March / April 2017 brought to you by the members of the The SENSATIONAL! Sugarloaf SUN The indispensable journal for the Western Massachusetts runner In This Issue: Member Profiles Pages 3–6 Greenfield 4-Miler Page 6 Sawmill River Run Page 7 SMAC Day 2016–2017 SMAC Winter Youth Track: BOLT! (Photo courtesy Leslie Charles) Page 8 Croom Zoom! Recharging SMAC Page 11 WELCOME to our new club members this year, and welcome back to those of you who have Amherst 10-Miler supported it through the years. I’ve learned a lot about SMAC over the past year, through the Page 13 survey and conversations with both long-time and new members. SMAC celebrates its 45th Nancy Conz birthday this year, starting in 1972 as a women’s running club. SMAC’s origins are important Page 15 to who we are: a club that values empowerment, inclusion, mutual support, and a striving for Youth Track excellence. I see these values in our members at every workout and at every race. It makes Page 17 me feel proud to be a member and honored to be president. Book Review SMAC had 346 members in 2016. That’s a big, healthy club, but like other running clubs and Page 18 races, we’ve seen a slight, steady decline in members over the years as the “second running Dear Race Directors... boom” winds down and some of our baby-boomer members retire. How do we respond? In Page 19 the survey and in conversations, you’ve said that you want more social events, more training opportunities like track workouts and group runs, and that you value our Youth Track pro- Running in Tuscany gram. Supporting Youth Track is surely the best long-term way to ensure the health of our Page 20 young members and the future of the club. Members of the Board have committed to build- The Running Dread ing more social events, group runs, and structured workouts for members. Page 22 How can you help? Volunteer. I mean VOLUNTEER! You are the club! We have four club rac- Snowshoe Racing es, including the Amherst 10-Miler, the Ron Hebert Race, the Summit Run, and the Mt. Toby Page 23 Trail Race. They need you. The weekly SMAC Northampton 5Ks can always use a hand with Upcoming Races setup and cleanup. Also, support your teammates who are race directors. Our members di- Page 24 rect several charitable races throughout the valley. What else? CHEER ON your teammates! SMAC Gear Is In! When you’re done with a race, don’t wander away – show your support for your fellow Page 28 SMACers and clap them to the finish! This year’s 10-Miler was a true all-club, community event. Over 50 volunteers, most of them SMAC members, made it a great success. Go SMAC! Runners Illustrated Page 29 -Tom Raffensperger, Club President From the Editor Speeding Through the “Slow” Season Well, it’s finally happened. After eight overstuffed issues you know, much more mundane stuff like shoveling snow and of The Sun, we’ve got a “regular”-sized one.* Or close to it scraping frosty car windows (mostly the latter; it’s been an- (maybe we can call it plus-sized?). Which is actually a bit of a other one of those winters where I wonder which state won relief, at least for me doing procurement, editing, and layout! the snow lottery because it sure wasn’t us). As I write this column, March approaches and we’re in This issue covers a few of those events, features several the middle of a string of 60-degree days. In late February. first-rate member profiles, and explores a few new far-flung And this comes on the heels of a week where we finally got fun runs. It also contains a mild blabbering rant or two, and snowed upon, heavily. I saw a Game of Thrones “Winter is the usual assortment of artwork, essays, pictures, reviews, coming” photo meme that said: “The entire thing. All at once. and more, along with a list of upcoming races. In one weekend.” Sounds about right. Weird weather contin- Sadly, it needs to be noted that we lost a local legend a ues. Anomalies trend into norms. A frog tossed into boiling few weeks ago. Nancy Conz, who many might have been water will jump out, but if you raise the heat slowly it will… helped by at the Northampton Running Co. in recent years, never mind. Let’s just stay mindful of the big picture, yah? passed away in early February. She was a pioneer in women’s It’s the slow season when it comes to road and trail races racing and will be greatly missed. Dismissed for her gender in around here, though there are still a few hardy stalwarts like her youth and struck with cancer later on, she faced many the Sawmill River Run 10K and the Amherst 10-Miler. But a obstacles and challenges over the years. Nevertheless, she steady slate of local snowshoe races dotted the calendar this persisted. And indeed sometimes triumphed. See the memo- winter, such as the ones in Richmond, Readsboro, Woodford, rial article about her by John Stifler on p. 15. and Mt. Tom (though the meager amount of snow for much Changing topics, I want to say thank you to everyone who of the season turned some of those into trail races). And vari- ranked The Sun so high in the club survey sent around this ous other events kept us busy too, including the SMAC annual past fall. It’s a genuine pleasure to interact with all the writ- meeting and 10-mile course preview, the all-comers indoor ers and artists who contribute, and the results often feel like track meet, and the Greenfield Winter Carnival run. And also, a mini-magazine about running in Western Massachusetts, as opposed to “just” a newsletter. This is all due to the quality of the submissions, which has been sky high all the way; SMAC is really fortunate to have so many gifted runners and writers. The Sugarloaf SUN (2017, Issue #2) Speaking of the survey (see a summary of it on page 3 of is a publication of the last issue), you can see from the club president’s column Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club (SMAC) and hopefully by actions already underway that your voices and is produced by, for, and with and opinions have been heard. There are a lot of really ex- the considerable help of its members. citing changes afoot for this spring, in addition to continued Ben Kimball, Editor support for the things we’ve always stood for and champi- Greenfield, MA 01301 oned. Keep checking the website, the Facebook page, the (603) 491-1839 Google group, and future issues of The Sun for updates. alpinefin [at] comcast.net Remember, The Sun only happens with your help, so Please submit your written work or pictures, please keep your contributions coming. We can always use and send along any comments or questions (or even praise). them. The more member submissions we get, the better our feisty little newsletter will be. My email address is: alpinefin Photos by Ben Kimball unless otherwise credited. [at] comcast.net and my inbox is always open (whether I re- For more about the club and for membership information, member to check it or not is another matter). Please, send us: please visit our website at: www.sugarloafmac.org stuff, stories, recipes, recaps, routes, rants, profiles, pictures, or call Ron Hebert, Membership Secretary at (413) 584-2917 letters, anything and everything. As previous Sun editor Ben Bensen once wrote: “If you ran it, we want to run it!” Publication date: March 1, 2017 -Ben *written before a last-minute flood of contributions arrived in my inbox and upped the page count! The Sugarloaf Sun — March/April 2017 page 2 Member Profile SMAC Member Profile Name: Michelle Juneau Age: 41 Town: Williamstown Job: I am a full time graduate student, working on an MS in Nutrition at UMass. I also do some nutrition consulting, par- ticularly related to food allergies. Where are you from originally, and (if not from here) what brought you to this area? I grew up in Wisconsin, then went to school and lived in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota for 20 years before moving here in 2015. My husband was offered his dream job here, and the beauty and amazing hiking op- Michelle at the City of Lakes Half-Marathon. portunities in the area cinched the deal. I left a career in run, and I give it my best. Running a hard workout makes me healthcare architecture, and am fortunate to be able to go face and conquer my fear of failure. Instead of keeping some- back to school to study an area about which I am very pas- thing in the tank “just in case” and playing it safe, I enjoy find- sionate—nutrition. ing the courage to challenge myself to really see what I’ve Runner since: I have been a very casual runner since I was got. I love that feeling of strength. and the deep satisfaction about 8, and a devoted “it is my favorite part of the day and I of not letting fear hold me back regardless of my actual per- plan my schedule around running” type of runner since 2001. formance. Over ice cream one night in the summer of 2001, my best Interests (besides running, of course!): Hiking tops the list, friend said, “Let’s run the Twin Cities Marathon!” I thought it and I feel incredibly lucky to live in such a beautiful area, with sounded like fun, so I said yes.