Bucknell Alumni Reach the Beach First ... and Fourth and Fifth
10/4/2002 8:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 4, 2002
By Jamie Kempton '80
Through rain and cold and gloom of night, they ran. Along unforgiving country roads deep in the heart of New Hampshire-the remnants of Hurricane Isidore nipping at their heels-they forged onward. More than three decades of Bucknell running tradition came together on Sept. 27-28 for an unforgettable run-through-the-night odyssey at the Reach the Beach Relay, the longest relay footrace in the country.
Three 12-man teams of Bucknell alumni, spanning all 32 years (1970-2002) of the school's storied track/cross country program, made the 200-mile journey from Bretton Woods, in the shadow of Mount Washington, to Hampton Beach on New Hampshire's southeast coast.
The Bison alums not only ran; they flourished, with all three teams placing among the top five. The Bucknell Alumni Distance Team outraced the field of 165 finishing teams to capture the overall and Men's Open title in a time of 18 hours, 43 minutes, 33 seconds, a pace of 5:36 per mile. The Bucknell Alumni Fossils finished second in the Super Masters (age 40 or older) division and fourth overall in 21:27:05, a pace of 6:26 per mile. Not to be outdone, the Bucknell Alumni FCP squad placed third in the Men's Open division and fifth overall in 21:48:12, a 6:32 per-mile pace.
Each team member was required to run three times in rotation-36 legs in all-for an average total of 16.5 miles per runner, or 5.5 miles per leg. Legs ranged from 2.4 to 8.8 miles, the steepest of which was the leadoff four-mile leg up an alpine trail in the ski lift corridor at Bretton Woods Ski Area. The brutal course ascended 1,500 feet before free-falling down the backside of the mountain.
Besides renewing old ties and establishing new ones among 36 runners, 10 support crew personnel and others who lent moral support, the event also succeeded in humanitarian terms. The teams were running to raise funds for Lauren Grady, the 2-year-old daughter of David "Rosie" Grady '85. Lauren has been diagnosed with cancer in her brain and spine. Brian Harshman '85, David Grady's old Bucknell roommate and a member of the winning team, spearheaded a drive to collect donations and forward them on Lauren's behalf to The Jonathan Cancer Fund, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based foundation that assists families with the financial burden associated with childhood cancer treatment. As of Sept. 30, $11,000 had been raised via Bucknell alumni donations through Harshman's efforts.
"The response from the Bucknell alumni, friends and family has been overwhelming and I know it has truly touched the Grady family," Harshman said. "I'm sure that the alumni runners competed with greater conviction knowing that they were running for Lauren, who is in the midst of a far more difficult battle."
Harshman has been one of the mainstays in Bucknell's long-playing record of success in alumni running events. That prosperity began at the Alamo Alumni Runs, a series of 5-mile races in New York (and other cities) that Bucknell won all six years the event was held, 1989-1994-and earned a collective $6,000 in scholarships for the university.
The venue then shifted to the West Coast but the success continued unabated. In the Hood to Coast Relay, a 195-mile, 12-runner-per-team event in Oregon similar to Reach the Beach, the Bucknell alumni won three times and finished second and third twice each from 1995 to 2001. Last year's team won the title and dedicated its victory to the memory of Art Gulden, the patriarch of the Bucknell track and cross-country programs, who launched the program in 1970 and remained its coach until succumbing to complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in May 2001.
Bill Ledgerwood '74 was a member of Coach Gulden's first batch of cross-country recruits in the fall of 1970. Thirty-two years later, Ledgerwood was again part of Bucknell running history: At age 50, he was the oldest alumnus to take part in the Orange and Blue's inaugural foray at Reach the Beach, handling Legs 11, 23 and 35 (total: 14.9 miles) for the Alumni Fossils. But that's not his only distinction. "Ledge," as he is called by friends, was joined at Reach the Beach by his two sons, Dave '99 and Mark '01, each of whom ran for the Alumni FCP team. ("FCP" stands for "Fat Coach Pace," a pet expression of Coach Gulden's.)
"Coach Gulden and I arrived on campus at the same time in August 1970," Ledgerwood said. "He often described us as 'freshman together, a long time ago.' I am proud to have been there at the beginning and proud to be part of a new BU running tradition at the Reach the Beach Relay."
The three Bucknell teams and support crew members shared an experience that they will surely cherish for years to come: from the pre-race team dinner in the Roseland Room of the historic Mount Washington Hotel; to the team-building and story-swapping in the Mount Washington Townhomes that served as their pre-race home base; to the bonding (and friendly competition between the Fossils and FCPs) along the race route; to the post-race celebration and camaraderie at Hampton Beach, where the runners took the bracing, ceremonial dip in the Atlantic Ocean to certify the completion of their trek.
The generation-spanning significance of the event was not lost on the younger alumni. Dave Ledgerwood has perhaps a keener appreciation of the Bucknell running tradition than other recent graduates because of his Bison lineage.
"Growing up in a Bucknell running household, I heard stories of the great men who came before me in the program," Ledgerwood said. "Having the chance to compete beside and against them is just a phenomenal experience. Access to an East Coast event like RTB gives the younger, non-elite runners a chance to compete again wearing the orange and blue. It's an honor to represent the program on the alumni level next to the guys who have won Hood to Coast and Alamo runs in the last decade."
The depth of the Bucknell alumni teams is a major differentiator from other programs, Ledgerwood added. "I think three top-five finishes shows our commitment to making sure Bucknell running remains dominant in the East even after our four [undergraduate] years with the program are up. You'd be hard pressed to find another program anywhere that could field three alumni teams. I like to think we're making Coach Gulden proud."
An event of the magnitude of RTB requires countless hours of planning and organization, and the Bucknell alumni teams are indebted to Ray Sullivan '86, who planned the logistics (travel, hotels, meals, etc.) of the event, just as he had done the previous seven years at Hood to Coast. Such is Sullivan's dedication to the alumni's cause that he handled his duties with his usual efficiency despite shuttling back and forth to his home in Massachusetts to be with his wife, Megan, who was due with the couple's third child.
Others who performed yeoman service in organizing this major undertaking include Bob Murdock '82, who ran on the Fossil team and assisted Sullivan in the pre- and post-race planning efforts; Brian Fullem '86, the elite team's captain; and George Buckheit '79, the Fossil team's captain and a Bucknell Athletic Hall of Famer.
For Buckheit, the weekend in New Hampshire confirmed the ties that bind runners who wore a Bucknell uniform under Art Gulden's stewardship. "It's a tremendous tribute to Coach Gulden and the sense of 'family' that he created in our program that we had all 31 years of his track and cross country teams represented at Reach the Beach," Buckheit said. "Not only did all those guys show up, but they also ran the race in a way that would make him proud. For the most part, the sport of distance running is a very solitary, individual pursuit. But when we put on those Bucknell racing singlets, we were running for our school, our coach, our teammates and Lauren Grady. If you can't get fired up about that, you need your pulse checked."
Nor does this figure to be a one-time event for the Bucknell alumni, if Buckheit's eagerness is any gauge. "The weather conditions were atrocious, and by the end of the race I was feeling more physically miserable than I'd felt in years," he said, "but I'll meet those guys anyplace, any weekend and do it again. We're all looking forward to next year and to continuing this as an annual tradition."