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Top runners plan New Year's Eve in NH
By CRAIG N. LIADIS
Union Leader Sports
12/20/05
Last year's largest single-start mile race in the country is back for a seventh edition this New Year's Eve. Two-time Olympian Kevin Sullivan and two-time national champion Katie McGregor highlight the field for the annual Millennium Mile scheduled for 2 p.m. in Londonderry.
A race-record 704 runners ranging in level from recreational to world-class competed in last year's event, the first leg of the New Hampshire Union Leader Open Roads Challenge. Race director John Mortimer won the race in 4 minutes 0.1 seconds.
Mortimer, a product of Londonderry High, co-founded the Millennium Mile in 1999 with former high school running rival Matt Downin, a Pinkerton Academy of Derry graduate, and Matt's brother, Andy Downin. A host of elite runners was on the guest list for a New Year's Eve/Millennium party at the Downins' home that year. Hosting a road race seemed a logical choice.
The downhill event, which begins on Mammoth Road near Matthew Thornton Elementary School and ends around Mack's Apples, has grown significantly since 150 participated in the inaugural run, when Scott Anderson and five others recorded the first sub-four-minute miles in the state. Anderson's record of 3:51 still stands, but attendance numbers continue to climb, with runners of all ages welcome.
What makes this race unique, says Mortimer, is that there aren't multiple races. Twelve-year-old aspiring runners compete in the same event as some of the top runners in the country.
"The thing that we're most proud of was this initially started from a get-together for a New Year's celebration," Mortimer said, "and over the course of the last seven years, we have had a great turnout (of kids) from Nashua PAL and the Granite State Flash. That's taken over a lot of the appeal from the elite runner perspective. And athletes in their 60s and 70s are still getting it done for a mile. I think that's cool. Combining those two aspects with the elite aspect is a pretty fun thing."
Last year's race included 2004 Olympic Marathon medalist Deana Kastor, considered the fastest American female distance runner of all time. University of Michigan alums Sullivan and McGregor highlight the field this year.
Sullivan holds seven Canadian national records and the NCAA indoor one-mile record. He competed in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. McGregor won the 10,000 meters at the Track & Field Outdoor National Championships in June and four months later took first in the 10K at the National Road Race Championships. She set the Millennium Mile women's record (4:27) in 2002. Both honored guests will sign autographs at 12:15 p.m. during race-day registration at the elementary school.
Normally held on the last Sunday in December, the race will take place on New Year's Eve for the first time since the inaugural run. The co-founders have again planned a party following the race, this time in Boston, for a few dozen of their closest friends. "We're going back to the original set-up," Mortimer said.
To pre-register for the Millennium Mile, visit www.millenniummile.com or call 219-8855. The cost is $8 for adults and $2 for children under 12. Race-day registration is $10 and $5 and begins at 12 p.m. at the elementary school. A donation can be made online for the Millennium Mile and June E. Mortimer Memorial Scholarship. This is the third year it will be awarded on race day to a collegiate student-athlete from New Hampshire or Massachusetts. The award was renamed last year to honor Mortimer's mother, who passed away due to cancer.
The Millennium Mile is the first of three road races that make up the Open Roads Challenge. The Bedford Rotary Memorial Road Races (5K or 12K) in May and the New Hampshire Union Leader Classic 8K in September round out the Challenge, which was established last year in the hope that runners who excel in the longer races will be attracted to the shorter race, and vice-versa. Those who compete in all three events will receive an Open Roads Challenge sweatshirt. |
