By Rick Platt
What started out ten years ago as a discussion at the Queens Lake swimming pool
about initiating training runs among Tom Gillman, Steve Flanary, Byron Adams
and George Neil has evolved into Williamsburg's most popular long distance training
group with almost-daily 6 a.m. workouts, road trips to exotic locations, countless
marathons, and an annual awards party with unique awards named the Red Beret,
Haggis Bird, Cracked Haggis Bird, Rubber Chicken and D.B. Cooper. Other traditions
include a New Year's Day early-morning run preceded by the playing of Scottish
bagpipes by Adams, and the quaffing of Russian pepper vodka.
The group, known as the "Enterprisers," defines themselves as "a completely unauthorized subset (some might say subspecies) of the Colonial Road Runners, known to run at very strange hours and to consume more coffee than Gatorade. Often found running from the Colonial Williamsburg Security force."
The group, which has grown considerably from the original foursome, started their workouts as weekday runs around Queens Lake from the Queens Lake Middle School. On weekends, they piled into Adams's "old, big and ugly" two-tone Chevy Suburban, nicknamed the "Enterprise" for its resemblance to the USS Enterprise of Star Trek fame, and drove to CW for longer runs. T-shirts were printed with "Enterprisers" on them, and the name stuck.
The coffee habit started by fate that first year when one of the runners found a $10 bill, and said, "Let's have some coffee" at what was then the Prince George Expresso. Ten years later, they still have post-workout coffee at Aroma's Coffee Shop (owned by runners Don and Geri Pratt) on Prince George Street. The group is so regular that Aroma's changed their Saturday morning opening time from 8 to 7 a.m to accommodate the runners.
Workout distances range from 7 to 21 miles on weekends, with shorter runs Monday through Thursday, all starting at 6 a.m. from the Merchants Square parking lot and courtyard behind Baskin-Robbins ice cream on Prince George Street. Sunday morning runs start from Big Apple Bagels on Richmond Road (since Aroma's is closed). Workouts vary from CW to William and Mary, Lake Matoaka trails, Lake Powell Road, Quarterpath Road and the Colonial Parkway. New runners can just show up at 6 a.m. to join. All paces are welcome.
The greatest honor is to win the Red Beret ("the pinnacle of running honors"), which has gone to Gillman, Neil, Adams, Andrew Simasek, Flanary, Britt Anderson, Sonya Morrison, Leslie Franchs and Jennifer Quarles. The Haggis Bird award is essentially a "booby prize." The Cracked Haggis Bird goes to the injured runner who remains active with the Enterprisers. The Rubber Chicken award is for the biggest slacker. And the D.B. Cooper award goes to one who "completely disappears from the scene, with no warning, afer a single storied adventure."
The group has run marathons in Canada, London, Scotland, Dublin, Bermuda and a dozen states (some are working on the 50-state club award). The most recent adventure was a trip to the Feb. 7 Tybee Island Marathon, half marathon and 5K near Savannah, GA. For a relatively small, 32-person group, the Enterprisers were impressive, capturing five of the major overall awards and numerous age-group awards in the race with 2,634 participants (249 finished the marathon, 952 the half marathon and 993 the 5K). Jim Bates (2:48:50) and Nathan Lawrence (2:50:02) were first and second overall in the marathon, and were interviewed extensively in the Savannah Morning News. Jen Quarles was second overall for the women in a personal record 3:19:46. The other overall award winners were in the half marathon--Kym DiPaola (3rd overall for the women in 1:31:45) and Rick Platt (1st 50 for the men in 1:20:14).
Other marathoners were Tom Gillman (1st, 45-49, 2:59:15), Steve Flanary (3:19:30), Gregory Millslagle (3:30:44), Linda Ingleson (3rd, 45-49 in a PR 3:41:01) and Byron Adams (4:27:03). Others in the half marathon were George Neil (1st, 55-59, 1:24:26), Robert Wilson (1:36:36), Elizabeth Harbron (2nd, 30-34, 1:37:58), Carol Talley (3rd, 45-49, 1:38:07), Gregory Baker (1:40:08), Bob Tschannen-Moran (1:43:42), Ken Mitchell (1:44:46), Tom Ray (1st, 70 , 1:45:30), Britt Anderson (1:53:53), Ingrid Blanton (1:59:04), Dennis Blanton (1:59:59) and Patti Flanary (2:05:01). Brenda Mitchell was first for women 50-54 in the 5K in 25:00.
Gillman, the main organizer of the Enterprisers, is the premier marathon coach on the Peninsula. He coached the Leukemia Society's Team in Training marathon program for five years, from 1997-2002, and is a wealth of advice for first-time or experienced marathoners. One of those relatively new marathoners was Lawrence, 23, of Williamsburg, who placed second overall at Tybee Island in just his second marathon. He graduated in 2003 (B.A. in anthropology) from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, where he ran both cross country (8K best of 30:00) and track (with PRs of 16:50 for 5,000 meters and 35:50 for 10,000 meters). Lawrence started out as a sprinter for Selinsgrove (PA) High School, and has gradually moved up in distance. His first marathon was the Bay Bridge last October, where he went out too hard, and struggled in for a 3:03:21. He had shown his distance-running potential the month before at the Mulberry Island Half Marathon, where he ran a debut 1:23:28.
At Tybee Island, Bates and Lawrence ran together from the start. After all the half marathoners finished their single loop, Bates and Lawrence were finally able to determine their place in the marathon. They saw the lead police vehicle and just one marathoner ahead of them, and they slowly caught that runner by 20 miles. Lawrence jokingly said to Bates, "Do you have a match?", and Bates asked why. Lawrence replied, "Because I think it's time to light up this course." The two quickly took a commanding lead, and the only question was which would win. First Lawrence surged into the lead, but Bates later countered at 23 miles, and held on despite an upset stomach for his first marathon win in 43 tries. "Experience definitely won out over youth today," said Lawrence about Bates's win.
Lawrence moved to Williamsburg last August and quickly joined both the Colonial
Road Runners and Tom Gillman's training group. He is an archeologist for Nick
Luccketti's James River Institute for Archeology (Luccketti is also a marathon
runner), where he had interned the summer before. Here he lives with his aunt
and uncle, Bonnie and Marvin Heimbach in Country Club Acres.