scott livingston recalls early days running manchester road race
November 21, 2011"I first ran it when I was at Vernon Center Middle School. I took up cross country and running as offseason training on the recommendation of my youth hockey coach. He wanted me to build more speed and endurance. I stopped playing hockey as an 88 pound freshman. I hadn't grown fast enough and my father joked that I was going to be the 'puck' with so many bigger kids.
"My father brought me to the race [in 1985 when Livingston was 12]. I was intimidated by the large crowd, but I Asics Cyber Monday Sales Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 Black And White">Women Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 Black And White made it to the finish Men Asics Gel Kayano 17 in less than 30 Mens Asics Black Friday minutes. Onitsuka Tiger Mid Runner Black Whenever I think of MRR, I think of Ray Crothers and my grandfather. I got my first pair of Tigers (now Asics) running shoes that fall. Every year after that, my grandfather would take me to the Run In [Crothers, an MRR winner, was the co owner] to buy a new pair of shoes. Ray always enjoyed my grandfather, especially in my Gramps' later years. We would spend two hours at the store and I would try everything in my size, running laps around the building. Ray was a big inspiration.
"During those years, I was also enthralled by John Treacy and the other Irish Connection runners. I clipped a lot of newspaper articles about the great athletes who competed in Manchester. I ran cross country for East Catholic High School. In the late 80s, Treacy visited the school during race week. I got his autograph on my lucky Mickey Mouse boxer shorts. Boxers were all the rage at that time, and I wore them underneath my running shorts in the big races. It looked kind of funny and would certainly be a uniform violation today, but I got away with it then. Eventually those shorts became so thin that they just disintegrated."