Third Annual Beverly 3X2 Relays

– June 22, 2018 – Offered by Linda Desjardins –

With the Louise Rossetti 5K on the 13th, weekend races on the 16th and 17th for many of us, including the USATF 5 Mile Championship on the 17th, and the Weiner Run on the 18th, there were a dozen Striders in various stages of tiredness lining up at the track on June 22 at Beverly High for the third annual relays. If there was a theme of variety setting up, (an all-women race, a championship, a race in pouring rain, and one of us ascended a mountain), the Beverly Relays just perfectly blended in to this odd mix. The variety here was in the age range of the runners from 8 to 75, the middle and high school teams along with some veteran and super veteran teams, and the terrain that followed a variation on that old adage about if you’re not liking what you’re seeing, wait a minute and it’ll change. The relays featured three-member teams, each member covering a two-mile course. The course wasn’t just on the track, though it started there with a half lap. It then went through a field in deep grass, around a perimeter of the sports facilities on a makeshift trail, behind a backstop in 6-inch deep cinder type terrain, which some of us ran around, others through, across a parking lot, up a hill to the school driveway, down a hill to the school, up a driveway, over to a sidewalk going downhill, then a quick leap onto the street when the cars parked on the sidewalk blocked that path, back into the uneven footing field area, around the outside of the track back in the deep grass, a hairpin turn around some gum-drop looking markers to lead us back to a half lap on the track. Just navigating the course was a challenge. But the four teams the NSS assembled not only rose to the task, they all finished the course in under an hour which means each team managed an overall sub ten-minute pace! And each team won their age groups. Lots of high-fives to share. Your “aging” Striders can still rise to the task!

The teams and their participants, with total team time as each runner was not individually timed, are as follows: