Tri State
Bill Beckwith 5K offers ‘smalltown charm’ – and a challenge
Shriver combines ‘love of running’ will hilly course offering
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
SMITHSBURG – Braden Grosh thinks the reason to run the annual Bill Beckwith 5K run in Smithsburg on Saturday, July 18 is that it offers the best of two worlds.
Shriver combines ‘love of running’ will hilly course offering
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
SMITHSBURG – Braden Grosh thinks the reason to run the annual Bill Beckwith 5K run in Smithsburg on Saturday, July 18 is that it offers the best of two worlds.
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\“You go through the city of Smithsburg,” said Grosh, who just turned 17 and is preparing for her senior season as a top-five runner for the Smithsburg Leopards varsity cross country team. “It has that smalltown charm. It also goes around back roads and you see all the farming culture of Smithsburg.”
Smithsburg Coach Ray Shriver, race director, agreed the town is an attraction other races can’t offer. Other than being a fundraiser for the Smithsburg cross country program, “it also serves as another activity to be done during Pride Days,” Shriver said.
“It’s one more option, one more way to bring people into the town, to see what a great town Smithsburg is.”
And what talent there lies – er, runs – in Smithsburg. Both of the school’s teams, the boys and girls, are coming off fourth-place finishes in the Class 1A West Region cross country championships, and both teams finished in the top eight in the Class 1A state meet at Hereford High School last November.
Smithsburg Coach Ray Shriver, race director, agreed the town is an attraction other races can’t offer. Other than being a fundraiser for the Smithsburg cross country program, “it also serves as another activity to be done during Pride Days,” Shriver said.
“It’s one more option, one more way to bring people into the town, to see what a great town Smithsburg is.”
And what talent there lies – er, runs – in Smithsburg. Both of the school’s teams, the boys and girls, are coming off fourth-place finishes in the Class 1A West Region cross country championships, and both teams finished in the top eight in the Class 1A state meet at Hereford High School last November.
Incoming Smithsburg High School senior Braden Grosh, shown here leading the pack during the Run for the Plunge in March at Rocky Gap State Park, has her eyes on the hills of the Bill Beckwith 5K run on Saturday, July 18.
“Part of my philosophy for coaching plays a little bit into this,” Shriver said of why he continued coordinating the race after inheriting the event from his predecessor in the summer of 2002. “While I do coach and always try to win, that’s not really my main goal. What I’d like for (my runners) to get is to have that love of running.”
Running, Shriver said, is “something they (can) continue for the rest of their lives.”
Shriver might have yet another protégé in Grosh. The first-degree black belt and part-time karate instructor has amped up her racing and training this summer. She figures so long as she’s running, she might as well do her best.
Training runs up to 15 miles and racing much more frequently than in past offseasons, Grosh completed her first-ever 10-mile race last month in Baltimore. She placed second in the 19-and-under age group “which surprised me,” she said, “’cause I didn’t think I’d place anything there.”
Grosh said the Bill Beckwith 5K, sponsored by Super Shoes in Hagerstown, has a relatively small field – unlike the Baltimore 10-miler – and she attributes that in large part to the fact that this course “is more challenging than other 5Ks that I’ve run because there are more hills.”
“Whenever you first start, you go up, you go down and then up,” she said.
Shriver said the hilly course offers a challenge but that same challenge might be preventing the race from growing. The typical hot, late-July weather could be another factor.
“I think most road runners really want a flat, fast course, and this is neither,” Shriver said. “There are no flat roads in Smithsburg.”
He’s even tinkered with the idea of changing the course to suit most runners’ needs.
“I just can’t find a way to do it,” he said. “I’ve looked and looked (but) that would be one thing I would love to change some time down the road.”
So runners, here’s your challenge – run Smithsburg’s hilly course this year. It might be your last change.
Contact Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
For race information, contact Smithsburg Coach Ray Shriver at (301) 824-2468, email him at CoachShriver@verizon.net or print an entry form here - http://www.tristaterunnur.com/Beckwith09.pdf.
Running, Shriver said, is “something they (can) continue for the rest of their lives.”
Shriver might have yet another protégé in Grosh. The first-degree black belt and part-time karate instructor has amped up her racing and training this summer. She figures so long as she’s running, she might as well do her best.
Training runs up to 15 miles and racing much more frequently than in past offseasons, Grosh completed her first-ever 10-mile race last month in Baltimore. She placed second in the 19-and-under age group “which surprised me,” she said, “’cause I didn’t think I’d place anything there.”
Grosh said the Bill Beckwith 5K, sponsored by Super Shoes in Hagerstown, has a relatively small field – unlike the Baltimore 10-miler – and she attributes that in large part to the fact that this course “is more challenging than other 5Ks that I’ve run because there are more hills.”
“Whenever you first start, you go up, you go down and then up,” she said.
Shriver said the hilly course offers a challenge but that same challenge might be preventing the race from growing. The typical hot, late-July weather could be another factor.
“I think most road runners really want a flat, fast course, and this is neither,” Shriver said. “There are no flat roads in Smithsburg.”
He’s even tinkered with the idea of changing the course to suit most runners’ needs.
“I just can’t find a way to do it,” he said. “I’ve looked and looked (but) that would be one thing I would love to change some time down the road.”
So runners, here’s your challenge – run Smithsburg’s hilly course this year. It might be your last change.
Contact Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
For race information, contact Smithsburg Coach Ray Shriver at (301) 824-2468, email him at CoachShriver@verizon.net or print an entry form here - http://www.tristaterunnur.com/Beckwith09.pdf.
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