Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth County News - Friday, July 2,1999
Sports
Peachtree
preparation
necessary
Aaron
Lorenzo
With all
this talk of
Sunday’s
30th annual
Peachtree
Road Race, I
decided to
give running
a try the
other night.
Well, I guess you could call it jogging, peppered
with a bit of walking and crawling near the end.
This race seemed the perfect fit for me - not
quite a marathon, with its monumental 26.2-mile
distance, nor as short as a 5K road race. The
Peachtree follows a 10K course, just a little over
six miles. Not exactly a back-breaker, I figured,
but nonetheless a bit of a challenge. Hills in the
third and fifth miles would likely be the most
daunting aspects of the race for this runner, along
with the 7:30 a.m. start time.
I’m not exactly new to jogging -1 did it regular
ly a couple of years ago for exercise purposes. I
found it not only got my body into a bit better
shape, but also increased personal stamina.
And I also decided jogging was a good exercise
in individual competition, a battle against myself
to push my body harder each time out.
But, after some time, I fell of the wagon and quit
jogging, though every New Year’s Eve since, I
have contemplated lacing up my old running shoes
again and taking them for a spin.
With the metro area abuzz in recent weeks about
Atlanta’s midsummer running classic, my interest
in jogging has peaked again. So much so that I
even went for a second jog the next night, and plan
to keep up this routine for as long as I can.
I didn’t expect to challenge the race’s record
men’s time of 27 minutes, four seconds, nor did I
expect to even come close to the quickest women’s
time, 30:52. I didn’t even figure I’d sniff part of
the SIOO,OOO in prize money available. But I
thought it might be fun to try.
People tell me the race is one of the area’s
biggest social events, with thousands of runners
packed into a few city blocks. I hear the approach
to the finish line at Piedmont Park is a real specta
cle. Organizers advisle runners to follow a training
schedule that allows for a conversational pace -
aside from the handful of serious runners, all out
competition does not seem to be the primary pur
pose of the race.
Unfortunately, I found out that no matter how
good of shape I whip myself into in the week pre
ceding the Peachtree, I can’t be a part of the
world’s largest 10K race. At least not this year.
The Atlanta TYack Club now limits the number
of entrants to 55,000 runners annually, filling the
majority of those spots 48 hours after the applica
tions are released.
According to club officials, the applications for
this year’s race went out on March 21, and the first
45,000 slots were filled by the 23rd. The final
10,000 spots are filled based on a lottery drawn
from applications received through March 31.
Organizers have all the details worked out well in
advance of race day. Just under 55,000 T-shirts
have been ordered - 54,983 - prestigious trophies
proving one’s participation in the Peachtree.
Runners will consume 120,000 gallons of water
before, during and after the race. And the entire
field will collectively bum 34 million calories.
So the Peachtree Road Race is set in stone more
than three months before the actual race, meaning
I was a little late in hopping onto this bandwagon.
But I guess I always have a chance to be a part of
the action next year.
I just need to my jogging routine at a conversa
tional pace, and keep my ears open next March.
The Cumming
Waves, a
Forsyth County
based youth
swimming club,
rolled over the
competition at
this past week
end’s meet in
Gainesville. A
number of team
members
pooled together
to capture tro
phies, medals
and first place
4 overall, racking
■ up 890 cumula
tive points in the
process.
Photo/
Tom Brooks
?nsK»7-
• F-*'* CzJr JBJOwBi 4- jß9&Swhf
l-w Ar PA
. ‘ W-* '■ a®
KjgaSw JfSa flAm Jk . ,« f «*• 1
\J Fa T JT AafeteuJuraß
Runners in step
for Peachtree
By Eric Burden
Sports Writer
It’s an annual phenomenon akin to
the return of the swallows to San Juan
Capistrano, the pilgrimage of
Moslems to Mecca, as runners from
around the globe head to Atlanta
Sunday for the 30th annual Peachtree
Road Race.
With 55,000 hoofers huffing and
puffing, the race resembles the
world’s largest moving block party,
with over 200,000 spectators lining
the route that starts at Lenox Square
and ends at Piedmont Park.
Touted as the world’s largest 10K, or
6.2 mile, road race, the Peachtree’s
allure pulls runners from Forsyth as
well to join in the festival of feet,
among them members of the
Cumming Running Club.
Joe Alderdice, president of the club,
and his wife, Nanci Wells, will be run
ning in their 12th Peachtree. Wells, a
nurse at Baptist Medical Center, got
her husband off and running in 1988
and the two of them have been run
ning the race together since. Wells has
made the journey even during her
three pregnancies.
Thrashers in town to drum up support
By Eric Burden
Sports Writer
Just a few days after taking their gro
cery list to the National Hockey
League’s expansion draft and stocking
their shelves with players, the Atlanta
Thrashers returned to Cumming’s
Slapshots for another round of stick-1
handling and puck-shooting instruction?’'
Trying to plow the local pastures in
order to grow enthusiasm for a sport
that has shallow roots in the South, the
Thrashers dispatched their merry band
of pucksmen to focus the county’s
roller hockey hopefuls on the finer
points of the game.
“We’re sort of the Johnny Appleseeds
of hockey,” said Jonathan Mattson, fan
development coordinator for the
Thrashers.
But instead of dropping seeds, they
were dropping pucks in a effort to push
up the young shoots of Hulls and
Haseks that showed up for the clinic.
“The developmental clinics fit in with
our master scheme of building a long
term fan base,” said Mattson, who
played for Holy Cross College in
Worcester, Massachusetts. “With 94
days left to the opening game ,we don’t
have much time left.”
The two-hour session with the team of
former college and minor league play
ers had its effect.
“They made us skate real hard,” said
Brian Johnson, a 12-year-old who
i attends North Forsyth Middle School.
“But it really helped my technique in
dribbling the puck and shooting.”
Pete Alexander was more succinct in
his assessment of the clinic.
“Passing and shooting,” Alexander
“I ran my best time when I was preg
nant with my first son,” said Wells.
“For some reason I was mad all the
time during the first few months of
that pregnancy and I ran all the time to
bum off that emotion. I was in the best
shape I’d ever been.”
Alderdice says it’s some primeval
urge he has to fulfill that keeps bring
ing him back for what amounts to an
hour of self-inflicted torture for most
of the runners.
“It’s like some huge ritual you would
find in a primitive culture when all the
people would get together and offer
up a human sacrifice,” Alderdice said.
“Except in the Peachtree, 55,000 peo
ple are offering themselves as the sac
rifice.”
The sacrifice of Alderdice has been
tempered over the years by a training
program that helps him avoid the shin
splits and stress fractures that he used
to inflict on himself when he first
began pushing his body beyond the
limits of the average couch potato.
Using his knowledge of the human
body that he has gained as a chiro
practor, Alderdice has tuned his train-
See PEACHTREE, Page 2B
- -- ■ ■
Jy/MI
r I f . t t^s "X'' IP I 5
Photo/Eric Burden
With the NHEs expansion Atlanta Thrashers’ first season a few months
away, the team hopes to earn the support of local youth players.
said when asked of the benefits
received.
The Thrashers ran the players through
a series of drills that ran the gamut of
•' ■ w
-■ ' ■
Mr
Photo/Eric Burden
Joe Alderdice, who heads up the Cumming Running Club, will run in his
12th Peachtree Road Race this Sunday.
skills needed to build a strong founda
tion for a hockey future.
“A lot of what we do is actually hav
ing to go back and break down bad
Tide rolls in for the Waves
By Alton Bridges
Sports Writer
The Cumming Waves
proved to be in mid-season
form in the 1999 Northeast
Georgia Sports Festival June
26 in Gainesville. The
youngsters scored 890 points
and defeated the next closest
opponent, a team from
Gainesville, by over 200
points.
“We have some fine young
swimmers,” said coach Jon
Newcomer, who is in his sec
ond year as coach. “The kids
have really done a great job
this year and we have had a
lot of fun."
Other coaches for the team
include Cara Rankland,
Danielle Barker and Ellen
Hutchinson, who is also a
local swimming instructor.
Get local summer
camp information
RAGE2B
The Waves use the pool at
the Cumming City Park and
practice usually starts about
8:30 in the morning. The
Waves have 130 registered
participants and approxi
mately 110 participate in the
practice sessions and events.
The Waves have four dual
meets remaining at home. In
dual meets only two teams
participate and no scores are
kept.
“Dual meets are for fun,”
said Newcomer. “The kids
see how they stack up
against other teams. The
remaining meets at home are
with Dacula, Spring Brook,
Pine Shores from Winder
and Gainesville. We have
already had two invitational
meets at Mountain Park in
Snellville and Dacula.”
habits they’ve picked up as they’ve got
used to doing things with incorrect
form or cutting comers,” Mattson said.
“The first hour focuses on technique, so
we do drills at half or quarter speed and
try to get to the dynamics of the the
game.”
Skating gets worked on as the
Thrashers teach the kids to be more
agile in their edges and turns.
“Drive towards the net. Use your
crossover to give you power and
speed,” Mattson pointed out to the
group. ;
Two groups of five to six skaters face
off against each other in the stick relay
race where the first skater speeds
around the rink and then hands off his
stick to the next skater. The procession
continues until the last skater makes his
round with a armful of sticks* The game
incorporates balance with speed con
trol.
"Most of these kids don’t realize what
they’re gaining with these games,”
Mattson said. “When you have six
sticks cradled in your arms and you’re
racing full-speed around the rink, if
you’re not balanced, you’ll crash and
bum.”
“There’s a variety of learning levels at
these clinics, so we have to find corfi
mon ground. But we try to impress on
the more advanced kids that all that rep
etition is what allows a professional
hockey player to make that special play
that defines him as a professional. But
the main thing we want to impress is to
have fun at playing hockey.”
Girls and boys just wanna have fun
See DRUM, Page 2B
The top-three Waves* scor
ers at the 1999 Northeast
Georgia Sports Festival
include:
Glrta:
6-and-under 25 free
1. Brittany Adams2s.64
3. Katie McLean27.s4
5. Jamie Metzger3l.96
6-and-under 25 back
2. Adams 32.01
3. McLean33.6l
5. Metzger 38.63
6-encßjnder 100 free
1. Wavesßteam .... 2:31.32 '
8-and-under 25 free
2. Cassie Spragglß43
3. Chelsea Litras2oXl3
4. Olivia Leiser2oX»
8-and-under 50 free
2. Spragg 40.42
4. Leiser46.sß
See WAVES, Page IB
b