Michael
Gaige He worked for a few years as a social worker in Pennsylvania before attending paralegal school in Waltham, Mass. Recruited out of paralegal school by a Bangor law firm, Michael arrived in Bangor, Maine in February 1980. It didn't take long before he was befriended by members of the local running community, including Bob Booker, Larry Allen, Mark Violette and Carol Roy Weeks. Gaige helped establish the Downeast Striders Running Club and resumed his winning ways on the Maine road racing circuit in the fall of 1981. Gaige was a dominate force on the Maine road racing scene for almost a decade, setting course records and finishing in first place many times during his road racing career. Some of his most outstanding races include the following course record performances: Bangor Labor Day race (old 5.1 mile course) in 1981, 25:05; Great Cranberry Island 5-K in 1982, 14:51; Schoodic Point 15-K in 1982, 46:51; Machias Blueberry Festival 5 miler in 1982, 24:45; and Bar Harbor Half Marathon in 1982, 1:08:36. Winner of the Bar Harbor Half Marathon five times, between 1980 and 1988, Gaige established a course record in 1982. He made a couple not so notable trips to the New York City Marathon in the early 1980s but problems with high arches in his feet made it difficult to compete in the longer races. He also lived and competed in New Hampshire during 1986 and 1987 before returning to Maine to marry Beth Drake Putnam of Bucksport, Maine. A friend once brought it to his attention that he had seven finishes in the top three spots at the Kingfield 10-K, but that it was one race that never yielded a victory. Michael had the honor of being on the cover of the Maine Running. Magazine three times in his career and one year was honored as the Maine Running Magazine's Runner of the Year. Michael was also an avid kayaker, cross-country skier and tennis player in his spare time. One of his greatest thrills came very early in his running career when Michael, Coach James Dolan, and a couple other Lock Haven alumni, traveled from Pennsylvania to Charleston, West Virginia for the National Track and Field Hall of Fame 15-Miler. They arrived in Charleston at about 1 o'clock in the morning two days before the race, parked their van behind the Hall of Fame, and slept in sleeping bags on the lawn. In the morning Michael went looking for a rest room and ended up in the kitchen at the Hall of Fame having donuts and coffee with three people who were discussing the clinics and other events taking place over the next couple days. Michael had no idea the company he was keeping until Coach Dolan came through the door and he discovered that his breakfast hosts were Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph and Jack Rose. Later in the day Michael and his team from Pennsylvania did a brief workout with Frank Shorter and Barry Brown, and the next morning before the race he warmed up with Jeff Galloway and Gayle Barron. Granted, this was an exceptional event and a once-in-a-lifetime meeting of celebrities; yet, Michael believes, meeting one or two great runners is commonplace at many big running events. It was late in his running career that Gaige began officiating at high school track meets around the state and then college track meets at UMaine and USM, and he has become one of the most respected starters and clerks in the state. Gaige says that getting to meet and encourage many of Maine's high school track stars is by far the most rewarding part of officiating. He adds that running has been such a positive part of his life that he enjoys giving back to a sport that offers so much opportunity to young people of all athletic abilities. There are no other high school sports that field teams numbering well over 100 members and that offer such a variety of events for all body shapes and sizes and abilities. One of the things Gaige loves about running is that it can give you many hours of quiet time to think. And runners can be very philosophical. One of his favorite running quotes from the late Dr. George Sheehan helps put competition in perspective. Dr. Sheehan was writing about work versus play when he wrote: "In play you realize simultaneously the supreme importance and the utter insignificance of what you are doing. You accept the paradox of pursuing what is at once essential and inconsequential. In play you can totally commit yourself to a goal that minutes later is completely forgotten." Dr. Sheehan was probably one of our most loved and best-known running philosophers and Michael had the privilege of meeting and speaking with him twice. Two other cherished quotes from Michael's repertoire include a quote from Bucky Fuller who said: "Man is born to be a success. There are no failures in nature. Failure occurs when our goals are unrealistic, false and too vague, when we have no idea who we are or where we are going." Dr. Sheehan concluded his book Dr. Sheehan on Running with the following quote: "Success rests with having the courage and endurance and, above all, the will to become the person you are, however peculiar that may be." Gaige says that the most important reason he has devoted large amounts of his time to the sport of running over the years is because of what you learn about yourself on your way to becoming an accomplished distance runner. There are no compromises to be made during a race, no timeouts, and no place to hide from yourself. Winning distance races and setting course records is all about exploring physical and mental strengths, and learning to harness and release the flow of your energy. It is not always the strongest or the fastest runner who finishes first. Winners have the ability to focus better than others, and to train more consistently. Winners have hearts the size of locomotives that power their will to excel. In every single race there comes a time when the mind suggests to the body that it cannot sustain the pace or that it’s okay to settle for 2nd or 3rd or just finishing. It takes courage and discipline and heart to override negative thoughts during a race and to press on, to refocus on your strengths to accomplish the task of running your best. Gaige relaxed his training for a couple years as age 40 approached, and then resumed serious training in hopes of competing again on a national level as a masters runner. Unfortunately, he strained his hamstring about two weeks before he turned 40 in August of 1992, and then reinjured it badly in the USATF National Masters 8K Cross-Country Championships in Boston, Massachusetts in November of 1992. He was able to hang on and finish 4th in the race and even managed another 4th place finish at the same meet the following November, but nagging hamstring problems have made it impossible to train with any consistency. Gaige has not trained regularly or raced seriously since the fall of 1993, but his heart remains optimistic that you may still see his return to competitive form in the years to come.
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