By Scott Casper
With this being the 35th year of the Greater Lowell Road Runners, I wanted to go back and pull some articles from some the original Starting Lines newsletters. Below is the President’s Letter by John Burke, first published in March of 1983 (I was 14 years old).
With this being the 35th year of the Greater Lowell Road Runners, I wanted to go back and pull some articles from some the original Starting Lines newsletters. Below is the President’s Letter by John Burke, first published in March of 1983 (I was 14 years old).
By John Burke
Welcome! 1983 brings great expectations for the G.L.R.R. Our membership is approaching 400, our race calendar is full, our speaker’s program is off to a great start. We have the Starting Lines Series, the Fudgical Series, the Marathon Clinic, the Beginning Runner’s Clinic. We have a complete social schedule. 1983 should be the best year yet to run with the G.L.R.R. We have even seen some interest from local corporations concerning race sponsorship.
A special welcome to all of the new members of our club. Our club has experienced continued growth in 1982, a compliment to our reputation, as well as a challenge to keep fulfilling the needs of the running community. It was with a great deal of excitement that I was informed of the fact that Jim Stronach and Mike Hurton had joined our club. I have to admit I was pleased myself. Runners of this caliber will certainly add recognition to the G.L.R.R. Of course, Jim and Mike are welcome to our club. If a runner of the caliber of John Burke or Dick Stackpole were new members, the excitement would not be so great. Rightly so. This does not mean that one member is more important than another. What makes our club so successful is our recognition of the importance of all members. Actually, the slower runners of the club are more important than the faster runners, simply because there are more of us.
I still meet runners who say they have yet to join the G.L.R.R. because they run too slow. You can’t run too slow to join the G.L.R.R. But you can certainly run too fast. If you run too fast the G.L.R.R. won’t be able to offer you enough to keep you on its roster. We have some of the faster runners in the area in our club. But we are a local club. Our pride is our contribution to the running community. What we provide, we provide to all runners. So yes, I would like to welcome Jim Stronack and Mike Hurton, I would also like to welcome Alan Sexton and Mary Ann Harring and Robert Eliasen and William Boutselis and Debbie Donaghue and all our new members. You’ve joined a terrific club and hopefully you will make it even better.
After reading this article I can’t help but think “the G.L.R.R.” has done quite a good job staying true to our roots. The words written by John Burke 32 years ago, still ring true today, our club philosophy is still about giving back to the running community. And that’s what separates Greater Lowell from other clubs. The mention to the Fudgcicle Series (although it’s spelled differently) is fun to see. And it’s fun to see Jim and Mike mentioned way back when, but are still active members of our club. There are a handful of Starting Lines that were scanned and added to the Greater Lowell website. It’s enjoyable to read through them. http://glrr.net/our-story/starting-lines/
In the immortal words of Coach Jim… “Run Faster”!
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