11.2 miles - Botsford Hill November 8, 2008 8:30 am - 55 degrees, clouds, 100% humidity, fog |
Next Week: 3.7 miles down Chalybes,up Ranney |
Rookies Hall and Grom claim
season's longest race
It was a damp morning, but threats of rain weren't realized until after the race was over. The temperature was a mile 55 degrees, but the humidity was 100%, and the middle miles, where there could be a marvelous view of the Shepaug River Valley, were shrouded in fog and it was just a little spooky.
The race was loaded with guest talent, high school stars whose season just ended and talented runners tuning up hoping for high finishes at big marathons. Frequent winners Chris Deming and Jeff Sheldon were pushed back to 4th and 6th respectively, while Jolting Joe Mendes, and Papa Mike Abraham, often 4th and 5th, finished 12th and 13th. It was exciting to watch, until they all disappeared around the corner, over the hill and into the fog.
Did we mention it was hilly?
Our reporter stationed near the front of the race sent us this account of the action:
<This is Chris typing, now>
A group of 8 or so went through the first couple of miles together. The group started stringing out on River Road. Mike Hall and Colby Delbene took off up Botsford Hill, much faster than anyone else was able to go. They disappeared into the fog, and we didn't see them again until the end of the race. Those of us in third through sixth place ran together for a while over the flats on top of the hill, then we battled for position going down the hill and back up South Street and Apple Lane.
Among the women, last year's winner at this distance Norma Grom, running her first Roxbury of the season, went out relatively slowly and moved up from about 25th where we first crossed the river to finish 15th overall, five to nine minutes ahead of Haley Nagamatsu, whose time is missing from the results because of stopwatch problems. See below.
Water stops at 5.5 and 8.5 miles. The one at 5.5 was a quickie, but the one at 8.5 was Full Service. More than one person got passed there as they lingered for the refreshments.
Here are the results, with just a few gaps in times, but all the places in place. We ran out of paper, we couldn't figure out how to work the recall on the stopwatch, my own stopwatch only goes up to 30 saved split times, but that's life! Chris Powderly and I were giving runners their times, but they didn't all write them down.
It was still a swell day!
<that was Larry>
Marathons
Some marathon results from around the Web:
| name | marathon | year | time | place |
| Dan Lynch | Marine Corps | 2008 | 3:52:49 | 3063 |
| Paul Butler | Marine Corps | 2008 | 4:42:12 | 9868 |
| Brian Vanderheiden | NYC | 2008 | 3:08:49 | 1618 |
| Harry Ong | Mt. Desert Isle, ME | 2008 | 4:14:48 | |
| Lee Anne Zarger | Mt. Desert Isle, ME | 2008 | 6:35:43 | 618 |
| Ed Sandifer | NYC | 1977 | 2:39:07 | 133 |
| Ed Sandifer | NYC | 1978 | 2:47:46 | 353 |
Note that Harry Ong was 3rd in his age group in Maine, and that both of the people who beat him were from Quebec, so he was the first USA finisher in his age group.
People
The Fossil
came to this week's race sporting a pair of large Band Aids on his forehead.
After the usual jokes (head exploded, too much election coverage) and euphemisms
(walked into a door), he admitted that he'd followed Ross
Levy's advice and had a dermatologist look at some things growing on
his face. Most were harmless, but one was a spot of skin cancer (basal
cell carcinoma, to be technical), and on Monday, some local talent with sutures
and a scalpel dug it out. The stitches come out next Monday.
After the race, a runner (whose name, in a rare outburst of dignity and respect for privacy, we will not reveal) showed a similar bandage and shared a similar story. In general, the benefits of running far outweigh the risks, but there are risks, and skin cancer is one of them. Get it checked out every once in a while. And Ross, to quote Eeyore, "Thanks for noticing me."
Last week, Sharon Gawe said "see you later" as she announced that she and the family were leaving today for an extended tour of warmer places. She couldn't resist the lure of a Saturday morning in Roxbury, though, and they decided to postpone their departure until noon so she could join us at the starting line.
Pictures
Up top, we have this years Mid-Autumn Classic champions, Jeff Sheldon and Pam Quist standing in front of the rocks. We gave them a choice, a background of rocks and the playground or the outhouses, and they picked the rocks. Good taste, both of them.
Then we have Bruce Goulart, making it look easy. Then the foggy starting line at a race in August. Down the side, we have David Mariani, smiling as he sees the finish line, then Mandy Deming, the one who works the stopwatch and gets us accurate times every week. Below that, Scott Benjamin, who ran the hill hard and then still had half a mile to the finish line.
Farther down, Harry Ong (Dudley is around somewhere) beats Cindy Scannell by a couple of seconds. The last one there is a photo by Charlie Euston of a pack in the 7.3 mile race. You can see Ross Levy's legs in the back, and the corner of Brian Gildea's head behind Jeff Tindell.

A foggy start at the August 23 race of 8.2 miles
The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on RunningInTheUSA and on HiTekRacing.com. For information contact Bob Lewis at ctstaterunner (at) yahoo (dot) com, or at 203 240 0162.
Last week's results (3.95 miles - Jeep trail)
Next week (when available) (3.7 miles - Chalybes / Ranney)
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This week's results
Alternate Races
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A happy finisher
Amanda Deming, Princess of Stopwatch
Are you tired when you finish? |
Current points standings
Week 36
There was more action in the Top Ten this week. Mark Zerbe lost the place he gained last week and another one to boot when he missed the race and got passed by Lou Denaro and Brian Gildea. Both of them reached the Millennium Man Milestone this week, too. With just four races left, the season is 90% behind us. To get 1000 points on the season, you have to be at or close to 900 points now. Watch closely and see who else makes it. Can Mary and Nate pull it off with a strong finish?
We welcome two Centurions, Zack Kraus and John Richers. This brings the year's Centurion population to 99, and begets active speculation on who will have the honor of being the hundredth.
Also, NINE rookies this week brought the number of different runners at Roxbury this year to 302. That is an important milestone.
In the table below, runners who have not missed a race yet this year are marked with a *. Rookies, those running their first Roxbury race of the season, are marked with an "R", and people reaching 100-point milestones are marked with a C. People whose ages were different this week than they were in our data base are marked with a B. If everything in the data base works perfectly, this means they had a birthday recently, but we know the data base isn't perfect.
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