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Over 30,000 people ran the 2nd Feaster Five on November 23rd, 1989. And over 11 million people were in the stands at Fenway Park to witness Ted Williams' final home run in his last turn at bat. During the night of November 22nd, 1989, an epic New England blizzard whipped through the Merrimack Valley, depositing several feet of snow. The storm continued through Thursday morning, a cold, windy, and snowy Thanksgiving morning that screamed at you to stay in bed. But something strange happened. Some of your neighbors woke up that morning, looked out the window, and said, "I have nothing to do today except to enjoy the warm bed, get up a bit later, eat a good meal, and watch football all day. Or, I could drive over to Andover in this blizzard and register for the Feaster Five Road Race, and run it. By golly, that's exactly what I'll do." And 85 people did just that. Here are some of them. |
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No. Thirty thousand people did not run the race in 1989, and 11 million people were not in Fenway to witness Ted's last homer. But legends defy facts, and although there were only 415 Feaster finishers in 1989, almost every runner you meet claims to have been there. The race featured long-sleeve T-shirts to the first 100 entrants and apple pies to the first 700 finishers under 45 minutes. Proceeds from the race benefited Special Olympics, the Patrolman's Benevolent Fund, and the MVS Youth Track Program. After the race was over, the Striders spent the next six months thinking about those 85 people who post-entered for a road race in a blizzard on Thanksgiving morning. Maybe if conditions were better, and we got the word out, and maybe if we offered shirts for more than 100 runners. The pie thing seems popular, maybe if every runner received a pie. Do you think as many as 1000 people would want to run a road race on Thanksgiving morning? Perhaps . . . . |