5.0 miles - Squire Road reverse July 16, 2005 8:30 am. 80 degrees, overcast |
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It was a hot, muggy day for racing. Mark Andrejczyk
didn't think the heat would bother him, so within the first quarter of a mile,
he had a 20 yard lead on Ken Merrick and Allison Lind. That's almost how
it finished, except for slow-starting (for a change) Jeff Sheldon. After a
quarter of a mile, Jeff was about 20th, but he moved up steadily to win by 22
seconds.
For Jeff it was his 9th win of the season, and Allison grabbed her 7th. Jeff has run all 22 races this year, and Allison was running her 7th.
Special Awards
Last week after the race we gave Mike Abraham an award for his first place finish in last year's first ever Roxbury Marathon. Scott Benjamin got an Outstanding Achievement award honoring him for all the work he does for the race series. Scott stayed after the race today for almost two hours working on certifying the marathon course (see below), while Abe missed his first race of the season (see his 'X' on the Standings Page). Some people think he may have fled the country, maybe to China. Maybe he's bashful about the award.
Chris's
This week had a
record FOUR Chris's and a Christina. We had regulars Christina Clark,
Chris Norris, Chris Childs and Chris Powderly, and rookie Chris Deming. To
add to the confusion, just before the two mile mark, there was a sign on the
left hand side of the road reading "Chris and Christina
Wedding." Apparently, these aren't any of our Chris's or Christinas. 
Certification
WebGuy and Scott Benjamin stayed after the race for about two hours to work on certifying the marathon. This process began two weeks ago when they (with help from Mark LoSacco and Bob Lewis) measured the Jogging Track to be 2194 feet 5 inches around. This week, they used that accurately measured distance to calibrate WebGuy's classic Gitane Tour de France bicycle (one of the world's finest racing bicycles in the early 1970's), and then measure what we've been calling the "3.55 mile Hemlock Road course." We've been calling it pretty accurately, as it measured out to be 3.535 miles, an error of only 26 yards, which for most of us is between 6 and 10 seconds.
We also measured the version of the loop that we used for the marathon last December. It measured out to be 3.587 miles, just slightly longer than the 3.58 miles we'd assumed it to be when we ran the marathon on it.
We measured each course twice, and the measurements came
out just 0.067 % different. To be officially certified, the difference has
to be less than 0.080 %, so we have satisfactorily completed the first part of
the certification. Next week we plan to measure to and from Judd's
Bridge. If it comes out to 8.28 miles, then the Marathon course will be
exact. Otherwise, we'll have to make an adjustment to the start. In
December, we assumed it was 8.3 miles.
Oops
This week, people arrived assuming we'd be running the 4.8 mile Judd's Bridge Road loop. The Web Guys were using a schedule we made up in January, and the guy laying out the course was using a different schedule. We think we have put our act back together. Next week we're running the 3.7 mile course up Ranney Hill Road. It's another HC climb.
Prasama's time
There were 49 finishers, but only 48 times. We missed Prasama's time. If anybody happens to know, we'll be happy to update it.
Highlights
Regular readers of these pages might have noticed that we usually highlight the names of women in the results, and also highlight the runners who are in the Other division. Sometimes we miss. This week at the race, someone announced to WebGuy that "I'm a Girl! I want my highlights!" We'll try to watch that.
This week vs last week
It was warm this week. It was cool last week. It was humid both weeks. Did it matter?
Heat matters. Of the 29 people who ran both weeks, only four managed to be faster this week. People generally consider last week's direction the more difficult one, too. Lynn Zuback improved by the most, 2:11, followed by Mike Matthews at 1:27. Jeff Tindell was almost faster. He was the most consistent, only 5 seconds slower. We slowed down by an average of 57 seconds, and Paul Butler, at 59 seconds slower, was most average. Poor Bob Satterlee seemed most affected by the heat, slowing by four and a half minutes.
Complete statistics on this are at the bottom of this page, just above the dragon.
Safety

Fossil has three rules of running:
Be safe
Have fun
Be nice to the drivers. For the most part, they like us, and they are proud to have us running in Roxbury. Smile, and, if you wave, be sure you us all five fingers.
Punctuality
We started almost on time today. With your continued cooperation, we hope to continue.
Some New Pictures
These are last week's pictures, they came out so well.
Up top, we have an altitude graph of the Squire Road course. We ran it in the other direction this week. If you've been watching the Tour de France, then you might recognize that thing in the middle as a clear HC climb up Apple Lane, and then the ascent of South Street looks like First Category.
After the graphic, this week's winner for the women, Allison Lind. Then Ken Merrick, stretching on that same old phone pole. It's starting to lean under the pressure. Then we have the speedy duo of Lou Denaro and Mark Andrejczyk discussing race strategy before the race. Friends Chris Norris and Tom McNulty, dressed in blue. Then we have John Kane, whose wife is doing an Iron Man Triathlon. Poor John. Poor Wendy.
Along the side of the results, Paul Butler in a white had that disappears into the white sky. Then Christina Clark in a great action shot as she launches off the starting line. Below that, shots of Diane Hasz and Ron Karl our trusty finish volunteers this week.
Way down at the bottom, we have the Fossil with his friend the dragon, and three sets of mystery feet.
The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com
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This week vs last week
| this | last | Improvement | ||
| 1 | Lynn Zuback | 42.07 | 44.18 | 2.11 |
| 2 | Mike Matthews | 37.39 | 39.06 | 1.27 |
| 3 | Sharon Gawe | 49.27 | 50.10 | 0.43 |
| 4 | Pam Quist | 37.14 | 37.44 | 0.30 |
| 5 | Jeff Tindell | 34.10 | 34.05 | -0.05 |
| 6 | Adam Levy | 34.47 | 34.41 | -0.06 |
| 7 | Ross Levy | 38.42 | 38.35 | -0.07 |
| 8 | Andrew Levy | 34.48 | 34.40 | -0.08 |
| 9 | Jeff Sheldon | 30.32 | 30.08 | -0.24 |
| 10 | Ken Merrick | 31.10 | 30.45 | -0.25 |
| 11 | Scott Holmes | 33.18 | 32.48 | -0.30 |
| 12 | Allison Lind | 31.53 | 31.19 | -0.34 |
| 13 | Chris Childs | 39.39 | 39.01 | -0.38 |
| 14 | Scott Benjamin | 39.53 | 39.14 | -0.39 |
| 15 | Tom McNulty | 40.01 | 39.20 | -0.41 |
| 16 | Lou Denaro | 33.28 | 32.39 | -0.49 |
| 17 | Chris Norris | 39.58 | 39.06 | -0.52 |
| 18 | Paul Butler | 42.24 | 41.25 | -0.59 |
| 19 | Mark Zerbe | 36.32 | 35.30 | -1.02 |
| 20 | Mario Hasz | 40.15 | 39.12 | -1.03 |
| 21 | Mark LoSacco | 32.45 | 31.39 | -1.06 |
| 22 | Steve Schoeller | 46.02 | 44.34 | -1.28 |
| 23 | Charlie Euston | 50.19 | 48.42 | -1.37 |
| 24 | Mo van Moffaert | 47.33 | 45.41 | -1.52 |
| 25 | Bob Lewis | 43.04 | 40.26 | -2.38 |
| 26 | Dennis Harrington | 53.54 | 50.44 | -3.10 |
| 27 | Chris Powderly | 45.17 | 41.57 | -3.20 |
| 28 | Dave DeBoy | 44.45 | 41.19 | -3.26 |
| 29 | Bob Satterlee | 47.06 | 42.36 | -4.30 |
Created July 16, 2005.
