2006 Roxbury Race #37

Bob Lewis Mid Autumn Championship

LaRosa grabs Fall Championship

Quist wins # 19 for the season

        John LaRosa made it look like the rest of us were just standing still as he blasted away from the starting line to win the Bob Lewis Mid Autumn Championship by almost 4 minutes, a minute a mile over pursuit team of Marl LoSacco and last week's winner Chris Deming.  Chris won the race for second place by just 8 seconds.  LaRosa's time was one of the fastest ever on the course, but we can't tell for sure since we haven't updated the course records in almost ten years. (The data is all on floppy disks.  Anybody have an old computer, an interest an the time to do it?)  It was John's first win of the season and his third race.  The other two were in late July and early August.

    Among the women, Pam Quist was back for her 19th win of the season, 12th over all and exactly 7:00 per mile.  Cindy Scannell was second among the women, approximately two minutes back, but we can't tell for sure because of a stopwatch malfunction.  (The paper jams on the stopwatch.  Until it gets fixed, it would be helpful if people would write down their times, as well as their places, on the result sheet.)

Adventures

    The "pop" is gone.  For the first time in three weeks, Dan Lynch's ankle didn't go "pop" part way through the race, just in time to let the Fossil go prancing past.  It might have been the spiffy new high-tech ankle brace Dan was wearing.

        Kurt Thoennessen and his wife Andrea are 38 days (but who's counting) from the expected arrival of their first child.  Time will fly and before we know it, they will be bringing children to the races, just like Larry Deming did this week.

Next week's course

We are running a new (long) course next week, the eleven-mile "Bottsford Hill" course.  Here's how it goes:

1.    Start-Finish at Rec Area to South Street (0.5 mi)

2.    Right on South Street to River Road (2.0 mi)

3.    Right on River Road to the other end at Wellers Bridge Rd. (3.9 miles)

4.    Left on Wellers Bridge, across bridge to Rt. 67 (4.0 miles)

5.    Left on Rt. 67 to Bottsford Hill Rd (4.2 miles)

6.    Left on Bottsford Hill Rd (BIG HILLS).  At 5.5 miles, you have to go right to stay on Bottsford Hill Rd.  At 5.6 miles, the road goes left and the name changes to Town Line Road.  Take this to Minor Bridge Road. (7.0 miles)

7.    Left onto Minor Bridge, across the Shepaug River to the first left onto Falls Road.  (7.9 miles)

8.    From here, we follow the 6.4 mile course to the finish line.  Left onto Falls Road to South Street.  (8.4 miles)

9.    Left onto South Street, past River Road, up yet another hill to the stop sign at West Apple Lane. (10.6 miles)

10.    Left onto West Apple Lane, then half a mile to the finish line at the recreation area (11.1 miles)

    At the right there's a map that WebGuy made with the nice DeLorme software that his wife gave him for Christmas.

This week vs Last week

    Seventeen of last week's hardy runners were back again this week.  Of those, the problems with the stopwatch kept us from getting times for four of them.  As for the rest, they averaged more than two minutes faster this week than last week.  It gives you an idea how tough it was to run in all that rain and mud.  Of course, this week wasn't picnic weather, either.

    Harry Ong led the improvements, five minutes faster this week.  Scott Benjamin and Mike Abraham were the only ones slower this week.  Kurt Thoennessen was hit the average improvement right on the nose, improving by 2:02.  Details follow:

Safety

     Safety is important to us, as we don't run on closed roads and generally like each other.  

     It is safest if we face traffic as much as safe and possible. (on the other hand, avoid the inside of sharp, blind curves.)  Also, it is much safer if we are all  on the same side of the road, instead of making traffic drive between runners. 

    Fossil has three rules of running:

1. Be safe

2. Have fun

3. It's sometimes fun to beat people.  Set goals you can realistically achieve.

    Safety tip: When you are running side-by-side and you meet a car, you should switch to single-file.  Let the runner closer to the center of the road decide whether to step ahead or step behind.  If you slow down, expecting them to step ahead, and they are trying to step behind, then it just takes longer to get out of the middle of the road and that's not as safe.  Never use traffic as a tactic.  After the car passes, give the runner who goes behind a fair chance to get back beside you before you start to push the pace or anything like that.

    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 have this week's winner John LaRosa  in the pavilion at the Awards ceremony after the race.  

    Below that, the dogs who knew to stay in out of the rain last week recognized a great day to run and dragged their people out of bed bright and early. Left to right we have Shiloh, Nyla and Copper.

    Down the side we have people trying to straighten the posts in the parking lot.  Then there are two Marks, Zerbe and LoSacco.  After that, we have the Fossil checking his time on a watch that matches his t-shirt, and then our new Shepaug Trail sign at the starting line.  Way at the bottom, notice the Dragon is back.  

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

Current points leaders

Created November 4, 2006.