The Day I Drove to Shelburne Falls

A long. long time ago in the days when I ran track and cross-country for Amherst Regional High School, I was part of what was then an intense rivalry between our school and Mohawk Trail High School in Shelburne Falls. Both schools had very successful cross-country programs. Amherst was coached by Randy Crowley. Thanks to him, we trained hard and were very good. Mohawk was coached by Connie Putnam. Coach Putnam went on from Mohawk to become head coach at Tufts University, where he has been a successful collegiate coach for many years. At that time, Mohawk had several excellent runners, including the McMullin brothers, Fritz and Dave. They also trained hard and were very good.

We hated Mohawk and they hated us.

When the Mohawk team arrived for a dual meet in my junior year, I remember that we were hostile and aloof. We didn't want them to feel welcome, and went out of our way to be rude. I'm sure they felt the same way about us. We won that meet, and it made us feel superior to them. Of course, we didn't know anything about them except their times on a yellow score sheet, but we weren't curious to know anything more.

In the summer between my junior year and senior year, I became good friends with Becky Ashenden, who lived in Shelburne and attended Mohawk Trail Regional High School. She and her sister Amy would drive down to Amherst once a week for folk music and folk dancing parties. I went to the same parties and so we saw a lot of each other. One day we were talking, and the conversation turned to the rivalry between the Amherst and Mohawk cross-country teams. Becky thought the whole rivalry was ridiculous, and she said something surprising: she knew Dave McMullin, sat next to him in Algebra class, and she thought that he was a perfectly nice kid.

I was amazed and incredulous. It had never occurred to me that any member of the Mohawk team might be a pleasant person, or possess any other redeeming qualities. Becky suggested that I should come up to Shelburne Falls sometime and meet Dave. I resolved to do it, and I decided that the way to do it would be to join him for a run.

I was impulsive then, and I never planned anything ahead of time or thought about consequences. That's how it happened that a few weeks later toward the end of August I borrowed my Mom's car and drove to Shelburne Falls. I hadn't told anyone about what i was doing -- not my coach, not the Mohawk coach, not the runners on my team. all I knew was that I was on my way to someone else's practice. (Becky had acted as my accomplice by interrogating Dave about Mohawk's pre-season practice schedule.)

When I arrived, there were only a few kids at the high school fields. I wasn't sure what to do, so I said "Hi" to the kids and told a lie: I said I was thinking of going out for the team. They didn't know who i was, so they just figured I was some random kid that they didn't know. More people showed up, and I began to get nervous. Finally, Coach Putnam showed up, along with a few runners and they recognized me. It was a scary moment, but after being unmasked as an intruder from Amherst, they actually welcomed me, and said it was fine if I wanted to run with their team that day.

So I did. I ran with their top runners for a few miles, and then, on a particularly tough hill, the McMullin brothers broke away from the group and disappeared off into the distance. I lagged behind with some of their slower runner. When we returned to the school, the brothers made no secret of their delight in having dropped me on the hills of our little 8-mile run. I figured I deserved it.

I returned to Amherst. That Fall, we ran against Mohawk on their home course and they beat us in a very close meet. The McMullin brothers went 1-2 on us. I was fourth. After the race, they were very gracious in victory. They said they would never have run such fast times if we hadn't pushed them so hard. We all shook hands and wished each other well in the upcoming Western Mass meet.

That's most of the story. Thanks to Becky, I got to know my hated rivals better and, to my great surprise, discovered they were a lot like me.

But there's one more thing: the next spring, I ran the mile in the All-State meet. I was very nervous before the race, very worried about how I would do. As I was warming up, I happened to run into Coach Putnam. We had a little chat, and he gave me some very good, very supportive advice. In fact, it was advice that was to prove useful for years to come. On that day, I went on to run a 5-second PR in what was probably one of the best races of my high school career.

The lesson I learned is that even though Amherst has a fine high school and is a wonderful place to be a kid, if you want to grow up, sometimes you need to drive to Shelburne Falls.