In Panera Bread on a Friday morning in early April, dressed in running gear and a cross country windbreaker, Tom Walton is recognized, a local celebrity. He sits at a small corner table, sipping coffee, as a young woman walks past him, stops, turns, and asks the 65-year-old coach how she knows him.
“Maybe from NHTI,” suggests Walton, who has been coaching cross country at the school since 2006. In a four-decade career in and around Concord, Walton has also coached, at various levels, football, ice hockey, softball, Nordic skiing, and cross country, mentoring hundreds and hundreds of young people. In 2013, he was recognized for his dedication to youth athletics in New Hampshire with the Carl Lundholm Award.
“Coach Walton opened the door for me to the fabulous running world,” says NHTI runner Nacho Hernando. “He constantly shows how much love and respect he has for all sports. He is one of those people in my life who I will never have enough life time to thank.”
Back at Panera, a second man, a Concord-area attorney, stops to ask Walton about an event the coach is planning for this summer, a triathlon to benefit the Merrimack River Greenway Trail (MRGT), a proposed multi-use trail following the river through Concord.
The MRGT is a work in progress, but portions of it are already accessible and offer stunning views of the city’s golden capitol dome. With construction set to coincide with Concord’s 250th anniversary in 2015, the first phase will create a three-mile loop connecting Concord’s bustling shops and restaurants with the Merrimack River’s edge.
Walton is keen on Phase 1 of the project, which connects the riverfront behind the Convenient MD plaza to Terrill Park, off Manchester Street. It will include a boardwalk to lift bikers and walkers over protected wetlands.
“When I heard about the Greenway Trail, I thought it sounded like great way to bring people down to the waterfront,” Walton says. “I envision runners, bikers, baby strollers, paddlers. A fit city is a happy city, and I see no reason why Concord can’t be the happiest city in the world.”
It was Walton who contacted trustees of the Greenway Trail a couple of years ago to offer his services, proposing that he give a simple, Waltonesque gift to the organization.
“I offered to create a triathlon with the sole purpose of bringing awareness, good will, and a tiny bit of money to the cause,” he says.
The event, dubbed the Northeast Delta Dental Merrimack River Trail Triathlon, is scheduled for July 20 in Concord. It will include a 4k bike ride around the cornfield that blankets the area behind Convenient MD on Loudon Road, a 3k run, and a 3k paddle on the Merrimack in, according to Walton, a “canoe or a kayak or a bathtub or a cardboard boat – anything you can put into the water.” At a free clinic scheduled for May 31, Walton will introduce paddling techniques to interested participants.
A New Hampshire transplant who has lived in the Granite State for more than 40 years since graduating from Hawthorn College, Walton developed a love for all things outdoors after discovering the pleasure of running on the rocky, dirt-covered trails near Hawthorn’s Antrim campus. That initial passion has translated into a lifetime of encouraging others to enjoy the fall leaves on foot, or to discover the many birds that inhabit the waters of New Hampshire. He is the founder of the Capital Area Race Series for running enthusiasts and of the Philip H. Soule Run-Paddle National Biathlon Championships, which includes a 3k run, a 3k paddle, and a 30-meter carry.
“I have devoted my whole life to health-related fitness and to trying to inspire others to become fit,” says Walton, who has just arrived at Panera from a trio of early-morning personal training sessions with local clients.
Walton was a rower at Chestnut Hill Academy in Pennsylvania and made in 1978 what he calls “a natural transition to flatwater marathon paddling,” which includes races of up to 70 miles. He is a four-time national champion in his age group in the biathlon, a race format he designed.
Outside of Panera, Walton shows off his open canoe, strapped carefully to the roof of his SUV. He is often the only canoer paddling the Merrimack River, where it runs through Concord, and hopes to encourage others to join him through the many offerings of the Greenway Trail.
“I hope to create more stewards, more guardians of the river; it is a treasure,” he says. “The ospreys, the eagles, all the things I see every day are magnificent. It’s all right here. I want to get more people out into nature. This trail is important for that. Now, I am off to see those beautiful birds.”
