met Hounds Leslie McIntire and Eric Wilkins at the starting line for the 10k, which simply traveled 1.5 miles farther than the 5k out-and-back course.

Warmed up, and more likely frustrated at my middling 5k time, I took the first half of the race out pretty hard, 16:40, a good 30 seconds faster than the shorter event. After hitting the four mile mark in 21:30, I started to tire and told Leslie to go for it. Wilkins finished third and the Hounds swept the race. Not that it was a terribly deep race, but it was just a nice event to have. It was cheap, raised money for the trail, and brought some active people out for a scenic run in autumn. Though Pittsburgh's weather is typically pretty cloudy, I think that city does gray better than any other. I love running in the fall no matter what the climate, even rain, though that least of all. When door prizes remained after the drawing, Smith simply threw the remainders in the air.

That was the last, and as far as I can tell, only, time this race has been run, though the annual Trot for Tots 5k/10k is run on the same or close to the same course.

I did see this notice in the Collier Township bulletin: Watch for a spring “Friends 10K/5K Run on the Panhandle Trail”. Contact Bruce Linner: 412-279-2210, linner4@verizon.net.

So maybe this race isn't defunct after all...

Favorite Defunct Races #5

McCandless Rotary 5k This race made me enjoy road racing. After having a thorough beating the week before at Brentwood in 2000, I was understandably concerned that running in college was not a wise idea. Before giving up, I figured it was worthwhile to take a shot at another race, one that was a little less competitive on the high end, with less pressure. I found the McCandless Rotary 5k on the Runners High Web site and made a trip to Wexford to run it. I wore my blue West Penn Relays t-shirt from 1997, the asics blue and yellow harrier flats and a gigantic pair of white shorts I had wound up with after gym in high school. I looked like, as a former Richmond coach would put it, like some "goon from the dorms."

Knowing the race was a lot less competitive than Brentwood, I had no fear hanging with the lead group. I wasn't sure if perhaps I could break any of these guys, and I certainly didn't have the confidence from my short road racing experience to try. I just kind of ran along with them until I tired out at 2.5 miles. Then I lagged around in no-man's land until Matt Manfred, a Hampton alumnus, caught up with me and I outkicked him to the finish, winning my age group for the first time.

It wasn't a terribly interesting course- around a movie theater parking lot, then a short loop on Ingomar Road, run twice. It was flat, pleasant and low key enough for me to get excited about racing again. The weather was mild, despite the mid-July timing. I ran it again in 2001, but in 2002 it was off the schedule, replaced, I assume, by the North Allegheny 5k XC race. I couldn't justify helping those clowns.