Me & The Mini
By Gordon Bakoulis
 |
|
Gordon
Bakoulis competes at the 2001 Boston Marathon.
(Photo: Victor Sailer/Photo Run) |
I'm not sure when I ran my first Mini Marathon 10K, but it was definitely years before I became a "real" runner -- that is, one who had the faintest idea of how to prepare for the experience of running more than six hilly miles. Like many novices, I must have gone out at a sprint, then slowed to a jog, then to a shuffle, which I stubbornly maintained to the finish, as hundreds of women streamed by me, many of them offering cheerful words of encouragement that helped me keep going and made me want to come back and do the race again. My second Mini was in 1981, and this time I'd been running to get in shape for a summer of backpacking around Europe; in fact I did the race in the morning, in 41 minutes and change, then headed to JFK Airport for a flight to London that evening. (Somehow the poster made it home, and hung on my bedroom wall for years -- Grete Waitz running her incredible 30:59 in 1980.) I wore the outfit I'd raced in -- Dolfin shorts and a T-shirt-almost every day for two months, until it literally fell apart.
But I hadn't worn out the Mini; I was just getting started. I ran it a couple more times -- in various states of fitness -- before I moved to New York in the fall of 1983 and started making it an annual tradition. I'm not sure why. I was not serious about running, and raced a total of maybe a half dozen other times during my first two years in the city. For several reasons, I found the Mini very, very special. Of course the fact that it was the world's oldest and largest women-only 10k was part of it. I was also drawn to the course, which I found challenging and breathtakingly beautiful (I still do, even after 18 years of training on it almost daily). Perhaps most compellingly, the Mini became my entrée into the life of a "real" New York runner. In 1985 I decided (I'm still not sure why) to train hard for it. I practiced by running loops of the Reservoir as fast as I could, and when I was able to finish a loop in 10 minutes I declared myself ready. (I had no idea how far a loop of the Reservoir was, nor what I meant by "ready," but sometimes it's best not to analyze these things too carefully. I ran 38:52 that year, and joined a running club a few weeks later.
I haven't missed too many Minis since. I've run fast Minis and slow Minis, baking hot Minis and cold, rainy Minis, Minis where husbands and children cheered me on, and Minis where I went home to an empty apartment. My memories of the race are very personal, sometimes poignant, and they can threaten to overwhelm me as I stand on the starting line or during that tough fourth mile, when it seems I'm often running alone. I remember running the Mini a week before my wedding in 1988; though the marriage is now ended, for some reason my wedding day always comes to mind at some point during the race. I remember running with Lisa Ondieki one year and backing off because I felt so freaked out. Some memories are funny, like the year basketball start Rebecca Lobo ran and I got her autograph.
You can peg me as a Mini veteran by the fact that I still occasionally refer to it by the names of its various sponsors over the years -- "Avon," "Advil," even "L'Eggs." Fortunately, there are enough long-time hard-core fans of the race out there that at least one person within earshot usually knows what I am talking about. There is a sizable group of us -- many New Yorkers but a healthy number of out-of-towners as well -- who make a big effort to come back to the Mini every year. If we happen to be in shape, we make the Mini the focus of our spring racing season. If we're less fit than we'd like to be, we give it our best shot, finishing red-faced and panting, knowing we'll be sore for days. Sometimes, when we really haven't trained at all, the Mini is our spring season -- along with summer and fall as well.
On race morning we look around, find each other, and reconnect. We smile almost bashfully, slightly embarrassed to be seen once again making this public declaration of our very personal, very passionate affection for, yes, a road race -- a big, sprawling, impersonal, commercial happening on a June morning in New York City. Each of us, whether we'll admit it or not, has a relationship with the Mini Marathon. Somehow, it is an event that grounds us. It defines a part of who we are. More than any other race, the Mini allows us to show our loyalty-to running, to New York, to one another, and to ourselves.
A resident of New York City, Gordon Bakoulis is a four-time Olympic Trials qualifyer in the marathon (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000) and made the finals of the 10,000 meters at the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials. She has twice finished in the top 10 at the New York City Marathon, and has a personal marathon best of 2:33:01. Bakoulis was the runner-up in the Masters division of the Boston Marathon in April and will be running her first Mini as a masters runner on June 9.
Nothing contained herein may be reproduced online in any form without the express written permission of the New York Road Runners Club, Inc.