Ultra-Runners Kick Off New Year With 31-Mile North Adams Race
 Bob Dion, race organizer, pours over lap results hoping to figure out who was winning. The race is not formally timed and runners compete on the honors system. |
The Western Mass Athletic Club held its annual Fat Ass 50k — an informal race that has been held for about 25 years.
There is no entry fee, there is no first-prize trophy, no numbers hanging off runners' shirts, no official clock and participants are welcomed to stop midway and have a drink at the bar.
"For the most part it's like going for a normal run," organizer Bob Dion said inside the State Street T, the race's start and finish line, on Sunday. "It's a fun thing. It makes the winters go by."
The race began at 10 a.m. but Dion said runners were welcome to start and end at any point.
The race, about five miles longer than a marathon, consists of six loops starting at State Street T, down Curran Highway to South State Street, to Hodges Cross Road onto Church and then Ashland streets, down American Legion Drive and then back over the Hadley Overpass.
Unmanned tables with water and cookies at the beginning and at the midway point of the race were stationed for the runners' refreshment.
Racers timed themselves and after each lap wrote down the time on a sign-in sheet on the sidewalk near the bar. Some stopped in after a lap and see who else is resting while others kept going. Participants did not need to run the entire distance.
The results with all the runners that finish at least 20 miles will be published on the running club's website but all the winner gets is bragging rights.
"It's always good to start off the year by winning a race," Dion said. "There are people who take it serious and some that don't."
The race has a storied history. It began as a 50-mile trek and runners fought not only bad weather but the threat of arrest.
"It was illegal in the state to run 50 miles in a day so we ran it because it was illegal. Every year, they threatened to arrest us," Dion said. "The cops would be doing radar on us but that pissed off the mayor. He thought the cops had better things to do than to chase us around for 10 hours."
The biggest turnout the group has seen came after threats of arrest. Word of mouth that the police would crack down brought out more than 60 people to run it in protest and curiosity, Dion said.
The annual holiday race was once one of the best attended 50-mile runs in the country, Dion said, but after many years of bad weather kept runners from finishing, the group dropped it to about 31 miles. Once the distance was shortened and other groups began hosting races in other cities, participation dropped, he said.
"It doesn't make sense for people to drive three hours to come run for four," Dion said. "And there are also more of these that are closer to where people live."
This year saw runners from as far as New York City and Dracut.
This race was one of the first post-holiday ultra-marathon races in the country but more and more areas are now hosting sites. The "Fat Ass" races began in California and are now held worldwide, according to Dion.
The race is run in any weather condition and has never been cancelled. The closest it came was a 30-minute delay because of an ice storm. This weekend, runners sitting on barstools spun tales of the torrid weather conditions they have run in rather than doing it. The nearly 40-idegree weather and blue sky created the best participation in recent years, Dion said.
The athletic club was formed in 1979 and hosts a variety of races in the area.
RESULTS of runners who completed at least 20 miles:
Steven Lee 38 NYC, NY 4:40:00
Brian McCarthy 47 Agawam, MA 5:01:00
Damon Steed 34 New Lebanon, NY 5:26:00
Hideki Kinoshita 31 NYC, NY 5:27:00
Lee Dickey 58 Dracut, MA 5:33:00
Lan Nguyen 36 Brooklyn, NY 6:12:00
Chris Cangelosi 38 Williamstown, MA 6:12:00
Dan Deluna 43 Brooklyn, NY 6:29:00
Updated with race results on 1/7/2011
