Spring
is in the air. 2.4 miles - Up Chalybes April 16, 2005 8:30 am. 30 degrees, sun |
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This year, winter just won't let go, and early arrivals at Roxbury were treated
with frost on the grass and icy-cold seats on the portable toilets. It
warmed up very rapidly, from below 30 degrees at 8am to almost 40 at race time,
and almost 50 by the time the results table got folded up. Spring
is in the air.
Up front, Jeff Sheldon won by more than a minute. After the race, Jeff said he'd had a good first mile, but then felt weak on the hill. Sound familiar? Second place Mike Abraham reported that Jeff had taken control of the race "after about two steps." Abe edged Mark Andrejczyk for second place by six seconds.
Caroline White finished seventh place over all to take the honors among the women. Pam Quist was second, about a minute and a half back in 16th place overall.
Stick numbers
We had two sticks numbered 9 this week, and none numbered 11. Also, John Kane didn't write down a place number. We're guessing that he was 18th, because that was a missing number. Can anyone provide facts?
Exciting Finishes
Good friends make good rivals. No seconds at all separated best friends Tarryn Bartkus and Linnea Quist, who was running her first Roxbury. Very exciting.
A little earlier, Tarryn's mom, Jeanne
tangled with regular rival Terry Lyons in a battle that began at the top of
Chalybes and went surge for surge for the last kilometer of the race. In
the end, both Bartkuses ended edging their competition.
Wiley Ron Karl turned the tables on Roxbury resident Mo van Moffaert and won a tight sprint to the finish, much to the delight of the crowd.
Steve Schoeller and George Hermann both report that they might have had their best Roxbury races ever. They finished just 7 seconds apart, with Steve in the lead.
Why so short?
The distances in the Roxbury races go up and down with the seasons. For the most part, they get a little longer through April and May. For two weeks we've gone 4.2 miles, and for the next couple we're doing 3.95 miles. So, what's with this short 2.4 miler stuck in the middle here?
It's to give our Boston Marathon runners a rest before Monday's classic. Some years, as many as eight Roxbury Regulars toe the Hopkinton Line, dreams of Boston misting their eyes. This year, there are only a few such dreamers, Ken Merrick, Theresa Krebs, Chris Brigham and the Fossil, and only the Fossil was at Roxbury, but we have the short race anyway. Fossil appreciates it.
Roxbury in Boston results are in. Click here. If you know of people who are missing, contact WebGuy at esandifer (at) earthlink.net.
Where's Mark?
Both Mark LoSacco and Charlie Euston missed Roxbury for the first time this year. Charlie doesn't have an excused absence, but Mark got his reason approved in advance. He's visiting Mickey Mouse in Florida this weekend. We'll be looking for pictures next week.
Pictures
At the top we have a pair of shoes. One well-known Roxbury runner sometimes has trouble with her shoes coming untied. The Fossil showed her a way to keep them tied that sometimes helps. See how the loops on the shoe on the left (her right foot) are tucked in to the laces, and the ones on the right are just double knotted? It's a trick Fossil learned from Priscilla Welch, the first over-40 woman to win Boston. Guess which shoe came untied? Try it yourself.
The next picture is Jeanne Bartkus and Mo van Moffaert warming up before the race. Both were involved in exciting finishes this week.
Then the start of this week's race. On the far left,
Lou Denaro, dressed in gloves and a warm, yellow fleece top. On the right,
Katie Niels, chilly before the race. Of course, once the race started, Lou
cooked and Katie was quite comfortable. In between, lots of people we
know, and up at the top, a clear, blue sky.
Then Lou again, and Prasama, doing what most people do when the photographer says "Smile!" On the right, we see Paul Ayoub's idea of a smile. Looks odd, but he seems to be enjoying it.
Along the side, next to the results, we have Regular Bob Satterlee, giving the quality of writing on the web page a Thumbs Up. Then there's a photo from February, 2004. Then comes Paul Butler, cheerful, but not feeling like a winner. Way down at the bottom we have Fossil meeting another dragon, and six more feet after the race.
The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com
This week's results:
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Created April 16, 2005
