Club News

Lynn Woods Relay
by Mike Pelletier
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

LYNN - Warm temperatures made for some slow times;  heavy cloud cover made for poor visibility as the evening wore on; and heavy traffic outside of Lynn Woods made for some late arrivals.

Photo courtesy of Roger Perham

Also, a record number of teams made for some tough parking choices and some incorrect early results. But in the final analysis, a fun time was had by all. Some of the teams had to switch positions of their runners when team members were delayed in arriving because of the traffic, so look below to see the true order of the runners and their times.

For the fifth year in a row, the Men's Veteran team, The Gold Streaks, captured first place, earning each man a gold medal. The single team trophy that was awarded was entrusted to Mario Fagone, the youngest and newest member of the team, who has taken it home and has agreed to give it a place of honor. If you get in touch with Mario, he will be happy to tell you where and when you may see the newest team trophy.

Claiming Silver Medals were the Women Master's team, Athletes with Attitude, and the Senior Women's team, Decades of Decadence.

Photo courtesy of Roger Perham

Earning bronze medals were the second Senior Women's team, Decades of More Decadence, and the Men's masters team, Masters of the Universe. In contention for bronze medals was the Women's Open team, The Hillcats, until an unfortunate mix-up at an exchange cost them at least 18 minutes.

In one of the largest groups, the Coed Division, the Coed Harriers finished just beyond the top third, 10th of twenty-seven teams. A second Women Master's Team, Athletes with More Attitude, finished 5th, the Men's Senior team, The Senior Trail Runners, finished 7th and Men's Open Team, Across the Ages, which spanned all four age groups from Open to Veteran, finished 27th.

Derby Street Mile
by Mike Pelletier
Friday, August 21, 2009

SALEM - The O'Neil's of Beverly solidified their standing as the first family of Strider milers as Scott placed 4th in the 19 and under age group, brother Eric was 6th in the same age group, and mom Jennifer placed 5th among the women masters.

Medaling as individuals were Anne Pelletier, 2nd veteran woman, and Dick Buchanan, 2nd male 70+. Anne went into serious training for this race, doing five repeat quarters at the track on Thursday night.

Just missing medals were Lanse Stover, 4th Senior Male and Annajean McMahon, 4th Senior Female.

Gary Freedman was 9th Master at the most difficult age: 49. Just wait until next year when he moves into the Seniors!

The ageless Vicky Yee was not listed among the women masters pending the completion of an age check by race officials. Rumor has it that a complaint was lodged by a competitor alleging that Vicky is not yet 40 and demanding to see her birth certificate.

Full results at Cool Running.

Beverly Homecoming 5K
by Mike Pelletier
Thursday, August 6, 2009

BEVERLY - The weather was a lot better than Newburyport the week before as almost 600 runners competed in the Beverly Homecoming 5K on Thursday evening.

The first Strider woman and third woman overall in the race was Layce Alves in 18:45. The first Strider male was 16-year-old John Page (Mike and Jill's pride and joy) in 18:29 which was good for 4th Beverly male 0-19. The first Strider-related male was Jim Pawlicki (Krissy's squeeze) who ran 16:25 for 1st male 30-39 and 5th place overall.

In age group awards, Steve Kohanski was 2nd M 70+ and Nancy Wilson was 1st W 70+. Nancy smartly warmed up for the race by placing Nahant 30K Race applications on cars beforehand. Helping with application distribution were Krissy Kozlosky and Molly Rowe.

Jay Kumar was 3rd Beverly master in a time of 22:06.

The Benton family was out in force with Tom running 20:44, sister Jennifer running 36:30, and mom Lee running 36:31. Lee was out-kicked by Jennifer in the last 2 yards.

Carolyn Libelo started her finishing kick much earlier and easily defeated her son Josh, running 32:53 to Josh's 34:54.

In the unofficial family competition where the times of the two top runners of a family are combined, the Bentons defeated the Libelos, 57:14 to 67:47.

Full results at Cool Running.