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My run with Lou

August 8, 2012 - Art Smith
Area runner Lou Molinaro has started The News and Sentinel Half Marathon 22 times.

Like many people who do the race, he is not in it to win it; he is in it to simply finish.

Last year he failed. He was forced to quit the race a little more than two miles from the finish line. He dropped out of the race where it makes a left turn from Fifth Street onto Avery.

Quitting isn’t something the Lou does very well. Of all the people who help put the races together, Lou is one of the hardest workers. He doesn’t make excuses; he just does it, and the fact he wasn’t able to finish the 2011 really bothered him.

I suggested to him a few weeks ago that he should just go out to the point where he quit, and finish the 2011 race. Do it after work, I told him, and I would go with him.

So last week Lou and I walked up to Avery Street from the newspaper office to finish what he started last August.

A slow jog turned into a little bit faster jog when Sharon Marks, the two-mile race director and a strong local runner, joined us for a few blocks. Our pace slowed a bit when we headed up the 13 Street Hill and it kind of stayed at that pace for the rest of the “event.”

Like many people who do the half marathon we saved a little bit for our kick down Market Street, but unlike those who finish on race day, we finished to the cheers of no one.

Few people do the half marathon with any expectation of winning the event. They do it for themselves and they do it to pass the guy in front of them, and they do it because they want to see if they are still as fast as they were a year ago — and yes — some people do it to win a plastic trophy and bragging rights with their co-workers.

Lou finished the race last week not because he is a winner, but because he is not a quitter.

Way to go, Lou.

 
 

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Blog Photos

Lou Molinaro crosses the finish line