4.3 miles - High Bridge Road - clockwise July 11, 2009 8:30 am - 65 degrees, sunny and dry |
Next Week: 5 miles - Mid-Summer Championship Squire Road |
Sheldon, Schafer
The weather was great for running. In the middle of July, the weather
isn't supposed to be great for running. It's supposed to be hot and
sticky. 65 degrees and dry was wonderful.
After a week off for Independence Day celebrations, people were eager for a race, and almost 60 people toed the line. Early on, points leader Chuck Rocca seemed to be challenging Jeff Sheldon for the lead, but he wisely backed off and fell to fifth place. Andrew Levy took second, just over a minute back. Tyler Dunn edged Denny Lo for third place, a minute and a half farther back.
Among the women, Mary Schafer dominated, 15th over all, routing Megan Henry by three minutes and 16 places.
People
Mike Abraham turned 50 this week. For the first time in months, the Fossil beat him. Does turning 50 work that suddenly?
Three runners from a local high school (which we won't name, to avoid tipping off the competition) finished in the top ten this week. Running Roxbury in the summer has worked well for this team in the past, and several years ago, they were led to a state championship by runners who had sharpened their skills by running Roxbury in the summer. We wish them the best.
Steve Haas took a tumble from his bicycle this week and missed his first Roxbury of the year. We're behind in maintaining the points, but our best guess is that the tumble also made him fall in the points race, probably from second to fourth. Worse still, he'd been training hard for a triathlon, and the broken bone in the shoulder (clavicle? scapula? We're not sure) knocked him out of that big race. You can't swim (or bike, or run) without working shoulders. Our sympathies go out.
Nelson Acevedo made a rare appearance at Roxbury. 15 years ago, he was one of the area's best runners. He recently turned 50 and is coming back to the sport. Just like 15 years ago, he clobbered the Fossil.
Pictures
Up top, we have last 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 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.
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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 20
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Harry brightly leads Cindy
A pack running the 7.3 mile race along River Road
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Created July 11, 2009
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.