Michael Mahon- Mr. Cross Country - Share Your Favorite Story Here

Jonathan Gault wrote a great story about the fascinating Michael Mahon and his Massachusetts cross-country legacy. Mr. Mahon has given far more to MA cross country than he is given credit for.

It's nice to read uplifting stories like this every once in a while. Kudos to Gault and LRC for penning this article.

Agree- great article

i believed that story about motorcycle accident

former MA coach wrote:

Jonathan Gault wrote a great story about the fascinating Michael Mahon and his Massachusetts cross-country legacy. Mr. Mahon has given far more to MA cross country than he is given credit for.

It's nice to read uplifting stories like this every once in a while. Kudos to Gault and LRC for penning this article.

Well done.

Have a Mahon story of my own that fits the profile. Didn't know of him at the time

Being from the West coast, I had never heard of Michael Mahon until I had posted a thread about the Best All-Time HS All Star XC team from each state back in February of 2016.

Pretty soon some folks from MA started arguing that Mahon belonged on their top 7. Having never heard of him, I was none the wiser. It was a fitting tribute from the MA folks to include this icon on their All-Time HS All Star XC Team.

Great article!

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7016623

It's really hard to capture what its like to be a high school athlete interacting with Mike Mahon.

First time I met him I was scared. Here I was a HS sophomore and this middle aged man knew everything about me. I think that's most people's reactions at first. A little nervous wondering why this guy so into HSXC.

But as Jon points out that quickly fades when you realize how knowledgeable he is about the sport and its not just you he seemingly knows a lot about. At some point he just becomes part of the XC experience.

I never thought our coach took Mahon seriously until I saw how pissed he was when Mahon informed him that he was ranking us second, this in a year when we honestly deserved to be first rankings. He told this to our coach then walked over and whispered to the captains of our team that there was going to be a protest and that we should show up at the Weston reservoir at such and such a time.

We were the first people to show up to a meet one early November morning. The course is in Wrentham, this large open field near some abandoned buildings but there he was yelling, "Welcome to Wentham!" Not really funny or a moment that should be remembered but whenever I arrive at a cross country meet out of Massachusetts, it never feels the same without seeing Mike with a big smile just because he is going to see a cross country race.

Not connected to MA cross country at all but this was such a cool article. What a legend.

My husband Rocco is the proud recipient of the Video Caddy Shack award. Mike has been a wonderful advocate for high school CC. Reading this article brings back great memories. Very well written. Our son Anthony was an award winner and a top Nashoba HS runner . My husband and I ran CC for Gardner HS back in the late 70's. Mike is a part of our history and we are grateful. We are also grateful to the Duncan family for caring so much over all these years. Wonderful read. Thank you.

I finally read this Gault article today. I have vivid memories of encountering Mr. Mahon in 1993 and 1994 while running in the ISL. The famous line I remember was, "THIS IS THE YEAR that Roxbury Latin wins the ISL Championship"! I think he yelled it to us in 1993 and 1994 both. Of course, in those two years I think we came in 2nd, never did win, but it was so cool that our team had a fan that wasn't a parent or alum. I even quoted Mr. Mahon on my yearbook page. We all just knew him as "The Guy".

Michael attended meet 1,999 yesterday morning in Carlisle and should eclipse the 2k milestone this week (weather permitting). Congrats on this accomplishment, Michael!