Lone Gull 10K Race

9/24/17 – Writeup by Linda Desjardins. 

The North Shore Striders now has a new USATF/NE age-group champion, the first in recent memory, as Mike Pelletier won the M75-79 age group, one week after finishing 3rd in the USATF/NE 5K Championship.

And the Women’s Veterans team, Mariellen, Bonnie and Linda, took second place in their age group and to their surprise, earned a little cash for their effort.

This race was the USATF New England 10K Championship. There were plenty of competitors and it was a very strong field. There were winning times overall and in age groups that had the crowd gasping in awe! It was a warm day for late September, in the 70’s and bright sunshine. Fortunately, it was a bit cooler right along the shore than just a tad further inland, and there were some forgiving patches of shade; however, the predominant sunshine beating down on the runners had us sweating profusely and wishing there were more than 3 water stops. The course is fair: some rolling hills to keep things interesting and a finish up a challenging hill at the 6 mile mark and then down the other side to race to the finish. The consensus of many runners was that the last mile, all in full sun, felt much longer than a mile.

The North Shore Striders had a healthy contingent running – with Mike Pelletier earning age group honors (and the satisfaction of coming in ahead of an arch-rival). But even more impressive than his 5th place in the 70-99 category, is his first place finish in the USATF 75-79 age group, making him that age group’s New England USATF 10K Champion for 2017. How cool is that? Kudos, Mike. In addition, George Geis took 7th in that same age group. Rosie Keyes, Maureen Kelly, Mariellen Hayward, Dave Jefska, George Geis, Cheryl Welsh, Bonnie Hallinen, Jill Page, Art Clay, Gary Freedman, Jennifer O’Neil, and Linda Desjardins all took the 10K challenge, and all finished. The post-race refreshments included the ever-popular Freeze Pops. Wow, were those gobbled up and savored.

Thanks to Mike Pelletier for his always-informative chart. Unfortunately, the results posted by Cool Running did not contain the numbers of runners in each age group so he had to omit that stat. Nevertheless, this is one heck of a good showing on a less-than-ideal running day.