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Two-time winner Mark Carroll returns to Manchester Road Race as honorary chair

Two-time Manchester Road Race winner Mark Carroll recalled his introduction to the annual Thanksgiving Day race on Thursday.

Carroll, an Irish Olympian who is the Boston Athletic Association’s director of performance, is this year’s honorary race director. He will be on the press truck at the 88th edition of the race Nov. 28 on Main Street in Manchester.

In 1995, Carroll had just graduated from Providence College and was competing at the Millrose Games the following year when he was approached by the late Irish native P.J. Tierney, who had been responsible for getting Irish runners like John Treacy and Eamonn Coghlan to run at Manchester.

“He said, ‘Treacy’s won. Coghlan’s won it,’” Carroll said. “They were legends in Ireland. I called my agent (John’s brother Ray) and I said, ‘Hey, I got to go to Manchester in November.’

“The way P.J. put it, it was of national importance.”

So Carroll went. He was in shape to win. But he was beaten in the last quarter mile by Khalid Khannouchi, who went on to run the world record in the marathon. The next year, Carroll finished second again to Aurelio Miti Handanga of Angelo. He kept coming back. Tierney was still on him to win it.

“I started to appreciate everything around the event,” he said. “The pasta dinner. The energy on race day is second to none and I’ve raced all over the world. The start of the Manchester Road Race is very. very special.”

He finally won in 1998 and again in 2000, finishing second for the third time in 1999.

“I can’t believe it’s 28 years since I first ran here,” he said Thursday. “I drove around the course this morning and it brought back vivid memories, some of the fondest memories of my career.

“When you look at the list of names who have won the race, it just speaks to the stature of the race. Professional runners want to come here and win; it’s seen as a feather in your cap to win here.”

Getting ready for potential Main Street changes

Road race organizers are planning to have temporary plastic fencing on the corner of Main and Charter Oaks streets where the course turns at the start of the race to simulate street width if a proposed roundabout is constructed there in the future.

The Downtown Manchester Improvements Project, in part, is intended to shrink the number of lanes on Main Street to make the road safer. The plan has been controversial for some Main Street businesses, who oppose it for a variety of reasons.

But the road race organizers, who have met with planners, say that the race will not be affected, except at the one corner, where the plans call for the road to be 40 feet wide. There are upwards of 10,000 runners at the annual race and concerns about a crush of runners bottlenecking at the turn.

“It’s a very contentious item,” road race president Tris Carta said of the project. “There’s a lot of people, as this goes forward, who will be impacted negatively, so some of the businesses have a real problem with this.

“We had to figure out a way to keep our race. At the meetings, they’ve been very good with us, meeting and showing us the plans.”

So they’re going to give the fencing a trial run to see if the smaller space works. If there is a problem on race day, the fencing can be removed by volunteers who will be holding it.

“We said, ‘If this is what’s going to be, let’s practice,’” Carta said.

That’s the only part of the race that will be impacted, Carta said. Even with a potentially narrower Main Street, the part of the road used by the race will not be affected.

Three-time women’s winner is back

Weini Kelati, who finished eighth in the Olympic 10,000 meters for the U.S. this summer, will return to the Manchester Road Race after winning the women’s race the past three years. Runner-up Annie Rodenfels of Newton, Mass. who finished second last year, is also back as is 2019 winner Edna Kiplagat. On the men’s side, there are three Olympians – Kenyan Edwin Kurgat (seventh in the 5,000 meters), 2021 winner Ben Flanagan, a Canadian Olympian in the 5,000 meters and British Olympian Pat Dever (5,000) – as well as Andrew Colley, who finished fourth in 2022 in the fourth fastest time in Manchester history (21:07).

(11/22/2024) Views: 91 ⚡AMP
by Lori Riley