MA XC fans/alums: send me your Mike Mahon stories

Who?

You need to find someone who went to his awards banquet.

I sent you an email there Jonathan. Still remember Mike screaming "get off the course, race coming through" at anyone who ventured too close to the race and also him standing at the worst hill on our home course reading out splits and screaming "fight the demons!" as we climbed it. I incidentally visualised Mike in my head yelling that at me for the last 2 miles of my marathon PR hahahaha

A total Mass legend. I hope he's well.

As we know, Mike Mahon makes a significant amount of his money by collecting and returning cans. A friend of mine once saw Mike collecting cans out of a trash can at a late season XC invitational. This wouldn't be incredibly odd except one time he saw him find a can in the trash, shake it to see if it was still full, and drink the remainder of it before placing the can in his collection bag.

I can validate this. I saw him swill the remainder of a sprite bottle he plucked out of the trash. He needs those calories, because he rides a mountain bike from Framingham I believe. He would use his number 2 pencil as a microphone in interviews, it was awkward, but you played along. All in all, he's the best thing about Massachusetts cross and track.

Just sent you an email with a story from the DCL championships back in 2006. I believe you were there yourself

My best memory of Mike Mahon was after the divisional championships either my Jr or Sr year. I ran my race and I came back to find my father, my dog and Mike Mahon. My father was holding my dogs leash and looked confused and concerned while Mike Mahon was rolling on the ground playing with my dog. He then asked how I did and talked for me for a few minutes about cross country, then as soon as he appeared he disappeared off to watch another race.

the GOAT

MIke Mahon is an amazing guy.

Jonathan, we actually talked at the Adrian Martinez Classic this year, I hope Bedford XC has better days in it's future. I hope what ever piece you write about him accurately reflects what an amazing guy he is, that despite his creepiness and lack of filter he really is a good thing for the sport.

His mental illness makes things really difficult for him, and I wish him the best, I hope he gets to 2,000 meets soon.

Mike hitched a ride home on our team bus one time after a meet. This was during the time of cal Ripken's consecutive games played streak. He spent the whole trip singing metallica's "iron man" but changed the words to "he is iron cal, never missed a game of baseball". It was definitely strange, but also curiously entertaining. Always respected his love for the sport.

This guy is the legend of all legends. He used to tell me he was disappointed in me after almost every race i ran even when i ran pretty well. Now I'm faster and in college and he gets really excited when ever he sees me and tells me "you don't run that slow anymore." Also one time during a duel meet that he came to, he told everyone that he lost his keys and made us look for them for like 20 minutes before he started laughing and told us all he rode his bike here and didn't have a car.

One of my first memories of Mike Mahon was at the state meet at Franklin Park my sophomore year of high school back in 2005. I had already run my race (back then there was 2 divisions for boys cross country, I was in division 1) and I was calmly chatting with some teammates about 50 meters from the finishing chute area. The division 2 race was kind of going on in the background, but I wasn't focused on it. Suddenly, Mahon came sprinting out of nowhere - with one fist raised high in the air in triumph - yelling "Hopedale!" in the same sort of manner Mel Gibson yelled "they will never take our Freedom" in Braveheart.

Then there was the time recently (less than a year ago) where he commented (really trolled would be a more appropriate term) on my Facebook profile picture. It was a picture of me running a personal best in the mile, with 4:08.5 as the caption. Mahon posted simply "Fast time, You never get under 4:00 per mile."

Mahon is such a high spirit guy and a significant part of Massachusetts cross country, particularly on the high school scene. He was always a lot of fun.

Mr Cross Country! This guy was awesome! He came to every meet I ran in high school at Wrentham, donning a football jersey and an interesting personality. Once or twice he sang the national anthem over the instrumental version that was played through the megaphone

In college the xc guys would run the last 10 miles or so of the marathon course from the firehouse to finish line real early in the morning on Marathon Monday. This was in 2010 or 2011.

We get to heartbreak and there are about 100 spectators scattered up and down the sides of the hill and all of a sudden were hear this guy screaming from the top of the hill "PETER GILMORE" (Whitman Hanson legend and BU runner at the time).

We figured it was one of our friends yelling at us, but as we get closer we realize it's The GOAT Mike Mahon, like a mirage in the desert. He starts yelling some gibberish at us about him broadcasting the race on Bentley radio.

It is my number one goal in life to one day be Mike Mahon's Facebook Man of the Year.

Just a few weeks ago, Wayland XC Festival, Mahon belted out the national anthem a cappela prior to the race. It was a strangely moving experience which I think sums up the experience of being acquainted with Mike. On the cooldown, we saw him riding his bike, slowly, with a bag of cans and bottles slung over his shoulder.

He's a really enthusiastic person, loves the sport, and other than acting a bit odd at times, is a great presence to have around.

He had pretty much taken over MC duties at Thomas Chamberas 5K XC Race. And the race director a friend of mine, was okay with it.

Before every race he'd sing the national anthem, unveil his Montreal Alouettes, CFL jersey, and have a moment of silence for some tragedy or another that had happened recently.

Well one year apparently there were not too many tragedies, so he had a moment of silence for the Titanic, which sank in 1909. Tried hard not to laugh during a solemn moment before a race.

Seeing Mike at a meet was always memorable. My most vivid memory of him is from District E T&F relays in spring of 2013 when St. John's high school was having a hard time playing the national anthem over their speaker system. Mike climbed into the bleachers and took it upon himself to sing the entire national anthem for the athletes and spectators. Everyone listened and applauded, and by that time the technical issues had been dealt with and the anthem was played again over the speakers.

Anyone have a link to Mike singing the National Anthem?

Mike Mahon came over to my team tent at my first ever collegiate XC race at franklin park. He was screaming "where's Dan Gordon" as loud as he could. I had recently poked him on Facebook after I saw he had instituted a no poking rule. He had come to tell me I was banned from Facebook.

I saw him this year at New England's. He jumped right into Stonehill's team picture. It was a great day. A legend for sure.