You
know those glorious, sunny late October days where the frost glistens early in
the morning and the foliage lights up the world?
Jeep trail October 27, 2007 8:30 am, 54 degrees, non-stop rain, often hard |
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Drenching rain
Sharon Gawe, Chris Deming survive flood
only five races, plus the marathon, remain in the 2007 season
You
know those glorious, sunny late October days where the frost glistens early in
the morning and the foliage lights up the world?
This wasn't one of them. It was raining when we got there, so registration was in the pavilion. It was raining hard when we started. It rained throughout the race, and it rained all the way home, without letting up at all.
The course went up the Jeep Trail, notorious in the spring for being wet and squishy, but it has been so dry this fall that there was almost no running water on the Jeep Trail. The water was soaking into the ground almost as fast as it fell.
Most people ran more slowly than usual. Chris Deming and Joe Mendes took the lead together, as Joe is trying to hold off Chris in the Points competition. Others spread out in clumps behind them. At about two miles, Chris pulled away to win by half a minute.
Among the women, Sharon Gawe won with style, her second win on this challenging course. Jeep Trail must be her lucky race.
Traffic on South Street seemed heavier than usual, but it might have only seemed heavy because every time a car came along we had to pull over to the edge of the road and slog through the deep running water.
Voting begins next week
Starting at next week's race, runners at Roxbury vote for Most Improved Runner and for Rookie of the Year. We welcome your nominations for each of these awards (and you can always write-in on the ballot). Here are a few candidates to think about.
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Rookies
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Improved
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More names will come to mind when you think about it. Send them to WebGuy at esandifer (at) earthlink (dot) net. Results will be announced at the Awards Ceremony after the race on December 1.
People
People have been running marathons. Harry Ong ran well for the first 18 miles of the Bar Harbor Marathon in Maine, covering that part of the race in just two hours. It took him two and a half hours to do the last 8 miles, though. Mario Hasz ran a more evenly paced race at Hartford, finishing in a bit over 4:45. Both ran fairly normally last week. Mario raced fine again this week, too but Harry is resting a bit more.
Wandering Roxbury veteran Ken Moffitt lives in Switzerland now, where he ran the Lausanne Marathon two weeks ago in 3:19:59.3. Indeed, the Swiss seem to time marathons to the tenth of a second. Up top is a picture of him near the half way point.
Safety
The sun is low in the sky at 8:30 am these days, and it will be even worse when Standard Time returns in a few weeks. We all have to do our parts to make it easy for the cars, with whom we share the roads, to miss us, even if the sun is in their (or our) eyes. It works best if we all go to the same side, so that the cars can go around us instead of between us.
Always choose a safe line.
Try to stay on the same side of the road, usually facing traffic.
In general, follow the people in front of you. You can see them better than they can see you.
Call traffic warnings to other runners. "Car up!" or "Car back!" Even if it's a truck.
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 have Ken Moffitt running the marathon in Switzerland..
Then we have today's 2-4 finishers among the women, still friends after the race. Jenna Hannibal is on the left and Mary Schafer is on the right.
Below that we have a crowd scene from the foggy start on September 22. In the front row we see John Kane and Eric Winkelstern, and behind them you should see a number of others you recognize.
Along side the results we have Brian Vanderheiden and Torpedo Ruospo battling the elements at Boston this year. Then there's a shot of Mark Zerbe in his red vest. Then we have Jon Binzen worrying about the fog in front of the pavillion. Near the bottom of the column, a shot of Fast Mario Hasz and his wife Diane, the Belle of the Finish Line.
Down at the bottom, we have Fossil meeting a dragon in Germany. He was back in Germany recently, and the dragon is still there.
The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com. For information contact Bob Lewis at bwlnm (at) aol (dot) com, or at 203 240 0162.
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Current points standings
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Created October 27, 2007
This is one of the dragons in the fountain outside the 500-year old church in Halle, a rural city in the old East Germany.
