Pam Cafritz, when she would show up at local 5k races, would stand on the starting line with the men and go out at the gun with them. By the first mile, she would crash and burn and finish in the 21 to 22 minute range.
In the early years, when she ran Freihofers Run for Women, she would often lead the elite runners up State Street, and then she would be swallowed up into the pack.
Keith had told her she was going to be an Olympic Miler and she would tell just about anyone whose ear she could grab this goal of hers. I know this, because I heard her story more than once, about her training to be an Olympian. I may have told her at one point that she was too old and didn’t have the leg speed to be one – just to get rid of her :).
I first met Pam in May 1991 (after I passed her and finished as first female at a small 5k). Over the next 10-13 years, many local runners (and female runners especially) endured her love bombing and recruitment efforts for first, Consumers’ Buyline, then National Health Outlet, and later, Executive Success Programs, when it was in its early stages. Back then, I didn’t know that the “boyfriend” she referred to was Kreepy Keith, nor did we know she was sharing him with Karen et al, and procuring teens for him.
I can’t say I knew Pam well, but I can say I was well acquainted with her. I just found her really odd and off putting, like she was trying too hard (the love bombing). I would just roll my eyes and leave the immediate area or ignore her, like one does to a homeless person who accosts you in NYC, when I saw her coming. But there were times like at Freihofers, when I was a coordinator for the event, that I couldn’t brush her off or ignore her. My friend R thought Pam was hitting on us, and pitched for our team and the “boyfriend” was really a myth, or really a girlfriend. (Now we know it may have been both!)
I no longer have my copies of the HMRRC Pacesetter, but I remember either a cover of the issue covering Freihofers (which would be the August issue, since the race was early June), or the video clips of the race, that was always shown at the post race party (or both) capturing Pam in action. It shows her out in front of the elites at the start of the race, just as it heads up State street, and the #1 bib, and other seeded elites have their eyes peeled on Pam, as if to say WTF, as she blasted off ahead of actual world and national class runners for her 60 seconds of fame.
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