Marathon Men:
Two FSC professors take part in races around the world

By Josh Primak
Sports Editor

It’s 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night.

While most people unwind watching their favorite T.V. show, FSC professor Dr. Ben Alberti of the Sociology Department laces up his running shoes and prepares himself for a brisk winter run, which he does a few times a week.

Even though the average person shudders at the thought of a three-mile trek across the Framingham evening in the dead of winter, there is a greater purpose behind Alberti’s regimen. He is running tough now in the hope that it will yield a better time in one of the half marathons around New England he plans on taking part in later this year.

Though he got into it a bit late, running marathons is a tradition in Alberti’s family. His father, who still lives in Alberti’s native England, has been running full and half marathons for years. Three years ago, Alberti, along with his two brothers and father, all took part in the Great North Run, a half marathon that takes place in New Castle, England, for his father’s seventieth birthday.

While it may be hard to believe when viewing his tall, lanky frame, the original reason Alberti took up his family’s tradition of running was not to run in marathons - but for health reasons. “I was getting a bit fat, or at least a little loose and flabby. Plus, my legs have always been skinny and I have a bit of a phobia against wearing shorts so I figured I would take care of that.

“When I first started, I said ‘Oh, I’ll just do 5k’s.’ Then I started talking to one of my brothers and of course, as happens, competition started, and before you know it I’m planning to run the Windermere Marathon the following year. And that was it, really. Now, it’s an obsession.”

FSC professor Dr. Michael Enz of the Economics and Business Department is also is an avid runner who participates in marathons. An active person, he got involved in running when he was looking for ways to stay in shape during the off-season for one of his other activities - rock climbing.

Planning to climb Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state of Washington during the summer of 2002, Enz became a runner the year prior.

“A friend of mine was training for the 2002 Portland, Oregon, marathon and asked if I would be interested in running with him. I started running with him - having never run more than three miles in my life - and about halfway through the training, he told me that I had already done the hard part and that I should enter the marathon.  So I entered and completed my first marathon in the fall of 2002 at the age of 28.”

Since beginning his marathon career in Portland, Enz has gone on to participate in several others, going as far as Anchorage Alaska to run. He will be participating in the 2010 Boston Marathon, having run in last year’s as well.

As FSC professors with busy lives, free time is rare. While Enz’s runs vary from morning to night, most of Alberti’s runs take place between 8 and 10 p.m. during the week - when his wife is home from her job as a Taekwondo instructor and the kids are asleep. “I go through the neighborhood or I run at a track here in Framingham. During the weekends, I run through Callahan State Park. My preference is to run through the woods.”

When the weather gets cold, Alberti’s training venue does not change. While most people would go indoors to the gym to run on the treadmill, Alberti remains outside for his runs - just lacing up different shoes, equipped with yak tracks, specially designed for strenuous activity in the snow.

“I don’t like running in the gym. I’m a bit timid when it comes to exercise I guess. There are all those other brawny men and women pumping iron. Another reason is I get bored and hot. When you’re running, you get pretty hot and you’re just on a treadmill. You’ve got a little red number on there and you’re just watching it go.”

Alberti has unusual tastes when it comes to what he listens to on his iPod during his runs. “This is very nerdy of me, I guess, but I listen to lectures from a professor at Berkeley. I’ve also listened to the whole of Marx’s “Das Kapital”, as well as “The Origin of Species”. … Lots of people like to listen to music but I find that off-putting.”

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