North Shore Striders Kick Butt at The Chelsea Chase 5K

May 13, 2017 – Writeup by Linda Desjardins:

On a day meant for running, on a course that lets you get the work done in the first two miles and lets you enjoy downhill payback on mile three, a couple hundred folks entered the chase. Oh and some leashed animals too. But… they had a hard time chasing down the Striders! We had six North Shore Striders, Mike Pelletier, Rosie Keyes, Cheryl Welsh, Maureen Kelly, Jackie Gomez, and Linda Desjardins, toe the starting line. When the dust settled, they took five awards: four age group firsts and one age group third. By race’s end, we forgot about the barking, obstructive dogs. Cheryl says they made her run faster to get out of the way!

The course was very pleasant, some flat spots, one medium hill and one larger hill, both around the Mystic River Bridge area, then a nice, fast, downhill finish. There were plenty of smiles to go around. There were a lot of “firsts.” First woman 40-49 was Rosie Keyes, her first first. Then in women 50-59, another double first: Cheryl Welsh took her first age group first. In that same age group, Maureen Kelly took her first third! OK Mike Pelletier and Linda Desjardins also took age group firsts but were more happy to be celebrating our other Striders’ showing. Great Day. Mike created another of his very easy-to-follow charts which put everything into order and perspective.