This was a race packed with many a runner bearing great pedigree, most notably Keith Brantly and Julie Peterson as well several former Salem champions. Salem natives decidedly friendlier than their colonial ancestors, sprinkled the grateful competitors with water from what seemed like several dozen hoses. Three CRCers added to their trophy cases: Louise Brooks earned her second consecutive second place, Janice Smaga edged out Sandy Neuman-Levy for third. Sienna running in the open category seemingly enjoyed the competition and a day at the shore.

Several runners took time out from fall marathon schedules to test their progress under race conditions. Adam, Jim and Sanjay were in agreement in hoping that autumn's marathons will be run under cooler conditions.

PLACE	DIV/TOT	DIV	NAME	TIME	PACE
33	14/103	M30-39	Jim Thompson	36:23	5:52
79	25/103	M30-39	Jim Woodman	41:12	6:38
85	27/103	M30-39	Adam Penn	41:27	6:41
99	31/103	M30-39	Sanjay Ram	42:57	6:55
100	2/19	F40-49	Louise Brooks	43:06	6:57
115	31/120	M40-49	David Quilty	44:22	7:09
183	4/19	F40-49	Janice Smaga	47:56	7:43
195	5/19	F40-49	Sandra Newman-levy	48:18	7:47
297	17/28	F18-29	Siena LaForest	55:04	8:52

• Three CRC members ran the Bridge of Flowers 10K in Shelburne Falls, MA. Shelley A McDonough says "Despite the monstrous hill (which was even worse than I had remembered it), it was a fun race, great crowd support. I finished in 46:55 - not a PR, but significantly better than the 53 minutes that I ran it in last time."
  Diane Sagnellas reports on a first timer's experience: "Well, Feliciano (Protasi) and I went there with lumps in our throats, trembling from the memories of all too many horror stories of the 'hill'. No-one with whom we had spoken had had anything good to say about the course. No-one...Based on various estimates of 'normal' 10K times with Bridge of Flowers 10K times we decided that we should run it in 45 minutes. This we thought would earn us the right to run with the B-Group (42 min 10K group). Something we had taken for granted but never proved. But when we heard of Bob Gillon's time, a full 4 minutes over his 10K PR, well we thought we should re-evaluate our goal...46-47 minutes was sounded pretty damn good! Nonetheless, we kept a secret desire to hit 45 minutes I had a strategy, one I developed while lying on the beach on sunny afternoon when in a state somewhere between dreamland and reality. I thought that if we could do the first 2 miles conservatively ~7, then do mile 3 in 10 minutes... and then if we ran the next 3.2 at a 6:33 pace... well we could do it! Hmm... the last 3.2 at 6:33? Who was I kidding? So the day of the race came. Armed with my plan and Melissa's advice we went into battle. I wish I could give mile by mile splits but I don't know what they are. I can say that the split at mile three was 23:26. We took the hill at ~9:26... Thanks Melissa for the advice it made that hill very doable! Naively we thought we could fly down the other side of the mountain..but the grade was so steep that we spent more time 'braking' then running... There were rocks and holes and mud; my shoes were untied, which more than one fellow runner pointed out to me, and then there was grass! Grass? We hate grass! But we persevered and we reached our goal! 44:55! I was 7th in my age group... (The same time last year would have placed me 4th), 15th woman over all. I might add that Lynn Jennings was in my age group! Feliciano set a PR, and what a course to do it on! While we were elated at the time of our finish we are we are now plagued with the doubts of every runner, the 'what-ifs'. Well, next year.

• Run for Love Lane, Weston, MA. Scott Duhaime took a 5K stroll through the country lanes of Weston, and completed this rolling course in 18:57 (6:07/mile).

• Chilmark 5K Classic, Martha's Vineyard. A mild summer breeze greets the 1,497 runners at the 21st annual Chilmark Road Race. The mood is low key and easy going, like an August vacation day in MV should be. Among the runners are four from CRC, each hoping to beat last year's time. The course is green and shady with rolling hills throughout. A nice downhill and crowds of well-wishers await at the finish, Beetlebung Corner. Janice Smagas' third in the Masters Division earned her a beautiful ceramic bowl. The post-race activities stretch into early afternoon; but it's ok, no one seems to mind. The beach will still be there, and high tide isn't until later anyway.

  Place	Div	Name	Time	Pace
  83	16	DAVE QUILTY	20:50	6:43
  179	3	JAN SMAGA	22:45	7:20
  474	90	PETER LARSEN	26:41	8:36
  544	106	GEORGE MORGAN	27:40	8:55

• Falmouth Road Race, Falmouth, MA. Woods Hole to Falmouth, MA, 7.1 miles, 7195 finishers. Even to the casual observer just scrolling through the results and picking out the big names is impressive. How about making this the Race of the Month next year? Jeff Phillips diligence paid off as he correctly counted 5,437 Kenyans at Falmouth. His award: The first leg in this years Lake Winnipesaukee Relay; congratulations Jeff!

  Some of CRCs' big names sent in the following reports:

  Melissa Mendel:
  After 6 years of running Falmouth, you would think we would get at least one cool, dry day to race. Nope. I arrived in Falmouth on Sunday morning and was surprised to learn that my finishing place in last year's race earned me a starting position in the first three rows this year! However, after Peter and I watched Colleen De Reuck run her warn up sprints, I decided not to pace off her. The humidity took its usual toll on me through miles 4-6. Yet, unlike last year, there was no scorching sun on Surf Drive so I didn't slow to my usual crawl. I finished the 7.1-mile course in 43:43, giving me a 54-second PR and placing me 42nd woman and 210th overall. Maybe lucky #7 will bring my cool, dry day. I counted 7 Kenyan women, and 16 Kenyan men, including one masters.

  Raymond Gonzalez:
  Place 420 , time 47:19:00

  Jeff Phillips the elder:
  Falmouth.....hot, humid........time......1:00:00......couldn't have done that if I'd tried....... # of Kenyans........5,437

  Peter Larsen:
  I'll bet there were 6 Kenyans at Falmouth.

• Relatively low humidity and cool temperatures lured 700 or so runners to the Hood/Neba Run for the Charles. The race was approximately as well organized as the Newburyport 10 miler, although at least this time the organizers didn't have the creativeness to print an incorrect start time on the bibs. Lacking any clear indication of where the race actually started, runners milled around in the vicinity of some Hood balloons until the mystery of the starting line was revealed at the last minute. This caused a very effective `random seeding' of runners, and left plenty of runners who might normally line up near the front soundly boxed in at the back. Such was the case for Bruce Davie, who had to run for about a minute before getting a clear path to run in, and must have passed at least 100 runners in the first mile. He eventually made his way up to 11th place, finishing in a time of 22:13 on a course that was either 4 or 4.3 miles long, depending on where you looked on the entry materials. Ray Gonzalez should give Bruce some assertiveness training - he started in the front row and finished 46th in 25:03, just 2 places ahead of Sanjay Ram (25:08). Finishing off the way they started, the race organizers managed to lose Jodi Crofut's entry information, so she was duly recorded in the official results as `Unknown Entrant - Age ?' Her time was 30:14 which should have been good for a prize in the ungendered, unknown age group.

• Showcase 5 miler in North Reading. Diane Sagnello reports: Feliciano and I ran the Showcase 5 miler in North Reading this past Saturday. It was a sunny, hot and hilly 5 miles. While we both set PR's, we were disappointed in our times. My time of 34:29 was good enough to get second woman overall (A SMALL race!). Feliciano was right behind me in 34:48.

• Bay State Triathlon, Medford, MA. 469 of the best triathletes in America showed up in Medford on an overcast and humid Sunday to compete for the last 20 qualifying spots for the Kona Ironman. A quick look at the top 100 finishers finds only 22 of them were from Massachusetts. Old Friend Lionel Kurvella was one of them, finishing 98th in 3:13:57. This long course event featured a 1 mile swim (two 1/2 mile laps in Wrights Pond), a 38 mile bike course (8 laps of 4.75 miles), and a 9.5 mile run (2 bike laps). Lionel, a strong runner, also proved to be a strong swimmer. His swim time of 22:39 and run time of 1:00:58 were both 33rd overall, and his bike split of 1:50:20 (this included both transitions) was 244th. Scott Duhaime completed his first long course triathlon. Typically, he got better with each event. His swim split of 32:05 was 363rd overall, his bike of 1:46:30 (22 mph) was 188th, and his run of 1:09:50 (7:21) was 172nd, placing him 216th overall in 3:28:25. Finishing just behind Scott was Kim Blair, another old friend, who needs to come back and practice his running! He was out of the pond right behind Lionel in 22:56 (39th), and followed up with a strong bike of 1:43:46 (153), but faded on the run with a 1:22:26 (355th). His overall time was 3:29:08, good for 222nd place. In fairness to Kim, he has completed two 1/2 Ironmans this summer, one in a PR of 4:40!
• Mark Price reports: If this were the Herald the 4 inch headline would be: "Mark takes bite out of the Big Apple". This weekend I ran in the NYC Triathlon. It is now officially one year of running, since this is the first race which I have done twice. I was fortunate to have significant improvement over last year's outing. The course is in Central Park and is .25mi swim, 12 mi bike and 5 mi run. Last year I completed the course in 1:45:49 with my splits: 6:33swim/52:47bike/45:06run. I was 142 overall and 24 in my age group. This year I finished in 1:28:08 and my splits were: 6:38swim/39:44bike/39:09run. I finished 52 and 7 in my age group. I just hope those diminishing returns don't set in too quickly...

• Ironman Canada. Karen (Ironwomen) Claire with a triumphet report: I've been out of town for a few weeks, but I would definitely like to report that I finished Ironman Canada on Sunday, 8/30!! (And pretty darn close to 8/31...) This is what I have been training for all summer (year). Ironman Canada is an immensely popular event which fills up extremely early each year (i.e. if you want to compete next year sign up now, it might already be too late).

  The conditions were horrendous this year! I know, I know, everybody says this, right?? But strong headwinds on the bike, and 100+ degree conditions contributed to an extremely high DNF rate (the dreaded did-not-finish) - 250 competitors out of 1700 dropped out (or were forced out via the medical tent) of the race. I personally suffered big dehydration/electrolyte imbalance woes. I stopped sweating about 80 miles into the bike (uh-oh), and had trouble restoring fluid into my body until it finally got dark and cooled off, and I had ingested table salt for a while. (Electrolyte tablets in the future for me for sure!) My marathon time reflects about 20 miles of semi-delirious walking, and a final 10K run in an effort to finish within the midnight cut-off time (I made it with 20 minutes to spare!)

  My split times were as follows:

  2.4 mile swim 1:21:58
  112 mile bike 8:36:19
  (includes both transitions, including an extended "can I stand back up without tipping over??" bike -> run transition!)
  26.2 mile run 6:42:16

  for a total of 16:40:32.

  I didn't sign up for next year (yet!)...but maybe in the year 2000...