Club History Retold by Member Mike Beeman - Installment #9

Mike Beeman is one of the founding fathers of the GDTC.

He grew up in Derry and ran for loaded Pinkerton cross country and track teams. He also played basketball and was recruited to play for Merrimack college.   

While at Merrimack, he was running on rt 114 to get in shape for basketball season. The cross country coach, who was a priest, stopped him to recruit him on the team. He came in last in his first race and slowly built up his endurance. Boston Marathon Director, Dave McGillvary was also on that team. 

In the spring of 77 he went to watch his friend and teammate Dave run Boston. He immediately got the marathon bug and started training. 

He missed qualifying at his first marathon in Dixville Notch but was successful at his second attempt, the Jersey Shore Marathon. He ran a 2:58 

His first Boston Marathon started an incredible streak.  ( more on that later) 

There was a running boom in the US in the mid 70’s through the 80’s led by the success of Bill Rogers. Mike was part of that boom and had many local friends who were runners. John Noftle, Art Cross, Bill Eucker, Peter Darasz and Scott Calibro were a few of those friends. They wanted to start a running club but didn’t know what to call it? They had a contest between them for the best name. One of the possibilities was the Derry Trailblazers. The one that stuck was the Greater Derry Track Club and in 1978 our club was formed. 

Did you know? The person that Mike said was the most instrumental in forming the club was, John Noftle? He was a pastor in town. So you can say our Godfather was a pastor! 

John was our first President and Mike was in charge of publicity for the club. 

There were only a few clubs in NH at the time, so the GDTC is considered to be one of the earliest in the state. Mike also started the Athletic Alliance running club in Manchester, which became the Greater Manchester Running Club.   

What were the early years of GDTC like? 

Mike said the club was extremely active in those first years. 

It was very easy to organize a race back then ( no permits, police detail, insurance) so the club was hosting races almost every month. Some of the names include the Alan Motor’s race, Treasure Masters 10 Miler, Benson’s Race, McDonalds, Derry News, the Beaver Lake 2.5 mile, a weekly 10k in East Derry, and a Hangover 5 miler on New Years Day. 

Mike said Derry became a hotbed in the region for races, thanks to the dedication of the early members of the GDTC. Who knew? The race schedule got too intense for the members to organize so they narrowed the race schedule down to 4 per year.   

The birth of the Boston Prep

Mike and Jeff Litchfield were training for the Boston Marathon one January and decided the 16 mile route they just ran would be great for a race. They spent that afternoon putting the details together and the following year the Boston Prep 16 miler was born! 

The club’s early meetings were on Sunday nights at the West Side Community Center. They would invite speakers to come talk, including Bill Rogers. Mike opened up a shoe store called Total Sports in Londonderry, so the club started having meetings there. Mike supplied a lot of early club uniforms and other gear during the 15 years he was in business. 

The club started weekly fun runs that most members attended. He used to push his daughter in a stroller and then socialize with fellow members. Those runs eventually morphed into our weekly winter fun runs. 

GDTC had a “peoples runs” on Wednesdays which was a 1.2 or a 3 mile run in the woods.   It had early community success. They decided to change the program just for kids, that was called Mike Beeman’s fit kids. The name changed to the Kids Summer Fun Runs.   

You can see that Mike’s fingerprints are all over the activities and events we still do today. 

Boston Marathon streak: 

Mike has run 49 Boston’s in a row and will hit 50 in the Spring of 2027. He has the 4th longest streak, his former teammate Dave is ranked #2. Imagine two teammates from the same college team running Boston that long?   

Mike had some amazing stories about the marathon in the 80’s. There were only a few water stops and the crowds were literally on top of the runners. Participation in the marathon started to drop because Boston never had prize money. Major marathons like New York, Chicago and London started to pull the elite talent from Boston. Thankfully prize money came to Boston and the marathon reclaimed the title of world’s best. 

His streak almost ended because in the fall of 2012 he suffered double quadriceps tendon rupture. He was fortunate to recover enough to run Boston in 2013. He was on Hereford street in 2013, ready to turn on Boylston but the race stopped. That was the year of the bombing.   

Mike shared some great memories about his time in the club including training for the Baystate Marathon with Jim Peters.   

He has some impressive accomplishments including a top 150 finisher at Boston, running a 2:35 marathon, 33 marathons under 3 hours, and has run over 130,000 miles in his life. Wow! 

He moved to Georgia in 2003 and became a high school teacher and coach. He recently moved to Clemson SC to be close to his daughter. 

He is very proud of being there in the beginning of the GDTC and laying the foundation for all of the great things we do. He was so happy to hear the club continues to thrive and appreciates the dedication of all who continue to carry the torch. 

Thank you, Mike. We wouldn’t have the amazing organization without you!