Running Club

It's not that the Glen Burnie-based Coyote Running Club has anything against races in the Baltimore metropolitan area."We have a meeting this week and we're going to run the Myers Pavilion [8K on March 7]. That's a nice race," the Coyote's George Nislein says. "We ran the Super Bowl 5K last week. We ran the [Annapolis Striders'] 10-miler last summer. And we did their Anniversary Run a few weeks ago."But when the urge hits the 11-member group -- or the racing schedule in these parts is light -- the Coyotes are not averse to traveling.

The owner of a West Baltimore restaurant has been charged with operating an illegal after-hours club, police said, after a triple shooting this month in which a man was killed outside the establishment. Timothy Fraser, 58, owner of Ras-a-ter International, was charged Tuesday with two counts of operating his restaurant as an illegal bar, three counts of failing to have a licensed security firm on premises and three counts of violating capacity limits of 150. Baltimore housing authorities say the charges, based on city zoning codes, are a first step toward halting predawn operations at the restaurant.

Local Arc chapter wins award for creative initiatives The University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration awarded its 2005 Direct Support Workforce Development Moving Mountains Best Practice Award to The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region. The Arc was recognized for its creative initiatives in improving work-force outcomes for its clients. It provides a variety of services related to lifestyle, education, vocation and recreational pursuits to people with developmental disabilities.

A day after Orioles reliever Kevin Gregg 's abysmal relief appearance in Sunday's 9-2 loss at Toronto — an outing in which the right-hander went through seven batters to get one out with two down in the sixth inning, allowing five runs to score — manager Buck Showalter expressed support for the maligned pitcher. For Gregg, who is making $5.8 million in a bullpen role that's still undefined, it was his second straight rocky outing. He allowed a decisive two-run 10th-inning homer to Nick Swisher in a 6-4 extra-inning loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday.

The 100th Boston Marathon will be run on Monday. This space has been profiling Maryland runners who will be competing.Roy Elder has been long on numbers since he took up running 10 years ago.Consider, for example, that in a decade Elder, 66, has become a member of nine running clubs, including the Hagerstown Run for Fun Club, the Chambersburg Road Runners Club, the York Road Runners Club, the Baltimore Road Runners Club, the Annapolis Striders, the Charlottesville...

Fourteen years after a jog around the track turned into a walk down the aisle, Jeff and Karen Cohen are still the proud owners of Feet First, a sneaker and athletic clothing store in Columbia. The 2,000-square-foot shop in Wilde Lake Village Center has long been a landmark for local runners, an unofficial headquarters for their running club, Howard County Striders, and a growing part of the Cohens' life. "People here are very athletic," Karen Cohen said. "And people that are running marathons or just exercising in general, they want the equipment to fit properly - which are your shoes."

SITTING STILL isn't something that comes easily to members of the Linganore Lightning Running Club. The 85 children who participate in the track and field and cross country club think nothing of spending several days a week pounding the track, or running several miles through the countryside preparing for a competition.Though in Frederick County, the club offers Carroll County children up to 18 an opportunity to develop, practice and compete in track and field and long-distance running events.

To listen to Roy Elder is to take a tour of road racing stops in the Middle Atlantic area."I travel to Charlotte, N.C., for their marathon," Elder said last week. "And I do the Virginia Beach Marathon. And the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon. And the Chambersburg Marathon. I do that one every year. I ran Pittsburgh [marathon] only once. And, of course, I did Harrisburg [marathon] three times. And I do all the 10Ks and 10-milers that come up around here."In all, Elder, 63, a resident of Bowley's Quarters in Baltimore County, has run 32 marathons.

Name: Richard "Dickie" George Job description: Completing fifth year as president of the Howard County Striders, running club of about 800 people. Group's goal is to promote running and physical fitness in the community; $10,000 budget helps with staging local races and events in the community and schools. Started with club about 13 years ago to accompany daughter, now 21, and son, now 18, who wanted to run in the club's junior program. Club conducts weekly events; will hold its next big race Nov. 19, the 24th Metric Marathon, a 26K event starting in Columbia's Town Center and heading back after a jaunt into Ellicott City.

To hear John C. Astle tell it, the 20th annual Annapolis Run can trace its humble roots to a small, innocent dare during an August cocktail party in Severna Park."

Dozens of local running enthusiasts greeted the new year bright and early on Jan. 1 by taking part in the Father Time Frolic, a 5-mile road race run that's held annually in the Loch Raven area beginning at 9 a.m. on New Year's Day. Hosted by the Baltimore Road Runners Club, the race winds its way around Loch Raven Reservoir Peerce's Landing on Dulaney Valley Road, to Providence Road, and back. The race is a "predicted time race" - meaning participants are not allowed to wear watches, and winners are determined by those closest to their predicted time.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Orioles' resurgence in the past month has seamlessly dovetailed with the hiring of manager Buck Showalter, baseball's handyman who continually demonstrates a knack for fixing dilapidated teams. Since he took over Aug. 2, the club with the then-worst record in baseball suddenly is winning plenty more than it loses, feasting on scuffling clubs like the Los Angeles Angels, who have lost their grip on any postseason hopes. On Sunday, the Orioles won 1-0 to complete a three-game series sweep and a six-game season sweep of the Angels, a club that had never before lost every contest against the Orioles in one season -- a trend that dates back to when they began playing each other in 1961.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Third baseman Aubrey Huff was in a crouch, his elbows resting on his knees, his eyes staring straight ahead. Brian Roberts was near second base, his arms resting behind his back and his eyes fixed on the ground. In the outfield, Jay Payton stood completely still with his arms folded, while Nick Markakis paced back and forth with his back to home plate. By the sixth inning yesterday, the Orioles had the look of a beaten and battered team that couldn't wait for this three-day nightmare at Tropicana Field to end. When it finally did before an announced 32,379, the Orioles had absorbed a 10-4 loss and a humbling three-game sweep in which they were outscored 34-16.

Local Arc chapter wins award for creative initiatives The University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration awarded its 2005 Direct Support Workforce Development Moving Mountains Best Practice Award to The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region. The Arc was recognized for its creative initiatives in improving work-force outcomes for its clients. It provides a variety of services related to lifestyle, education, vocation and recreational pursuits to people with developmental disabilities.

The Orioles officially ended the Syd Thrift era yesterday, handing the top two positions in their baseball operations department to former Montreal Expos general manager Jim Beattie and ex-Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan. A much-maligned target during his three-year stewardship of the team, Thrift stepped aside during an afternoon news conference at Camden Yards, where the Orioles presented Beattie and Flanagan as a tandem devised to turn around the struggling franchise. Flanagan, who turns 51 this month, inherited Thrift's title as vice president of baseball operations.

It's 3 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, and two classrooms at the end of a long hallway at Linton Springs Elementary are crawling with kids. They've snatched up chessboards from a mountainous stack on a table. They've paired off in tournament matchups. And fourth- and fifth-graders are splayed out across desktops and every usable spot of carpet, plotting their next moves and eyeing their opponents' kings in the quest for checkmate. Teachers who helped chaperone the children last year are nowhere to be found.

When it comes to running off the beaten path, the Baltimore Happy Trails Running Club provides a forum for area trail runners."We've grown to about 80 members," founder and president Mike Strzelecki says about the Road Runners of America-sanctioned club that was formed last year. "It's grown pretty quickly, thanks to our race series. We put on four races a year."This year, they will include the Patapsco Scramble 4-Mile on April 27 at 9 a.m., as well as a 10K in July.Strzelecki, 32, says he got the idea for the club from the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club, to which he belonged when he lived in Northern Virginia.

It's a sunny Saturday morning at Loch Raven Reservoir, and the Running/ Walking/Eating/Volunteering Club is admiring the scenery as they gather at Sander's Corner restaurant. Some members of the group are training for the Pittsburgh Marathon and will run a nine-mile course. Others will walk anywhere from two miles to nine miles. After that, they will return to Sander's Corner for brunch. The group was started more than a year ago by Mark Brody, 32, who lives in Mount Washington. Every week, he picks a different locally owned restaurant that serves breakfast, maps out a walking/running course and sends an e-mail to 450 people.

For more than 1,000 consecutive Saturdays, the Howard County Striders have merged two runners' traditions - the weekly distance training run and the bagel. Area runners - most of them members of the Columbia-based running club - have gathered at Wilde Lake Village Center every Saturday since April 1979 for the weekly "bagel run," so called because of the eating place in the village center. The runs start from the Columbia Swim Center's parking lot and end with many of the runners carbo reloading at the nearby Bagel Bin, formerly the Bagel Shoppe, and a sponsor of Striders road races.

Name: Richard "Dickie" George Job description: Completing fifth year as president of the Howard County Striders, running club of about 800 people. Group's goal is to promote running and physical fitness in the community; $10,000 budget helps with staging local races and events in the community and schools. Started with club about 13 years ago to accompany daughter, now 21, and son, now 18, who wanted to run in the club's junior program. Club conducts weekly events; will hold its next big race Nov. 19, the 24th Metric Marathon, a 26K event starting in Columbia's Town Center and heading back after a jaunt into Ellicott City.