Emotions run through Tufts race

Emotions run through Tufts race


By Tony Chamberlain, Globe Staff, 10/8/2001

Carol McCormack, 34, from Hanson, does not ordinarily believe in the occult. But she has to admit that the events of the last year have given her pause.


As a five-year veteran of the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women, which will be run today, McCormack will be trying to better last year's finishing place - 666 - the numerological designation for evil.


''I didn't really think about it very much at all. I'm not superstitious,'' said McCormack, a mother of three. But, despite her young age, McCormack was diagnosed with breast cancer last winter.


After recovering from surgery, she began running again in April, returning to the sport she began after the birth of her first son six years ago. ''I love running, and it got me back in shape,'' said McCormack. ''And the Tufts race has always been fun for me, but now it's a personal race. I'm happy that Tufts supports breast cancer research.''


McCormack is one of 6,500 who will run the 6.2-mile loop from the corner of Beacon and Charles, the competitors ranging from recreational runners to world class.


The Tufts 10K allows those who started jogging for exercise to pound the same course with the likes of Colleen DeReuck from Boulder, Colo., or Jane Ngotho from Kenya - two top names on the world scene.


Because they opted for yesterday's Chicago Marathon, some of the elite runners, such as Kenya's Catherine Ndereba - last year's winner - will be absent. (Ndereba set a world record in Chicago.) But, according to race spokeswoman Bridget Goertz, ''The field is still great.''


Top runners will earn $24,000 in various categories, and the race will raise $10,000 for the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, according to Goertz.


For the fifth year, Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson is official spokeswoman for the race, which she won three times.


But despite the world class element, Tufts is dominated by stories of amateurs bent on personal achievement. Perhaps the best known is that of Louise Rossetti from Saugus, who at age 80 will be running her 25th Tufts today.


Rossetti began running 30 years ago - ''before it was fashionable,'' she said - and has maintained at least a five-days per week training regimen.


A member of eight running clubs with notations of more than 60 races notched on her sneakers, Rossetti remembers seeing the application for the first Tufts 10K in 1977, and deciding to take the plunge. Her daughters, Donna and Suzanne, made a huge banner that year reading: ''No. 655 Fastest Mom in Town.'' And when she arrived at the finish in 56:35, ''they were there waiting for me,'' Rossetti said.


Sometimes now, added Rossetti, she walks a bit on route, and her time may have slipped above the one-hour mark. But still, she said, ''The Tufts 10K is thrilling. We're supported by everyone along the route. I see a lot of the same people year after year. It's a special race for all of us.''


And in the crowd will be Shelly Whitehead, who was home with four children when she decided to run in the first Tufts 10K. ''I was elated seeing all the top runners,'' said Whitehead, who said the race has helped her through some tough moments in her life.


Before the first race, she recalled that she had just finished work on a degree at Framingham State College and her kids were young adults. ''I was experiencing a letdown and I remember thinking, `What am I going to do now?''' she said.


Just as the first race helped her over that first hurdle, after going through a divorce in the 1990s, ''I went to the race alone, feeling isolated. But it picked me up. It was good for me.''


And several years later, the race again lifted her spirits when, a month after major surgery, she went to the start line accompanied by her daughter. ''We walked most of the way,'' said Whitehead. ''I ran the last half-mile. Over time, running helped me develop self-esteem, and [to] know I could do something on my own.''


That sentiment is echoed by Mary Tyler, a molecular biologist from Framingham who started running back in an era ''when people wondered if women should be running at all.''


That feeling has dissipated over the quarter century of the Tufts 10K. And though this year has been a struggle for her after knee surgery, Tyler has decided a 15-year streak means too much to her to end it now. She'll be there. ''I wouldn't miss this race for the world,'' she said.


This story ran on page E15 of the Boston Globe on 10/8/2001.