Club News

Mill Cities Relay
by Mike Pelletier
Sunday, December 6, 2009

NASHUA, NH - The 2009 Mill Cities Relay is in the books and it was another fun-filled, successful event for the North Shore Striders.

In 2009 we fielded ten teams, earned 26 points, and finished 11th of 18 clubs participating. This compared favorably to 2008 when we fielded eleven teams and earned 26 points and 2007 when we fielded nine teams and scored 28 points.

Although for many of us running the relay is all about participation and doing your best to help the team, we did try to field the most competitive teams whenever possible. Usually that meant putting the five fastest runners in an age group on a coed team. The best relative finish in a division was turned in by the Coed Masters team as they finished ahead of six other Coed Masters teams. The Coed Seniors team finished ahead of three other teams as did the Male Seniors Team and the Coed Open team finished ahead of two other teams.

The highest finish in a division was by the Veteran Women's team of Lisa Riordan, Bonnie Hallinan, and Nancy Giannone who were second. Accepting the coveted red brick team trophy was Nancy Giannone who promptly announced that she couldn't have the trophy in her house even on a part-time basis without adding on another room to hold all of her and Joe's awards.

As usual, there were several last-minute changes. On Thursday, veteran Jim Logan was on the Reserve list. By Friday Jim had agreed to run 4.75 miles on the Men's Senior team. On Saturday, Jim agreed to run 9.5 miles on the Coed Veteran team so that Linda Desjardins could move to the last leg on that team. Veteran Armand Claveau agreed to move to the Men's Senior team. Krissy Kozlosky came off the Injured list only 10 days before the relay and then found herself switched between three different teams before finally agreeing to run the short leg on the men's open team when the original runner was injured the day after Thanksgiving.

The ultimate last-minute change occurred on Sunday morning at 7:00 am when Sal Genovese called to tell me that he and Liza had cut through the tree blocking their driveway with their "his and hers" chain saws and were now on the road with their two kids. At 7:15, Gary okayed diverting Sal to the boathouse to run the 9.5 mile leg on the Coed Masters team and Gary would run the first leg. By 7:20 am, Gary had given responsibility for managing the Sunshine Start to Bill Kobus and soon, after synchronizing Bill's watch to that of the Nashua starter, Bill was off to the Voc School where the Sunshine Start proceeded without a hitch.

Thanks to all of the Striders who unselfishly moved out of their usual division to help us to form complete teams. Notice the Men's open team where Jay Kumar, Kevin Counihan, Krissy Kozlosky, and Dave Sullivan did just that to join youngster Dave Ring (who won't be a Master until December 15) and form a team. Anita Robboy and Armand Claveau also agreed to move down in age group to help a struggling team.

Two essential support people on race day were the Wildwoman and Linda Fitzpatrick. Throughout the morning, Anne was ready at a moment's notice to shed her overcoat and start running if anyone wasn't at the start of a leg. After the Sunshine Start, Anne left Linda Fitzpatrick in charge of the exchange at the Gr. Lowell Voc School and moved up the road to the boathouse to coordinate moving cars ahead to the end of the 9.5 mile leg. Linda and Armand at the Voc School and Anne at the boathouse made sure that no Strider was left behind as the relay moved on toward Lawrence.

Striders participating in the Mill Cities Relay for the first time included Brian Gormley, Janice Yeaton, Anita Robboy, Jim Logan, and Jayne Sexton. With the exception of Jayne, each of them ended up running the long leg of 9.5 miles. How is that for a baptism of fire?

Dave Sullivan did yeoman service stepping in for Dennis Ryan and running the 9.5 mile leg. Dave's car also performed essential service. Dave left his car at my house and rode with Annajean to the Sears Warehouse. When I drove off to Nashua with the keys to Anne's car in my pocket, Anne had no choice but to drive Dave's car to Lowell. When Dave entered the parking lot at the boat house, he was surprised to see a very familiar car parked there.

A special note of thanks goes to the team captains, Sean Kay, Kate Gage, Mary Stevens, Vicky Yee, Gary Freedman, Linda Fitzpatrick, Dave Jefska, Bill Kobus, George Geis, and Carol Geis.

Bob Holland wasn't officially a team captain this year but unofficially he did just as much to help as he always does, driving to Nashua for the start, picking up and dropping off various teammates, and finally running the anchor leg on the men's Senior team.

Everyone who ran will receive a souvenir metal water bottle. Bill Kobus has all of the water bottles and will bring them to the Holiday Party on December 19. However, much to the disappointment of one Strider who shall remain unnamed, Bill will not be encasing the water bottles in festive holiday wrapping paper.

Full results at Cool Running.