2004 Roxbury Race #3

Merrick Breaks HS Win Streak, Blevio Leads Women

    The stopwatch worked better this week, but the weather almost didn't cooperate.  Several people were frightened away by heavy rains that preceded the race, and radar forecasts that showed a storm stretching from Boston to Pittsburgh, with little chance of letting up.  They got that one wrong.  The roads were wet, and the humidity was about 99.44%, but it didn't rain during the race and temperatures were mild.

    It was a race worth running.  Sinead Blevio snagged her first-ever Roxbury win finishing in 19:16.

    Dangerous Ken Merrick ended the string of wins by high school runners with a thrilling duel against Nick DeCrescenzo. Ken had started well behind a trio of high school stars who eventually finished second, third and fourth.  He moved up gradually, and won by just two seconds, the season's closest finish.  The top three runners broke 13:40, making this the fastest Roxbury race in several seasons.

Harvey Returns 

   Dave Harvey put down the stopwatch this week to run the race he has timed so very many times.  Dave used to be very fast; his best on this course is under 13 minutes.  He finished 7th, just ahead of Lou Denaro and behind Mike Abraham.

Improvements since First Week

    Twenty-eight runners appeared this week who had also been at the season opener two weeks ago.  Improvements are stunning, led by Bob Lewis, who is 2:46 faster now than he was two weeks ago, and by the Fossil, who improved by 2:06.  In fact, only three runners are not faster now than they were then, including Pat Viklund, who is falling apart at the rate of one second every two weeks.  He wins the Consistency Award.

    The average improvement was an astonishing 40 seconds.  This week's winner, Ken Merrick, was closest to average, improving by 38 seconds.  Paul Teixeira was close, too, improving by 45 seconds.

    Complete comparisons with Week 1 are in the table at the bottom of the web page.

    Still seeking times

    We are still looking for some times from last week's race.  If you can help us fill the gaps, the other people will be able to better guess their times.  Send data to WebGuy at esandifer@earthlink.net.

Wasn't Akselrad Faster Last Year?

    Very alert readers will notice that former NMHS star Jordan Akselrad ran to a slow-for-him tenth place finish, well behind people he was beating just a year ago while they were still on the same high school team.  Wonder what's up?

    Well, Jordan, a freshman engineering student at Northeastern, has an excuse.  Just a week ago, he ran his first marathon, the Hyannis Marathon, in 3:29.  He learned the bad feelings that result when you don't run a very even pace.  He roared through the first half in 1:35.  It's not hard to figure out that the second half was almost 20 minutes slower, more than a minute and a half a mile.  Those of who know the feeling can only sympathize.  Ouch.

    But, good job for a first marathon.  Don't infect those high school kids yet, though.  They still have some fast times to run for Coach Abe.  Carl Hunt says you should run another one next week, but the rest of us advise waiting a little more than that, but not too much longer.

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

This week vs First Week

    Last modified: March 6, 2004