Seems like running is booming in Salem these days, and the Wicked Running Club has been a huge part of that! Below is a great article about running on the north shore, the Wicked Frosty Four road race, and everyone’s favorite running club the Wicked Running Club. Enjoy!
New Year’s race in Salem tomorrow marks steady growth in city runs
By Chris Cassidy
STAFF WRITER
December 31, 2008
SALEM — Six years ago, about 80 runners met on a spring morning for a 3.1-mile, cross country run through the Olde Salem Greens golf course.
With that modest road race, the Salem running boom was born.
Today, the city hosts a race series with five events, ranging from a one-mile summertime sprint down Derby Street to a trying October half-marathon through two communities.
Participation has exploded — each race has grown in every year it’s been held, and 90 runners this year competed in all five.
A running club that formed four years ago now has 140 members who meet several times a week for wide-ranging training runs.
And tomorrow, more than 400 are expected to wake up early on New Year’s Day and brave the cold for the Wicked Frosty Four, a four-mile road race that begins and ends at Old Town Hall.
Yes, Salem is still the Witch City, but this is also a running town.
“I think we’re in the midst of a fitness running boom,” said Doug Bollen, the city’s recreation director, who organized that first race six years ago and helped launch the Wicked Running Club in 2004.
For proof, look no further than Thanksgiving, the most popular day in America for road races. Four years ago, the city held the first Wild Turkey 5-Mile Run and attracted 300 runners. This year, it drew 1,090 from all over the North Shore, and even managed to lure some local runners away from the popular Feaster Five in Andover, a race that typically attracts about 7,000.
“I think we’re chipping away at the other races,” Bollen said. “It’s the only one on the North Shore. I used to drive up to the Feaster Five, and probably most North Shore people did. Once they found a good race on the North Shore, they tried it out, and more people are returning and bringing people.”
Last year marked another first — a half-marathon with a route starting and ending in Salem and running through parts of Marblehead. More than 400 runners crossed the finish line, and slightly more showed up this year, despite threats of severe wind and rain.
“It was amazing to see so many people accomplish that,” said Brandi Dion of B&S Fitness, which runs adult training programs and organizes the annual Wicked Half Marathon.
Companies such as Dion’s and Toomey Sports, run by Jen and Mike Toomey, have helped fuel the interest in running by holding beginner and half-marathon clinics. Many are timed to coincide with Salem’s races.
Meanwhile, the new year will mark the fifth anniversary of the Wicked Running Club, where runners of all ages and paces meet up on Saturday mornings at Forest River Park. Even the snowstorm two weeks ago didn’t halt the weekly run — about eight hard-core members showed up in snowshoes.
“I can’t speak any more highly of this running club,” said Tim Short of Danvers, the club’s incoming president. “I think that’s what makes Wicked one of the best running clubs in the area. … It’s not the fact they can run a five-minute mile. It’s the fact that everyone gets along.”
There’s a lot more to all this running than just logging miles. The Thanksgiving race raised $7,500 apiece for the city’s Recreation Department and the Boys & Girls Club. The 5K race at the golf course brought in $500 for the Salem High School cross country team.
Proceeds from tomorrow’s race will fund scholarships for four high school students, totaling $2,000.
And the boom may not have peaked.
“Personally, I could see a marathon from Nahant to Gloucester cutting through Salem,” Bollen said. “But I’d say that’s years away. It’s an enormous amount of work, coordinating with each town and city.”
“I think we have a lot more room to grow here,” Short said. “I think there are a ton of other runners in the community out there. I’m hoping as 2009 comes around, we’ll see some of those people. … The running club is there for the community, and we’re looking to invite everyone.”
0 Responses to “Wicked in the News”