About the Run

History

In the beginning...

Jamie Kempton (AM '76) provides the story of the Alumni Run's humble beginnings:

"This race was definitely was the brainchild of Tom Doherty. Albertus Magnus had launched an Alumni Track Meet back in 1974, in which we invited athletes from other schools to compete as well. (That meet continued until about 1988, although some years it was not held due to lack of interest.) If memory serves, Tom thought it would be a great idea if we staged a cross country run for Rockland alumni. His thinking, I believe, was that cross country in Rockland was very close-knit, and a cross country race would be fairly simple to organize. The Saturday after Thanksgiving was chosen because A) it was still cross country season, and B) it was the time most likely to draw a large gathering, as college runners would be home on Thanksgiving break and those who had moved out of the area might be back in the county visiting family and friends. Of course, Bear Mountain was the obvious choice for a location since it has been Rockland's "home" course since at least the early 1960s. Tom spread the word about the race through the local track/XC community and got enough positive feedback to give it a go. Not sure why he chose high noon, other than the fact that he didn't want to make it too early in the day, in case people had stayed out late on Friday night (we were all a lot younger back then!)."

That inaugural race was contested in a blizzard at Bear Mountain. You can read more about the 1983 race here. For a bit more background on the event, take a peek at the excellent article Jamie wrote after the 2001 race.

I have provided a short commentary to accompany each race's page in the Results section, to add a bit of historical perspective.

For even more historical perspective (too much perspective!) check out my Top Ten Alumni Teams Ever section--a semi-scientific ranking of the greatest teams in Alumni race history.

If you can bear with me, have a look at my top 10 men and women in Alumni history.

For the literary-inclined: Jamie sent me this poem that he wrote a few years ago for a contest sponsored by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission about Bear Mountain/Walt Whitman themes. It earned an Honorable Mention and was published in the Bear Mountain/Walt Whitman book that the PIP Commission produced in 1994. It gets more and more truthful as I get slower and slower.

Visual evidence of what we claim is true: visit our Pictures page.

Streakers!

No compilation of anything related to the Alumni Race would be complete without mentioning "The Three" who have run, now, all 25 editions of the annual insanity. They are: Larry Beckerle (AM '73), Pat Chambers (AM '76), and Walt Johnston (Suff '65). Someday I'll get around to include some short bios on these unfortunate souls.

However, there are several other runners who have begun cultivating streaks over the years that are simply growing too great to ignore. A number of runners have competed in every race for which they have been eligible, and continue to return to the Bear year after year. We wanted to recognize these brain-addled individuals; so, with the help of Mike Collins, I have assembled below (to the best of my ability) a list of those who have missed no more than one Alumni Run for which they have been eligible (minimum five years eligibility). Note that my list is slightly different from the one compiled by Mike Collins in the results book; his list records all current streaks of four years or more; mine takes into account how many races you have missed that you are eligible for, total. .

Note: I am updating this list as best as I can. If I do not know for sure that you finished the 2006 race, I cannot update your streak. Please e-mail me if you have a bold notation below, indicating that your 2006 results are not available.

Missed No Races

Larry Beckerle (AM '73): 26 straight races

Pat Chambers (AM '76): 26 straight

Walt Johnston (Suff '65): 26 straight

Patti Zodda (Nan '88): 21 straight

Keith Reilly (PR '90): 19 straight

Jason Friedman (CN '93): 16 straight

Matt Diglio (MW '96): 13 straight

James Attle (Suff '98): 11 straight

Daniel Hogan (Suff '99): 10 straight

Missed One Race

Brian Crowley (AM '82): 25 of 26 (missed 1983)

Jamie Kempton (AM '76): 25 of 26 (missed 1987)

Sue (Gulla) Lanoce (PR '83): 25 of 26 (missed 1983)

Al Brandstaedter (CN '92): 16 of 17 (missed 1992)

Ken Gerber (CS '92): 16 of 17 (missed 1993)

Tom McCarney (CN '93): 15 of 16 (missed 1998)

Kevin Chanowsky (MW '94): 13 of 14 (missed 1994) (? 2006)

Julianne Littmann (MW '95): 13 of 14 (missed 2002)

Zach Berbitt (Suff '96): 12 of 13 (missed 1997)

Mike Morris (CN '96): 12 of 13 (missed 1997)

Anthony Copicotto (NR '01): 7 of 8 (missed 2008)

Tim Waples (Suff '00): 7 of 8 (missed 2000) (? 2006)

Anthony Calingo (CN '01): 7 of 8 (missed 2006)

If you are on this list, and participated in the 2006 race, let me know ASAP so I can update it. If you think you should be on here but aren't, please let me know.