Some Greater Lowell Road Runners build their muscles by sloggingthrough a state forest. Others build camaraderie by hopping in a hottub after long runs. A third group, the 'Brunch Bunch,' builds theirappetite as they plod along week after week gearing up for the BostonMarathon.
At the Boston Athletic Association track club, all eyes are on thequads -- with runners trying to preserve their thigh muscles duringthe long downhill to Newton Lower Falls so the tightly wound tissuescan carry them up and over Heartbreak Hill.
The L Street Running Club adds a spiritual twist to its trainingwith a special Boston Marathon Mass presided over by one of itsfastest of feet, the Rev. Jim Kane.
Whatever the technique, the results are the same: Across NewEngland, track clubs have been training day after day, for three orfour months, preparing for the mother of all marathons, the onemembers grew up hearing about and clubs used as their defining event.
When the runners line up in Hopkinton Monday, one in three will befrom New England, and many of those will be from the region's dozenor so running clubs.
'If it was up to me, everyone would be running 5- and 10Ks, butthis event draws the imagination of athletes, the press and everyoneelse,' said Bob Sevene, head coach at the BAA Running Club, who hasspent 22 years training high school and older runners in and aroundBoston.
David Camire, president of the Greater Lowell Club, describes theMarathon as simply 'the ultimate challenge.'
Most clubs take the same approach to meeting that challenge:Gearing up with long runs of 8 or 10 miles in January, adding another2 miles on subsequent Saturdays or Sundays, and ending with long runsof up to 22 miles in the weeks leading up to the April classic.
Some run most or all of the actual Hopkinton-to-Boston course;others would rather not be too familiar with the route. Some doregular track work, shortening their daily runs and extending theirweekenders to 28 or 30 miles; others prefer the tried and truetechnique of accumulating more and more weekly mileage but cappingtheir runs at 22.
The most intriguing nuances, however, have more to do with thestyle than the substance of training.
The Greater Boston Track Club focuses on the 'mental aspects' ofrunning 26.2 miles, in weather that can start out frigid and end upsweltering, on terrain that alternately sends runners spillingdownhill, then forces them back up.
'We do more longer repeat runs, taking out some of the shorter andfaster stuff that seems to have caused more aches and pains formarathoners,' said club president Ralph Duquette.
In Cambridge, the Sports Union 'doesn't take a very structuredapproach,' explained John Waldron, an outgoing official. 'We don'thave workouts every week, although there are small groups that dothat. And we try to do track workouts on Tuesday nights.'
One time everyone does come together, Waldron added, is for theSoup Run the second week in February. '`We drive people out to theMarathon start in Hopkinton and afterwards they all eat soup, orchili, with baked goods. That helps us motivate ourselves.'
The Lowell club also lets runners go their own ways, which leadsone group to a hot tub. 'They do a bruising run through Harvard,Boxborough and Littleton, then retire to the hot tub, have a fewbeers, eat and relax. It can be 12-18 people depending on the week,'said Camire.
For the most novel post-run traditions, look no further than the LStreet Running Club in South Boston. During the winter, the eclecticcollection that includes a lawyer, police officer, bus driver,telephone repairman and nurse has a bagel and yogurt spread at BostonCollege, pasta party in Providence and brunch in South Boston.
A weekend or two before the Marathon, they all get together atLoyola Chapel at BC High for a runners' Mass.
This year's celebration was on Palm Sunday, and featured groupreadings along with music that included the theme song from 'Chariotsof Fire' and Frank Sinatra's 'High Hopes.' Not to mention a runners'sermon with prayers for injured marathoners and runners' recentlydeceased family members.
'The Mass was just another time of coming together, but in aspecial way, in a spiritual dimension,' said Kane, chief recruiterfor the Society of Jesuits in Boston, who is about to run his sixthmarathon.
'One thing that really impresses me at L Street is the terrificgroup of people who share a common passion: running.'
