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Parker returns to WVC with different team, similar goals for success

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Today in history

<p>SCRANTON &#8212; Daniel McGlynn was that rare tavern owner who had a habit of running to work every day.</p><p>His house was &#8220;exactly one mile&#8221; away from Andy Gavin&#8217;s Tavern, which he owned and operated from the late 1970s to 1988, and jogging that mile seemed like a perfect way to make exercise a part of his day.</p><p>&#8220;One night I came in after one of my runs and I casually made a comment to one of the beer salesmen sitting in the bar that I should start a race through Green Ridge, finishing up at the bar.&#8221;</p><p>Almost as soon as he said it, McGlynn realized it was a good idea.</p><p>The Green Ridge Mile, now billed as Lackawanna County&#8217;s oldest continuously held race, has been held every Thanksgiving weekend since 1981 in the Green Ridge section of Scranton, ending at the tavern on North Washington Avenue.</p><p>McGlynn recently came across photographs from the inaugural event when he was &#8220;going through boxes I haven&#8217;t opened in 25 years.&#8221;</p><p>The first race featured three divisions: a fast one for high school and college athletes and other runners between ages 16 and 30, a master&#8217;s division for older runners, and an open race for children and walkers.</p><p>&#8220;I won my own race,&#8221; McGlynn said with a sheepish laugh, explaining he took first place in the master&#8217;s division at age 31, with a time of 4:52.</p><p>His involvement with running sparked him to depart even more from what was at the time standard bar culture.</p><p>&#8220;Back in the &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s, walking into a bar in Scranton or Wilkes-Barre was walking into a death trap with the amount of smoke in the air,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was a (football) athlete in high school and college so I kind of looked at the bar scene a little bit differently.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;A few years after I started the Green Ridge Mile, I did ban smoking in Gavin&#8217;s,&#8221; he said, wondering if &#8220;that might have been a first in the state.&#8221;</p><p>Although he&#8217;s retired and no longer involved with the Green Ridge Mile, McGlynn, 67, is pleased that the race he started has survived for 36 years.</p><p>The current race organizer, Don Surace, took over responsibility for the Green Ridge Mile when he purchased Andy Gavin&#8217;s Tavern in 1988.</p><p>According to results posted on the NEPArunner website, 274 individuals participated in this year&#8217;s race on Nov. 25, with the fastest male runner, 19-year-old Matt Kravitz, finishing in 4:20 and the fastest female, 29-year-old Jennifer Pierce, finishing in 5:33. The event includes a 400-meter fun run for children as well as the mile race, and proceeds benefit United Cerebral Palsy.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Daniel McGlynn, of Scranton, is shown crossing the finish line in the inaugural Green Ridge Mile, a race he organized in 1981. The race is still held each year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_greenridgemile1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Daniel McGlynn, of Scranton, is shown crossing the finish line in the inaugural Green Ridge Mile, a race he organized in 1981. The race is still held each year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_greenridgemile2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Winners of age group categories are shown with their trophies and medals after the first Green Ridge Mile, sponsored by Any Gavin&#8217;s Tavern, in 1981 in Scranton. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_greenridgemile2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Winners of age group categories are shown with their trophies and medals after the first Green Ridge Mile, sponsored by Any Gavin&#8217;s Tavern, in 1981 in Scranton. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com </p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Annual race Green Ridge Mile going strong after 36 years in Scranton