3.7 miles - South Street - Ranney Hill October 29, 2005 8:30 am. 35 degrees, cloudy, brief snow flurry |
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A red Ford Pick-up with a trailer was
parked across the Start/Finish line when we arrived at this week's race.
The new scenery was Wally Jahn, testing out a 
new
"bib chip" finish line system and, at the same time, helping the
directors of the Thanksgiving Day 2005
Commodore Hull 5k Road Race learn about high technology finish line
management. With this new system, the "chip" is embedded in the
bib-number, so to test the system, for the first time in almost 20 years we wore
bib numbers at Roxbury.
The system worked great, and just minutes after the race was over, computer technician Mike Hall was giving copies of the complete results to people who wanted them. It might be the smallest race ever in America to be timed with such advanced technology.
Wally Jahn and his crew from Road 'n Track Sports say they might be back in two weeks to try their system again.
A few snow flurries dampened the sign-up sheet a bit before the race, but nothing came of them. The starting line was a fashion show of winter running garb. Only a few hearty souls (soles?) like Tom McNulty dared run in shorts and t-shirt.
There was a race, too. Jeff Sheldon took his 14th race, almost a minute ahead of last week's winner Ken Merrick. Ken might be resting up for next week's New York City Marathon.
Caroline White won her seventh race of the season, finishing 14th overall, but her first win since May. She had lots to do through the summer and hasn't been at Roxbury as much lately as she was earlier in the season.
Jeff Tindell had a monster climb up the big Ranney Hill. He moved past Big Jack Adomelis and put five places and almost a minute on him over the last two miles of the race.
Mo van Moffaert dueled Steve Schoeller again this week, and edged past him for the second week in a row. There could be a good rivalry growing here.
Next Week's Course
Next week is the annual Bob Lewis Challenge
($5), normally run on the 3.95 mile Jeep Trail course. With the bridge
out, we've decided to run the Challenge on the 5-mile Squire Road course.
We'll run it the "classic" direction, going down South Street and back
Apple Lane, so the little out-and-back part on South Street comes in the last
mile instead of the first mile. It will be challenging.
Safety
Now that autumn is coming, the sun is lower in the sky at 8:30 (unless it continues to rain every week) and the drivers might have trouble seeing us. Be extra careful.
Fossil has three rules of running:
Be safe
Have fun
It's more fun if you run well
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 use all five fingers.
This week's pictures
Up top we see Chris Deming struggling with his bib number, looking like he's never seen a safety pin before. Below that we see Mo van Moffaert pinning her bib number on while Pam Petro, one of the race directors for the Thanksgiving Race in Shelton stretches against the back of the pick-up. In the background you can see Wally Jahn's trailer and some of the finish line hardware.
Below that, we have a few of this week's
fast guys, winner Ken Merrick and second place Jeff Sheldon, taken a few weeks
ago when short sleeves were appropriate attire.
Along side the results we have Lynnie Zuback and Sinnead Blevio smiling, with Ron Karl behaving himself in the background. Then there's a shot of Christina Clark going fast, and then one of Fast Mario Hasz and his wife Diane, the Belle of the Finish Line.
Down at the bottom, we have three women smiling after the race, Fossil meeting a dragon in Germany, and a collection of three sets of feet.
We have more great pictures from this week's race, but Web Guy didn't find enough to write about, so there isn't room. Maybe we'll use some of them next week.
The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com
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Created October 29, 2005
