“I don't know how many lives he changed through his coaching, but I can tell you his coaching changed mine.”

Those were the words of Elizabeth McGurk nominating her former coach at Mascenic High School,  Mike Smith of New Ipswich, as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Hometown Hero for July.

“He makes running accessible for the greenest runner as well as the veteran,” she wrote. “Many of the parents of kids he's coached end up becoming lifelong runners themselves because of the community-building Smith does. There's a whole world here, sharing miles, conversations, stories – community -- that has been carefully hand-crafted by Smith. He's brought diverse people together to share experiences outside. He's worked tirelessly year after year to benefit all of us.”

Smith said he began running cross-country as a middle-school student at Mascenic after a friend encouraged him to try out with him.

“I didn’t really have a lot of talent for any other sports,” he said.

It originally didn’t go well. 

“I think I walked my first race,” he said.

However, he found the sport having an impact.

“I liked how in cross-country, the harder you work, the better you get,” he said. “You can overcome the genetics you got from your parents by putting your nose to the grindstone.”

Smith graduated from Mascenic in 1986, and returned to the school to teach environmental science. When the cross-country coaching job opened, he pursued it.

“I saw (teaching at Mascenic) as a way to get into coaching cross-country,” he said. “All I wanted to do was coach cross-country.”

Knowing Smith was a distance runner, Gary Goldsmith, the track coach at the time, approached Smith about working with the school’s track teams, pitching it as a way to develop a rapport with the cross-country runners.

“I said I’d give him a half-hour a day. That became two hours a day, and I’ve been coaching track ever since,” he said.

All told, Smith coached cross-country for 25 years, outdoor track for 26 years and indoor track for 20 years, with his teams and athletes winning multiple state titles along the way. Having started a new job outside the district, he retired from coaching at Mascenic after the most-recent season, saying there would have been times he couldn’t be there for the students.

However, Smith influence on the local running community extends beyond the schools, thanks to the Valhalla Running Club, the umbrella organization for his non-Mascenic running activities, including Junior Olympic cross-country, Monadnock Regional Milers and the annual Dead Possum half-marathon in March.

The origin of the Dead Possum was Smith and his wife deciding to run a half-marathon each weekend one October. With one weekend not having a race nearby, he plotted a half-marathon course through Mason, Greenville and New Ipswich. On the first run, the four people who took part found two dead possums on the side of the road and a third a little ways up the road. 

Also, the last mile includes running up Mascenic hill.

“Basically when you’re done, you feel like a dead possum, as well,” Smith said.

So the name stuck, and Smith moved the race to March to provide a way for his runners to stay in shape, although he said it has always been open to all who wanted to participate.

Smith, 57, said he enjoyed coaching middle school and high school students because of the way the sport provided personal growth and taught lessons in hard work, commitment and resilience.

“I just know how good the sport can be for those who take it up. I love working with kids and seeing them develop,” he said, adding that he got “just as excited by someone who’s never going to be a top-tier runner maxing out their ability” as someone whose gifts meant they would always be successful.

Smith said McGurk is a perfect example, having not come out for cross-country as a freshman before joining the indoor track team. She eventually ran at Keene State College and now runs ultramarathons, with her last effort an eighth place overall and first in her division at the Manitou’s Revenge 53-miler in Windham, N.Y., in June.

“She went from being a nobody to winning a state championship in the two-mile,” he said. “She is the success story among many. Her story is unbelievable.”

Each month, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript will recognize one of our region’s many Hometown Heroes. Nominate a Hometown Hero at tin yurl.com/3ctykcnv.