Club News

Marcia Lemkin 5K
by Tom McMahon
Sunday, August 30, 2009

LOWELL - The North Striders were well represented at this race on a day that started out cool and cloudy, but by race time became sunny and in the 70s. A 19 year old young man named Julien Di Maria from Paris, France set a very fast pace and won with a time of 15:08 which is a nice 4:53 pace. I don’t know if I could have done that at age 19 because I never tried. However, I kind of doubt it anyway!

We did have some Striders who gave performances of note. Everyone, of course, has their own story, but, unfortunately, I don’t know all of them. So, I’ll just have to mention a few.

The fastest Strider was Sean Kay with a good effort of 20:46, 6th in M3039. Striders Masters Dean Malerba, Dave Sullivan and Frank Lanzillo finished 37th, 40th and 44th respectively in the race. Veteran Nancy Wilson topped her age group and Sue Besse took home 2nd place woman in the F4049 category. Sue Quimby took third in her F3039 age group. Giuseppe Giannone was 4th and George Geis 6th in a competitive M6069 category on this day. Linda Fitzpatrick was 2nd in the F5059 and, I believe, achieved one of her goals for the year – a sub 8 min. mile pace for a 5K. Vicky Yee had a solid race finishing 10 seconds behind Linda and 6th in F4049. Of note for Vicky and Linda is that the day before the race they completed a rainy 20 mile marathon training run. Annajean McMahon was pleased with her time of 24:59 as she’s been struggling with some pneumonia and asthma. I imagine she was inspired by chasing behind her twin during the race.

A couple of runners are coming back from injuries but turned in good efforts – Melissa Behl – 22:40 and Kate Gage 27:36. Mary Stevens ran her usual strong race, and Mario Fagone is on target to be an Iron Runner this year. Bob Holland somehow turned up as an unknown runner but we found him at 148th. Kevin Counihan hardly misses a race – how does he do it??

Armand Claveau had a 5K PR of 28:34, Steve Kohanski was 2nd in M7079, Scott Fraser had a solid race, Nancy Giannone and Carol Geis finished 6th and 7th in a strong F6069 group.

So, I’m hoping that I didn’t leave anyone out and said something inaccurate or, worse yet, offensive, because at least some of this information is hearsay. Feel free to post comments on the Forum.

Lastly, I could report on my own race. On the advice of our track coach Fernando Braz, I elected to incorporate this race into a 20 mile marathon training run. After running about 14.5 miles (got there early and that’s why I knew it was cool and cloudy!), I ran the race and surprised myself with a pretty time of 24:40. Afterwards I did an additional 2.5 miles. Thanks, Fernando!

There are a lot of pictures on Coolrunning where all the times for the race are reported and most Striders were photographed once or twice during the race.

See below for the Strider times.