Return To Manchester Comes With Fond Memories For Irish Running Legend
MANCHESTER, CT — Mark Carroll took Thursday’s weather as a personal sign that is was good to be back in Manchester.
It hadn’t rained in weeks throughout the region, but there were the drops, pelting the grounds of Manchester Country Club as the annual Manchester Road Race’s Earl Yost News Conference commenced.
“I brought some nice, Irish Weather,” Carroll quipped.
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It was more than him feeling at home. Carroll is serving as the honorary chairman of the 2024 Manchester Road Race, the 88th edition of the famed international Thanksgiving Day 4.737-mile event. He’s a two-time winner in Manchester (1998 and 2000) and a standout in the race’s storied “Irish Connection.”
“It’s great to be back,” the 52-year-old Carroll said. “The last time I was here was in 2018, when Amy Rudolph was the honorary chairman. It’s been tough to come back, because, when I was coaching at the college level, this time of year is NCAA meet time.”
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But emotions ran high when he entered Manchester Thursday.
“I came early,” he said. “I took a ride around the course and it brought back vivid memories.”
Carroll grew up in Cork, Ireland, and was a six-time All-American at Providence College. In addition to winning twice in Manchester, he has nine top-25 finishes between 1996 and 2010, including second-place performances in 1996, 1997 and 1999. His fastest time locally is the 1999 edition, when he finished in 21:28.
Carroll competed for Ireland in the 5,000 meters at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and he still holds the Irish National Record in the 3,000 meters (7:30.56). Last year, Carroll was inducted into the Athletics Ireland Hall of Fame.
He coached at Drake University and Auburn University and is currently the head coach at the Boston Athletic Association’s High Performance Team of elite runners.
“Mark Carroll is exceptionally deserving of this selection,” Manchester Road Race Committee President Dr. Tris Carta said of the 2024 chairmanship. “He compiled an awesome record of consistently great performances at our race and he continues to make wonderful contributions to the sport as a coach and mentor. We are so proud that he will be back with us in Manchester this Thanksgiving.”
The 88th Manchester Road Race, a World Athletics Label Road Race, will be staged at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28). The race is run on a 4.737-mile loop course that starts and finishes on Main Street in Manchester, in front of St. James Church. The field features several Olympians, other national- and world-class runners, and a slew of recreational runners and costumed characters bringing up the rear.
Carroll became very nostalgic at the news conference.
“It was in 1996. I had graduated (from Providence) in 1995 and I was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in New York for the Milrose games,” he said.
That when he met the Manchester Road Race’s greatest salesman, the late, great P.J. Tierney.
“P.J. said Manchester and I didn’t know if it was Manchester, England or what,” Carroll said with a laugh. “Noooo … It was Connecticut.”
Tierney told Carroll about the “Irish Connection” he took personal satisfaction in recruiting and began to drop some big names about who comes to Manchester — big Irish names like Eamonn Coghlan, John Treacey and John Doherty.
“That was it, when I heard the names. P.J. was a sharp guy and he said I had had to run in Manchester,” Carroll said. “I called my agent said get me into this race because, I’m told, it was. something of national importance.”
And Manchester not only became the only fall race for Carroll, but a personal experience that included staying with the Tierneys and training on “the hill” with road race elite runner coordinator Jim Harvey.
“I remember doing eight, half-mile hills, in the dark, with Jim the coach behind me in a car with his bright lights on,” Carroll said. “We’d finish one, turn around in someone’s driveway, and he’d bring me back down the hill.
“I remember the scones and Thanksgiving dinner at the Tierneys. This is why Manchester holds a special place in my heart and and I’m so honored to be back.”
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