The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Branford Road Race co-founders to reunite
Dick Wainman’s Father’s Day routine was always the same for the last two decades. One of the co-founders of the highly successful Branford Road Race might have moved to the other side of the country, but at 10:15 a.m. he would be ready to roll and embark on a training run.
While the distances may vary on other days during the year, on the mid-June Sunday morning Wainman would also do his five miles of work to pay homage to the race that he no longer was able to take part in.
Well, Wainman will be ready to roll on Sunday morning once again, but this time he will be back in familiar surroundings as he will take part in the 2-mile health walk, taking each stride next to fellow race co-founder Ray Figlewski.
“He is the greatest guy,” Figlewski said. “He is coming in, moving his schedule so he can do the walk.
“Every year since he left, at 10:15 on Sunday morning he does five miles at the exact same time that he would run in the race every year since he left and he’s kept every t-shirt too.”
The entries have been pouring in for the 39th running of the Branford Road Race. Figlewski shrugs off the fact that his appearance as well as the return of Wainman has been convincing people to sign up suggesting that perhaps it was the aggressive online advertising campaign capturing the attention in the local community. Those in the town certainly know that the reunion of the iconic founders of a race that has become a bit of an Shoreline institution is simply an event that can’t be missed.
The race, once a 7.5-mile event, had humble beginnings as the brainchild of two people literally running into each other on a rainy day on Foote Park and turning that chance encounter into what would become a 5-mile race expected to draw 3,000 competitors on Sunday.
While the race had some unforgettable moments in its first several years, it wasn’t until it was held in conjunction with
Branford Festival in 1985 that it went from being a merely well-run race to a centerpiece of a three-day celebration in Branford.
“What I always think about, I think about the wonderful people all the years who have helped, the police, the fire (department) in the town,” Figlewski
said. “When John Sliney was the First Selectman he didn’t even know what a race was, he thought we were talking about a car race I think. He said, OK and we started it and it has been going on since then. All the wonderful people who put on the festival, that is the first thing that comes to my mind. We couldn’t even think about doing something like this without this great town.”
There was a time Figlewski thought his hands-on work at the event might have ended a couple of years back, but all of that changed when Figlewski was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease 12 years ago.
“I was doing the race at the time and I thought maybe I would retire from the race when I was 67-68,” the 70-year-old Figlewski said. “Since I have Parkinson’s
Disease, I am not going to retire until I can’t do it anymore because I am not going to let Parkinson’s get in the way.”
The races begin at the Branford Green beginning with the 1-mile kids run, the 2-mile health walk goes off at 10:10 a.m. followed by the 5-mile race at 10:15 a.m.