The Drake in Amherst and the Iron Horse in Northampton co-hosted Miles for Music, a new 8.2-mile run, relay, and walk to raise money for the two venues, on Sunday, Sept. 13.
“We’re taking all of the fun that you think of at a music festival, and we’re trying to inject that into the experience of a race,” said Chris Freeman, executive director of the Iron Horse, in advance of the event.
The race started at Amherst Common and proceeded shortly after to the Norwottuck Rail Trail for most of the course. The Quarters in Hadley was the handoff point for relay teams. Runners crossed the bridge and continued into downtown Northampton. The race ended at Brewster Court, near the Armory Street lot; that weekend, the lot was playing host to Taste of Northampton, a festival of local restaurants that also had live music.
“What can we do to bring hungry people into [a space] where we have 30 restaurants there?” Freeman said. “How about, let’s have them run eight miles [and] connect these two amazing music communities together.”
Three hundred and eighty-two people signed up to race that day, and more than 240 showed up and took part, despite the rain.
“We imagined a race that felt like a music festival, and even in the pouring rain, people brought that spirit from Amherst to Northampton. The musicians kept playing, volunteers kept supporting, and runners and walkers kept showing up and had such an amazing spirit. That says a lot about this community and how much people value live music here,” Freeman wrote in a follow-up email.
The music lineup included DJ Quills, Aeden Madden, The Enchantivists, Hazel Basil, Tobey Sol Laroche, Ron Smith, Red Loves Blue, Lexi Weege and Parker McQueeney, Barefoot Fiddlers, Mountain River Taiko, and Eric Phelps Band.
The top three overall male finishers were Henry Domnarski of Ware, Mark Rabasco of Greenfield, and Brian Krusell of Northampton. The top three overall female finishers were Hannah Goodrick of Deerfield, Audrey Boraski of Greenfield, and Anya Niles of Chester. The top three nonbinary finishers were Corey Laitman of Montague, Madeline Hood of South Hadley, and Rider Doolittle of Williamsburg.
The top three relay teams were The Oxford Commas, Team Miranthony, and Steppin’ Stepparents.
Freeman and Claudia Pazmany, executive director of The Drake, wanted the race to boost their venues’ visibility as nonprofits, contribute to their towns’ economies, help keep it possible for them to pay artists well, and connect communities. As Freeman pointed out, “A show is a shared experience in the same way that going out and doing a community run or walk or relay can be.”
Pazmany said she and Freeman hope that a partnership between venues like this is “a stimulus for other partnerships, because we want to be viewed as a destination for artists to come and say, ‘OK, 413, this is where artists want to come and have a great experience, and they are.’ We want everyone to succeed and everyone to be full, because if those artists are being paid well and if they’re thriving, this community of artists is thriving.”
The two of them started working on the permitting process a few months ago, and they found that the city officials and police departments they worked with were very enthusiastic about the idea. The town of Amherst, Pazmany said, was “incredibly supportive [by] saying, ‘OK, what do we need to make this happen and help you?’ Because they see the benefit.”
“It’s cool to be a part of a community that doesn’t make this that difficult,” Freeman said.
Freeman is a runner, and running and music are what he calls his “two worlds.” He first started running while on tour with his band, Parsonsfield. At a tour stop, the band would often be in “these cool parts of town,” he said, but he’d only have an hour of free time between sound check and the start of the show. He started running as a way of sightseeing what he could in nearby neighborhoods during his limited free time.
As time went on, he started getting further into the hobby, doing longer runs and signing up for races. He found that running helped expand the range of his singing voice, and it was “one of the best ways to warm up for a show or to get my energy out in [a way] that feels healthy,” he said. He used his experience as a runner to inform the creation of Miles for Music.
“The atmosphere of a race is really what makes it, and there can be a lot of different atmospheres — just like I love a rock ‘n’ roll show, and I love a really quiet folk show and a jazz show, those are totally different atmospheres, but I feel like, when it’s done intentionally, and you really get to be along for the ride, that’s what I love about it,” he said.
Pazmany isn’t a runner, but she takes part in Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Daffodil Run. During that, she said, a community member has “their speakers set up and they’re jamming, and it’s really fun because… it really is a motivator. It’s showing community support.” This race, she said, with multiple live performances built into the course, is “that next level.”
“We create experiences. I think that’s really what we do, and that’s what we’re good at,” she said. “We want to bring people to have that experience, but also so they come back — come back and eat and dine, and come back to another show, and come to The Drake, come to the Iron Horse. You’re gonna have a great experience, and then you’re gonna want to come back. There’s just no way you’re not gonna want to come back.”
In fact, the race will return next year.
To view the race results, visit runsignup.com/Race/Results/Overview/214254.
