By “pop,” I don’t mean soda. I mean props, kudos, recognition. Jim Ferstle penned a nice piece for runnersworld.com about Nolan Shaheed and Mary Harada, who made their mile marks at Boston indoor nationals. It’s headlined, appropriately, “Masters show how it’s done.” He also talks about Aaron Thigpen, who has a famous actress cousin.

Here’s Jim’s feature story:
For three days last weekend the ageless wonders of the US track scene returned to the Reggie Lewis Track in Boston to display all that is uplifting about the sport. There were outstanding performances–on Saturday alone six world bests and 17 American records were set–intense competition, but perhaps more importantly camaraderie and a sharing of experience that is often absent or overlooked in modern day sport.
As the next race was finishing and in the middle of his warm down, 56-year-old Nolan Shaheed, the not-so-little old trumpeter from Pasadena who set a world best of 4:42.89 in the mile, was reminiscing with friends and swapping stories.
“If Jim Ryun had gone to my high school he would have been a quarter miler,” said Shaheed. “And the world would have lost one of its greatest milers.”
The exchange was half tongue in cheek, but Shaheed pointed out that his coach at John Muir High would have noted Ryun’s speed–he ran a 47 second quarter–and would have said: “Are you crazy? Why do want to run the mile. I need you in the quarter. You can run the relays.”
And the history of American miling would have never been the same. Fortunately both Shaheed and Ryun drifted toward a distance more suited to their talents.
On the other end of the track 70-year-old Mary Harada, who set a world best for her age group in the mile of 7:12.59, munched on a post-race turkey sandwich and told a reporter about how she got started in the sport.
A member of the Massachusetts based Liberty Track Club, Harada said she had been fortunate to have been involved in sports in her youth.
There was no track team at her schools, so she played field hockey because, “I could run around and hit a little white ball with a stick,” she said. After graduation she began raising a family and teaching, but the urge to exercise never left. In 1968 a friend, “the most unathletic person I knew,” Harada said, started running.
The friend told her she had read about running’s benefits in Ken Cooper’s book, Aerobics, and so Harada got a copy of the book. Harada read it and was hooked. Another friend told her about road races, and Harada replied: “What’s a road race?” She found out and did some, but this really wasn’t her calling. A while later she ran an indoor mile at Harvard, where she finished third, and her masters track career was launched.
Unlike Shaheed, she didn’t get inspiration from elite Olympians, her drive came from loving the activity and those with whom she shared the activity. She doesn’t look to younger runners for inspiration, Harada says: “I tell people that my hero is an 84-year-old woman who is still going strong. She’s my inspiration.”
Near the entrance to the facility, 41-year-old Aaron Thigpen sat on the floor in his black Mizuno warm-up suit listening on his earphones to an MP3 player. Earlier Thigpen, whose cousin was the late actress Lynne Thigpen, had broken Eddie Hart’s American 40-45 masters record for the 60-meter dash by running 6.90.
“I just like to compete,” he said when asked why he’s still involved in athletics. Plus, he says, he has a sports performance business so staying involved in the sport helps him understand the issues his clients face while trying to get the best out of themselves.
Inside around the track the announcer kept a running commentary of the action, identifying every athlete and often using the adjective “legendary” to describe someone competing on the track.
While around the track railing and in the stands other legends, such as coach Bill Squires or Lesley Lehane, shared stories of the old days, runners at the meet they were coaching, or their current projects. Squires has written a book with Lehane’s husband, Bruce Lehane, titled Speed with Endurance.
The Lehanes are working on devices that will help make the current baby joggers more user friendly and another that attempts to help runners with bad knees continue to exercise. Like most of the athletes and their entourages at the meet, athletics wasn’t the only thing where they had had success, but it was still an overriding passion.
Harada was eating the sandwich she said because she’s read research about the importance of replacing carbohydrates soon after you exercise.
The Southern California team Shaheed ran for had its own massage tables set up near one end of the track and brought their own masseur.
But for most the athletes, more earthy concerns were paramount. “The only place you can pee around here in spikes is in a cup,” said one of the male milers, referring to the signs around all the exits and entrances that competitors should not go through these doors in their spikes. Unfortunately, the only way to the bathrooms was through those doors.
Some challenges have no age category.