At 7:30 Tuesday morning, Rene Collins was running several relaxed laps around the track behind the Brewer Community School. At 74, the veteran marathoner said she’s a little slower and has a little less stamina. Still, she feels strong and steady.
“It’s easier to be injured now and takes longer to recover,” she said.
The former orthopedic nurse turned psychotherapist has competed in 16 Boston Marathons. Her last one was in 2004, the year she completed chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer. She has endured a number of serious running-related injuries over the 30-plus years of her athletic career, including a fractured hip, broken elbows and other traumas.
But Collins still runs regularly, at least 10 or 12 miles each week, just to stay in shape. These days, she’s training for her next race, so she’s gradually ramping up her routine, in company with her partner and fellow running enthusiast, 72-year-old Bob MacLaughlin.
On July 22, Collins, MacLaughlin and other members of the Bangor-based Maine Running Fossils relay team will take part in the third annual Down East Sunrise Trail Relay. The 102-mile overnight race begins that evening in Washington Junction, just outside of Ellsworth, and ends the next day in Eastport. Except for the last few miles, which travel along paved public roadways, the route follows the scenic former railroad corridor of the Down East Sunrise Trail.
The Maine Running Fossils, a group of about 30 runners ranging in age from their mid-40s to well into their 70s, will field a team of 16, according to team captain and self-described “fossil wrangler” Leslie Poake, a 51-year-old CPA and longtime runner from Bangor. The team will consist of “baby fossils,” those at the lower end of the age spectrum, the “petrified fossils,” the older members.
Each runner will cover between 7 and 17 miles, Poake said, depending on age and ability. “I try to accommodate the older Fossils,” she said, including those with poor night vision and other age-related conditions.
“It can be be disorienting to run through the night,” she said. “It’s pitch dark out there on the trail.” Runners are equipped with headlamps and reflective vests, she added.
The goal is for all teams to finish by noon the next day, in time to enjoy a lobster bake and other festivities in Eastport.
Petrified fossil MacLaughlin will cover a 10.7-mile leg of the relay in the early morning. He’s looking forward to it.
“I love to run in the woods, just be out there by myself,” he said.
MacLaughlin started running in his early 30s, when he was working as a sports writer in southern California. “I sat at my desk all day, smoking sports writer cigarettes. I drank a couple of sports writer beers at lunch,” he said. “I was 50 pounds overweight. I was in terrible shape.”
He started thinking about “old people” and the lives they lead — nursing homes, dementia, depression. “But on the other side, there was [long-lived celebrity performer] George Burns, my personal hero, and I thought, ‘You know, there’s a choice to make here.’”
So he quit smoking, converted to a vegetarian diet and started running — slowly.
“It took me two months to work up to a mile,” he said. Gradually, he started building distance, and in 1978, after relocating to Maine, he ran his first 10K race at the Common Ground Country Fair in Litchfield. In 1985, he completed the 24-hour Rowdy Ultimate Race at Bowdoin College, covering more than 100 miles. He ran 40 miles on his 40th birthday and 50 on his 50th.
“Since then, I just sleep in on my birthdays,” he said. But he still runs about 20 miles every week to stay in shape. As he and Collins prepare for the Down East Sunrise Trail Relay, he’s increasing to 30 or 35 miles per week.
In June, two teams from the Maine Running Fossils completed a six-hour relay at The Great Run, a multievent race on Great Cranberry Island. Poake said the teams traveled to the island on a boat piloted by their dinosaur mascot, which accompanies them to most events.
“It makes people laugh,” she said. “They’re out there running along and they’re struggling, and then they see a dinosaur on the trail.”
The Maine Running Fossils is always open to new members. For more information, contact Leslie Poake at 207-991-7665 or fridayfishfry@hotmail.com.
