The weekend is upon us, and there should be plenty of sun out there to entice runners to add some mileage to their weekly total.
The weekend offers more flexibility for many of us to get out and run. Maybe you’re planning to start your day with a sunrise jog along the water, or a sunset stroll through the woods before things get too dark. Whatever you prefer, try and get out and clear your head this weekend in some way, shape or form.
As with every run, you’ll feel better afterward if you just go out and do it.
Please continue to send in your recommendations for things that should be featured in this space (sports@recorder.com). Our virtual running club has grown over the past week, and we’ve received countless emails and suggestions from the passionate running community that surrounds us.
Today’s story features a Greenfield native who was an integral part of the running community at a crucial time. Some 50 years ago, running, and road racing, started to become fixtures in Western Massachusetts sporting life. The Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race, perhaps the biggest 10K in the area these days, followed with its inaugural running in 1976, and the Bridge of Flowers Classic, the biggest event in Franklin County each summer, made its maiden run in 1979. Greenfield was a bit ahead of the curve.
Without further adieu, here’s Volume 3 of Running Club F.C.
Fifty years ago, Joe Martino had himself a senior year to remember.
The Greenfield High School harrier closed out his high school running career by winning Western Mass. titles in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. He was the 1969 WMass Cross Country individual champion, avenging a runner-up finish the year before as a junior.
That senior season vindicated what had become a fast, and ultimately long love affair with running.
Martino first took to running early in high school. With a little encouragement from physical education teacher Stan Benjamin, he decided to join the cross country team for his sophomore year at GHS. Things escalated quickly from there, and soon he was dominating races at Highland Park, motoring through the 2.99-mile course and posting record times.
“I got into running big time,” recalled Martino, who has lived across the state in Medway for the last 30 years. “I couldn’t get enough of it. I’d go for a run at practice, then go home and go for another run.”
Those early years served as the foundation of his running life, a career that helped launch the road racing scene in Franklin County, and led to friendships with legendary marathoners Bill Rodgers and Tom Fleming.
Martino’s vast history and knowledge of the running community eventually led him down another path. With stories spilling out everywhere, he decided the best thing to do was write them all down. Thus, “On The Run” was born. Martino wrote the book, which is out for edit, in hopes of passing along tales from the trail, and he said his goal is to have it finished come November.
“I realize I’ve had a blessed time in my life and I’ve had a very unique running career,” offered Martino, who turns 68 years old this summer. “It’s a collection of stories of my running adventures in Franklin County and Greenfield, as well as throughout the world.”
Martino’s days of running around Greenfield get their own chapter, and he said that about three-quarters of the book has references to his hometown.
“Greenfield was a wonderful place to grow up, especially if you were a runner,” he wrote in a passage from “On The Run.” “Several of my running routes were as nice as any place I have run in the country. The landscape is spectacular with countless running opportunities. Hills were abundant and there were also places to run on the flats. My favorite place to run in the summer was along the Green River. I would park at the top of the pumping station road and head out onto the river road into Colrain. The road is hard-packed dirt. My course was five miles out with the turn around at the Ten Mile Bridge, and then five miles back. The road was shaded and it was much cooler running along the river than running in town on a hot summer’s day.”
Martino said he ran his first road race in 1966. It was an 8-miler in Granby, and after finishing the jaunt, he was hooked.
“I trained really hard for a young kid,” he said. “But we had a hard time getting good information on how to train. So I subscribed to the running magazines — Distance Running News, which eventually became Runner’s World, was the biggest one. I’d also go to road races and talk to people. That was the best way to learn about the running community, just having conversations with other runners at races.”
Not long into his running career, Martino and pal Frank McDonald convinced YMCA director Jim Allen to hold the first Greenfield YMCA Road Race. The event, sponsored by Clark’s Sport Shop, went off without a hitch on April 27, 1968, with Brockton Athletic Club’s George Conefrey besting the other 41 entrants to capture first place. Martino, 15 years old at the time, finished ninth, and he recalled edging noted barefoot runner Dr. Charlie Robbins down the stretch.
“The race was a return to yesteryear as Greenfield was host to some major New England road races in the early 1950s,” Martino wrote in his book. “The race would become a big hit and an annual event for over 20 years. It was Greenfield’s version of the Boston Marathon. Hundreds of residents would be out on the six-mile course supporting the runners and handing out water.”
Not long after, the Poet Seat Ridge Runners were formed, with local harriers Ed Porter and Paul Porter spearheading the effort to bring Franklin County its own running club. To the south, the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club was also born out of that era of racing. Founded originally as a women’s running club in 1972, SMAC is still powering along today with a faithful and devoted membership.
Martino stayed active throughout his post-high school running career, competing on the road race circuit during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. He was running 100-plus mile weeks, beating big-time competitors on a consistent basis.
Right around the time he turned 45, however, injuries slowed his passion.
“It got discouraging,” Martino recalled. “I kept at it for another 10 years or so but about 12 years ago, I stopped running for the most part. I’m hoping to start back up a little bit, had some foot surgery about five weeks ago but I’d like to get back at it, at least throw in some jogging to help recover.”
Despite the injuries, Martino’s heart has always stayed close to running. That’s where the book comes in, and he’s hoping it’ll help provide another piece to the puzzle for the running community he cares about so dearly.
“My relationship with running the last 15 years has been basically keeping in touch with friend I made along the way,” he said. “I still talk to (Greenfield track coach) Pete Conway a few times a week, stay in touch with many others. That eventually led to wanting to write the book and it brought back all sorts of great memories.”