The Family Legs

There’s a pitted, dented, tarnished silver cup sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust. All I know about this family heirloom is that my great grandfather won it at a cross country race somewhere in New York City over 100 years ago.

My great grandfather, who lived in the Washington Heights area of upper Manhattan, had been a star runner on his high school and college cross-country and track teams. I recently discovered that many of his race results are archived in ancient New York Times articles from the late 1890’s-early 1900’s.

This past weekend, I watched my sons run in the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park, better known in running circles as “Vanny.” You won’t read about Mark in The New York Times, but here’s a link to an interview he gave after winning his race. Mark received a medal and a snazzy watch for his performance. Harry also ran very well, placing 4^th overall on the team.

My great grandfather never competed on this particular course, since it wasn’t designed and laid out until 1913. However, my grandfather raced on it in the 1920’s, thrilled to be running where his father had put in the miles throughout his running career.

My sons, great great grandchildren of the silver cup winner, continue the family legacy of kicking up dust in the Bronx, looping into the woods and back, running for time and also through it.