Rock the Goat

Run for the hills: This colorful poster of the Mountain Goat Run captures the excitement of the 10-mile race’s start.

“I’ve known Ed for a long time and he knows my work,” she said from her Pompey home. “There had been discussion of doing something that would commemorate the 30th anniversary of the run, and personally I’ve run the Mountain Goat 3 zillion times.” But it still wasn’t easy to come up with one seminal image.

“Ed and I brainstormed ideas because there is just so much about the race that is inspirational,” continued Steinbach, whose principal medium is acrylics. “But we chose the start. For a lot of reasons the start is always colorful, there is lots of movement, lots of emotions. And I love the architecture of Clinton Square; it’s very classic.”

Likewise, choosing Steinbach to produce the poster was a no-brainer for Griffin. “That was probably the easiest part of it,” he said. “When you have a community event like the Mountain Goat you want to use as many community people as possible that have not only an understanding of the event but have also been a participant. Those folks will have the closest feel of what we’re looking for, and Coreen has real-life experience that shows in the way the poster came out.” 

The result, of which 250 copies have been printed and are for sale for $20, is a colorful mass of runners heading toward the viewer and away from Clinton Square (the race starts at West Washington and South Clinton streets), a picture-perfect sky above and those distinctive buildings in the background. Anyone who loves the race course, or loves someone who runs the 10-mile hill-fest, would consider the $20 money well spent.

Advance sale of the posters is taking place now, and any remaining copies will be available at the race expo, set for Saturday, May 3, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the OnCenter, 800 S. State St. Steinbach will be there to sign posters. “We probably sold 50 to 70 already,” Griffin noted, “and I’m sure we’ll sell the rest at the expo.” In addition, if anyone would like to purchase the original painting, they can contact Steinbach at coreen@runningart.com.

The Mountain Goat is merely the latest in a series of sports-related subjects Steinbach has memorialized over the last 20 years. Syracuse University men’s basketball fans may remember her portrait of Gerry McNamara that Jim and Juli Boeheim presented to him at the 2006 Coaches vs. Cancer benefit. Other running-related works include images for the Pittsburgh Great Race, the Buffalo Marathon and Central New York’s other huge race, Utica’s Boilermaker. Another recent project involved a portrait of SU and Syracuse Nationals great Dolph Schayes.

Unlike art, which Steinbach said she loved as a child, running took a bit longer to embed itself in her makeup. The audiologist by training started earning money as an artist after she placed ads in local newspapers to paint portraits. “And it took off,” she said. 

As for being an athlete, that required a tougher climb. “I was a fat, unparticipating teenager,” she admitted. “I never had a team experience. But I started running after the birth of my second child, when I was in my early 30s, and that took on a life of its own too.”

So much so that she recently received an honorable mention by Running Times magazine as 55-59 Master Runner of the Year for 2007. Other accomplishments include being named the 2006 National Masters Outdoor Champion in the 800 meters, a fourth-place finish in the 10K at the 2007 World Masters Outdoor Championships in Italy and, in March, winning silver in the 800 and 1500 meters and bronze in the 3000 meters in Paris. She will be racing the 3000 meters on Mountain Goat Race day and, depending on how she feels and how the weather is, attacking the 10-mile course once again.

“The 3000 is what I’m fit for right now. My mileage base has suffered because of indoor track; I’ve only run the course twice this spring. If I feel good I think I’ll hop into the 10-miler for a long run.” 

Mountain Goat race day starts Sunday, May 4, at Clinton Square with a kids’ ½-mile fun run at 9:20 a.m., the 3000-meter run/walk at 9:45, and the 10-mile run at 10:15 a.m. The after-race party gets started at 11:45 a.m. in Clinton Square with One Sweet World, a Dave Matthews tribute band. As of April 24, nearly 2,000 runners had registered for both competitive races. Watching them finish is a treat, Syracuse, and you should plan on being on South Salina Street when the first finishers cross, around 11:15 a.m.

—Molly English-Bowers