The year 2023 marked the departure of three of my longtime friends in running. Ron Hebert, veteran coach, key member of the Sugarloaf Mt. Athletic Club, and designer of the 8-mile race that bears his name, died in August at age 82. Interviewing Ron in 1974 was the beginning of my writing about running in the Valley.

Ray Gottlieb, psychiatrist, runner, cyclist and warm friend died in July at 84. Ray and I were the same speed and had the same conversational interests, so we were ideal training buddies. When we ran the Holyoke Marathon one year, we placed high enough to win the last two prizes on the table, a running bra and a pair of women’s running shorts. Our wives were appreciative.

Andy Larkin died in August at 76. Andy was much better known as a member of the Harvard Eight, the crew that competed in rowing in the 1968 Olympics, but he was a runner first, and, like most oarspeople, he did plenty of serious running to get into shape for racing on the water. Look for his book “My Life in Boats, Fast and Slow.”

The 2024 running year got off to a splendid start Monday in the annual Sawmill River New Year’s Day 10-kilometer race in Montague. Sunny, crisp weather, low-frills race on a course with my favorite hill pattern – downhill for the first mile, flat for the next two, then a long uphill before a quick drop and a flat straightaway finish.

Within the first two minutes the men’s race was clearly going to be a duel. Montague resident Michael Keebler, 35, strode ahead, with 26-year-old former Amherst resident Owen Wright following closely enough to be an obvious threat. In the third mile Keebler led by six seconds, but at four miles, where the course takes a sharp left and turns uphill, Wright had overtaken him and led by 15 seconds. He widened the gap to more than a minute and finished the 10K course in 32 minutes, 37 seconds. Keebler maintained second place ably, clocking a time of 33:39. Mark Rabasco, 29, of Greenfield, who races somewhere nearly every weekend, spent the race in a very respectable third and finished in 35:31.

The women’s winner, Anna Zilinski, 30, of Swanzey, N.H., remarked afterward, “I love hills!” Having grown up in Montague and run in high school at Northfield Mount Hermon, she was on familiar turf Monday, leading from start to finish and placing eighth overall in the field of 107 runners, in 39:16. Frances Duncan, 26, of Florence, held second place the whole way, holding off the challenge of 39-year-old Elena Betke-Brunswick of Hadley, 41:48 to 42:26.

Wright, who now lives in Boulder, Colorado, where you would live, too, if you wanted the best training environment in America, is about six-feet-two and makes the most of a naturally long stride. What, I asked, was his best-ever time for 10K. “This one today!” he said.

As several spectators observed, the most impressive time of the day was that of 61-year-old Nat Larson of Amherst, who finished fourth overall, in 35:35. That works out to an average mile pace of 5 minutes, 44 seconds. All you other 61-year-olds out there are invited to try it.

Also impressive – watch out for this young man – was Carson Richardson, 13, of Shelburne. An eighth grader at Mohawk Trail Regional, where Mark Rabasco coaches him, Richardson was running his first-ever 10K and matched Elena Betke-Brunswick’s time, finishing half a step ahead of her.

“My goal was a sub-seven pace,” said Richardson as he sampled some of the post-race baked potatoes and cookies. His 42:26 means a per-mile average of 6:50.

How do you coach a runner who has not yet had an adolescent growth spurt? “With shorter workouts and more rest days,” said Rabasco.

“I take it to the extreme,” remarked Richardson, who added that what drew him to running was asthma, which first affected him at age four. “I thought running would be good for me.”

Depending on whether or not you count all exercise-induced bronchoconstriction as asthma, asthma is as common in athletes as in the larger population. By various estimates, between 10 to 20-percent of the athletes in recent Olympics have been diagnosed with asthma. Jim Ryun, who once held the world record for the mile, lived with it. So did heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who won three Olympic gold medals.

Contrary to his declaration about taking it to the extreme, Richardson seems to know how to pace himself.

John Stifler has taught writing and economics at UMass and has written extensively for running magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at jstifler@umass.edu