2003 Roxbury Race #42

Season Finale

Ken and Pam Nab Season Finale

    Thirty seven runners got the word that the last Roxbury race of the 27th Season hadn't been cancelled, only postponed, so they showed up on a crisp, clear morning to find almost all of the snow had melted. The last race in some ways was typical of the season itself.  Ken Merrick won his 17th race of the 42 race season (Ken ran 30 of those 42 races), and he was pursued, as usual, by season points winner Mike Abraham.  Pam Quist won her 11th race of the season, out of 17 appearances, and finished just five seconds ahead of relative newcomer ald last week's winner Cathy Kost.  Season points winner Nora Hulton finished third about 45 seconds back.

This race vs the First race

    We always open and close the season with the same race course.  This year, 17 people runners ran both the first and the last race.  Conditions were harsh back in February, and 14 of those 17 finished the season faster than they started it, improving by an average of 45 seconds.  Charlie Greystone, with his 48 second improvement, was closest to the average.  Pam Quist wins the Consistency award this time, running just two seconds slower this week than she ran in February.  Tom McNulty improved the most, accelerating by 3:42, while the Fossil gets sent home in shame for his declining standards, slowing by 3:22.  A complete table of this data is at the bottom of this page.  Interested readers can go back and see what we said in February by following this link.

Awards

Lou Denaro            Rookie of the Year

Mark Andrejzcyk    Most Improved Runner

Scott Benjamin and Bog Satterlee     Bob Lewis Achievement Awards    

Ed Sandifer            Living Fossil Award 

Bob Lewis              Roxbury Regular Award   

Points prizes

1. Mike Abraham and Nora Hulton

2. Ed Sandifer and Pam Quist

3. Ken Merrick and Gisela Boelhouwer

4. Paul Teixeira* and Lynn Zuback

5. Mark Andrejczyk* and Mo van Moffaert

6. Lou Denaro and Marge Demarrais

*    Paul Teixeira actually missed the last race, so Mark Andrejczyk passed him in the points to lead by ten points, 1188 to 1178.  We'd already made up the awards.  They can straighten it out if they want to.

Election results

1. Roxbury Marathon - Yes (9-6)

2. Shorter season - No (22-2)

3. Duathlon - Yes (12-7)

4. Team race - Keep having them (12-7)

5. Handicap - Keep having just one.   (10 voted to have two, 7 voted to have one, and 5 voted not to have them.  We decided that most people would be happiest if we keep having just one.)

6. Another Roxbury Mile - Tie (11-11).  

Pictures

    At the top, we have people milling around before the start of today's race.  Below that, we have the photo that Diane Hasz took after the awards ceremony.  Note Shiloh and Shadow in the front row.  They finished 1-2 in the Runners-with-more-than-two-legs division this year, but we didn't make them awards.  Oliver Daniels was third in that division.  Farther down, we have Diane and Mario Hasz, with Mario modeling his spiffy arm sling.  Below we have two guys wearing Santa hats.  One of them isn't the real Santa Claus, though.  Can you figure out which one?

    Way down towards the bottom we have that nice picture of the waterfall again, just because I like it.

Next Season

    The 2004 season will be our 28th.  It will begin with this same course, 2.4 miles up Chalybes, at 8:30 Saturday, February 21.

    If it is necessary to postpone or cancel a race, we will try to get the announcement on local radio stations, and to post an announcement on the Web Site.  

The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com

This week's Roxbury results

This week compared to last week.

Last modified: December 13, 2003