2004 Roxbury Race #39

B.Y.O.W.

  Just when we thought we had this whole race scoring thing down cold Web Guy Sr.'s incessant dragon provocations finally caught up with us.  What we do know about the race was that Dave Dunleavy crossed the line first with a self-assessed time of 20:42 for the tried and true 3.55 mile Down Hemlock loop.  We also know that Theresa Krebs won her 17th Roxbury race of the year, keeping her on pace with Ken Merrick in the most wins department.  What we don't know is her time.

   We also don't know about 40 of the other 51 runners' times as a printer malfunction caused all results to be immediately flushed down a worm hole.  We also had a few people written down with the same finishing position.  More on that later.  All times listed below are either self-assigned by folks who came B.Y.O.W. (Bring Your Own Watch), or guesstimates based off other runners times and general gut feel.

   If you know your time, or wish to clear up one of the three duplicate position scores (next section), please email Web Guy Jr. at marksl2@earthlink.net.

  Today was also T-Shirt distribution day (see above photo).  In addition to all participants receiving very nice Roxbury 2004 tees, the top 10 runners with the best attendance this year received Roxbury singlets.  Scott Benjamin reported that this was a record year for donations and they are now accepting grant proposals from area High School cross-country and track programs.  A special gift of an engraved pen is being presented to Dave Harvey for his contributions both in art design and race scoring.  (No... Dave did not score today's race...)

No Ties Allowed

  The following pairs of runners all had the same finishing positions listed.  Ties are not usually awarded at Roxbury so Web Guy Jr. made best guesses.  The name in each pair shown boldface is the one he picked as the winner.  If he got it wrong please email him and he'll make it right.

Harry Ong / Peg Molina
Ken Merrick / Sinead Blevio
Walt Schuttler / Corinne Bellemare (alternate 2.4 mile course)

Green Wave XC Repeats in New Englands!

    At about the same time that the rest of us were running 6.7 miles in Roxbury, the New Milford Boys Cross Country team was defending its New England Championship in similar conditions in East Hartford.  The team of Nick DeCrescenzo (19th), Dave Hunt (28th), Pat Viklund (41st), Mike DeCrescenzo 44th), John Reilly (76th) Anthony Vento (85th) and Anthony Socotch (139th) took 87 points to beat runners-up Londonderry NH by 14 points.  They turned the tables on Guildford, who upset the Wave a week ago in the State Open, but finished 6th in New Englands with 212 points.

    If this year is like previous years, some of these guys will run at Roxbury a couple of times over the next couple of weeks, now that their season is over.  At least five of them have already run this year, with four of them scattered between 30th and 50th place in the Prestigious Roxbury Points Race.

    An informal team photo, taken earlier in the season on a warmer, sunnier day, is at the right.

Pictures

    At the top, mad t-shirt scavenging as the 2004 Roxbury shirts were distributed today.  Then is the photo of the Green Wave cross country team as they are about to begin a workout about a month ago after a Roxbury race.  A little farther down, we see Ken Merrick just a day before going sub 3 hours at the Philly marathon.  Below that is Scott Benjamin display Dave Harvey's fine handiwork, and then a bunch of happy people after the race 2 weeks ago.  Way down at the bottom we have Fossil in Germany, six time zones east of here, meeting another dragon.  Both the Fossil and the Dragon survived the encounter, only slightly the worse for wear. 

Marathons

Scott Benjamin has taken the lead in getting it organized.  If you have ideas, talk to Scott, or talk to Fossil, or eMail Web Guy (esandifer@earthlink.net )  We'll remind you of the issues.

1. When?  Saturday, December 11 
2. Course - 8.4 miles down to Judd's Bridge and back, followed by five 3.55 mile loops (Down Hemlock).    This makes it so we can have LOTS of water stops with just a few volunteers.  
3. Relays?  People seem to think we should include a marathon relay.  How does this sound for a relay - one 4-mile leg down to Judd's bridge, another one back up, two 7.1 mile legs, two laps each, and then one 3.55 mile leg, just one lap?  Tell Scott if you like the idea.
4. Who?  Scott Benjamin is Race Director, and many people are already volunteering.  When you volunteer, be sure to tell him what you are willing to do to help.  He'll try to keep a list.
5. If we want to use this to qualify for Boston or anything, there are some hoops necessary, like getting the course certified and sanctioned.  To certify the course, we need to calibrate the bicycle wheels on an accurate three or four mile stretch of road.  Does anyone know where there is a long stretch of smooth state or US highway with those green mile markers on it?  Contact WebGuy at esandifer@earthlink.net if you know such a stretch of road.

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

This week's results  

Created November 20, 2004