West Newbury MA, 10/19/2025 –
Submitted by Linda Desjardins and Jill Page.
It’s not supposed to be in the 60’s, sunny and beautiful out as we approach the end of October. It’s more expected to be maybe drizzly and cool with leaves falling and making the road wet. There were zero complaints about the weather or the bucolic setting today. There were hills and fields and a countryside setting nestled in the woods in West Newbury. The area was all set up for a family-friendly gathering with games and activities and fun runs and tents and food and food trucks and bouncy attractions and lots and lots of children scurrying around. It was such a relaxed atmosphere no one was in a hurry. Striders gathered around and had time to chat before the later than usual – just before noon start.
But then it was time to get down to business with the 5 miler start followed by the 5K start 10 minutes later. The first couple miles for both races were on the same downhill road – which made many of us wonder what the return would be like. (I can only speak to the rest of the 5K course). When the 5K runners took a left we were on different streets, hilly streets. Uphills and downhills. And more and more. The tree-lined roads provided shade and the autumn colors were quite eye-pleasing. The last uphill, the same one for both races, was not, shall we say, user-friendly. OY! The two races didn’t gather a huge crowd, only 208 runners in total, with 133 of them running the 5K. Results were provided quickly, printed out and taped to a van, and there was some groaning when we saw the very unusual age groups: 18-29, 30-49, and 50 and above. In this era when 5-year age groups are not uncommon, it was a little surprising to have to compete with much younger runners in many cases. But we all realized it was a fund-raiser and accepted it. Because of that, special kudos must go out to Vince Swiniuch who, at the age of 65, won the 50+ men’s age group at a 7:20 Pace. Similarly, our Anne Kohler, 51, took an age group second in the women’s 50+ age group running a 7:56 pace and that was only 37 seconds behind the winner!
If I may take a moment of personal privilege, I’d like to share what happened to me post-race as I was walking to my car. A woman, Shannon Zanotelli, 48, a runner from Colorado, won the women’s 5K 30-49 age group. She sought me out and started walking with me and asked me if I’d accept her gift certificate from Marathon Sports as she wouldn’t be using it in Colorado and she felt a 50+ age group was just unfair. I gracefully accepted. To say I was overwhelmed would be putting it lightly. How nice was that???
We had great collection of North Shore Striders representing and we all had a great time. Nice company, nice conditions, nice results.
Here are the stats, compiled by Jill:
5K
- 7TH PLACE OVERALL VINCE SWINIUCH 22:46 (1ST AGE GROUP)
- 17TH PLACE OVERALL ANN KOHLER 24:40 (2ND AGE GROUP)
- 120TH PLACE OVERALL LINDA DESJARDINS 41:33 (13TH AGE GROUP)
5 MILER
- 31ST PLACE OVERALL REBECCA IMPERIALI 43:17 (3RD AGE GROUP)
- 33RD PLACE OVERALL MELISSA WHITTEN 43:57 (4TH AGE GROUP)
- 36TH PLACE OVERALL JENNIFER O’NEIL 45:20 (5TH AGE GROUP)
- 56TH PLACE OVERALL RON IMPERIALI 51:31 (14TH AGE GROUP)
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