 |
SVR Winter Series Race #1
 
Saturday 13 December 2003 - 9:30 AM
Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School, Front Royal, VA
|
| |
| Mystery Distance Run
13 Dec 03 - Front Royal, VA |
| | |
|
Prior to the race, runners were told only that the distance of the course was between three and five miles. Everyone's guesses as to the correct distance were collected after the race; check out the results by distance guesses page to see how everyone fared. Below are some statistics about the guessing. (Note: Robbie Olsen's humorously phony guess was excluded when calculating the averages & medians.)
|
| | |
|
| actual race distance | 3.52 mi. |
| average guess | 3.59 mi. |
| median guess | 3.55 mi. |
|
| | |
|
| number of high guesses | 28 |
| number of low guesses | 25 |
| number of exact guesses | 0 |
|
| | |
|
| average high guess | 3.78 mi. |
| median high guess | 3.67 mi. |
| worst high guess | 19.24 mi. |
|
| | |
|
| average low guess | 3.39 mi. |
| median low guess | 3.39 mi. |
| worst low guess | 3.30 mi. |
|
| | |
|
| | 
Waiting for the start
|
After being held for many years at Powhatan School in Clarke County, the Mystery Distance Run moved to its third location in as many years, starting off the 2003-2004 SVR Winter Series at Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School in Front Royal on Saturday 13 December. But as we experienced with last year's opening Winter Series race in Front Royal (the Kickoff Run 5K), the weather played a big role in our scheduling and course layout!
The Mystery Distance Run was originally slated to be held on Saturday 6 December, but just like with last year's Kickoff Run, a big ol' snowstorm rolled in on the preceding day. The decision to postpone the race until the 13th was easy, as the closure of Warren County's schools on the 5th automatically nixed any events held at the schools on the weekend. Thankfully much of the snow melted during the following week, and things looked good for our second attempt at holding the race.
Colleen & Alexander Snyder
| |
Race directors Colleen Snyder & Cheryl Harrison had worked up a mysterious route which followed both paved roads and parts of the cross-country course used by Warren County High School's cross-country team. The temperatures dropped quite low on the night before the race, however, and when we checked things out a couple hours before the race, we found the cross-country section of the course peppered with slippery spots as well as an ice slide on one of the downhills. While it was tempting to just send the runners out there anyway, your author came up with a hastily-devised, all-paved out & back route which runners would follow twice. Cheryl quickly marked the new course, aided by Colleen's son Alexander, while your author pushed the measuring wheel. The final measurement came out to 3.52 miles (a figure which wasn't computed until ten minutes before race time!). The course may have | |
Bob Atkins descends the Linden Street hill
|
been a little dull, and there may have been a pretty big hill halfway through the out & back sections, but at least spectators at the school got to see the runners pass by at the halfway point... and at least the route seemed to get much better reviews than did your author's hellacious Kickoff Run backup course from last year!
The chilly conditions may have kept some runners away, but we saw a modestly acceptable turnout of 53 runners show up at the elementary school for the race (many of whom drove up to Warren County Junior High School first, not realizing that the elementary school was the next school down the road!). With the sun periodically peeking through high clouds, temperatures had finally reached the 30° mark by the 9:30 AM start. Colleen got things started with the standard "On your marks" countdown, and off went the runners down Westminster Drive, all wondering just how far they'd end up running. As indicated by the race's name, we would not be revealing the actual distance until everyone has finished!
| | 
Mark Stickley
|
It didn't take long for Mark Stickley to claim the lead! The 41-year-old Handley High School cross-country coach, who also owns the Runners' Retreat in Winchester, was briefly shadowed by last year's overall Winter Series champ, Brad Rippey, 37. But the Stickman gradually opened up a larger and larger lead, and he easily motored to a 19:52 win, with Rippey reaching the finish thirty-four seconds later. 20-year-old Robbie Olsen hung back patiently during the early part of the race before motoring by Alan Thatcher to claim third in 21:09. Thatcher, 40, faced no challenges for fourth place (21:14), what with Mark Vann (21:51) practicing his walking skills on the Linden Street hill.
Molly Castille
Tracy Rice
| |
The relatively small women's field, just fourteen runners deep, was dominated by Winchester's Molly Castille, 30. The former Pittsburgh resident, running only her second local race, averaged just under seven minutes per mile to win the race in 24:35. Winter Series veteran Tracy Rice, 33, was two minutes twenty seconds back for second place. 19-year-old Regina Gaetano of Vienna, VA claimed third place about a mile into the race and never let go, finishing in 27:19. The same early hill which put Gaetano in third also helped Krista Farris work her way up to fourth place, which she held onto with a 28:16 performance. And 51-year-old Nancy Specht overcame steady pressure from Jill Devereux to take fifth in 28:55.
The mysterious length of the course undoubtedly played a role in a few folks' fast starts and in the conservative starts of a few others. But which runners had the best sense of how far they had run? Well, nobody managed to come up with "3.52 miles" on their finish cards, but two runners came quite close to that figure: Paul Grosz and the aforementioned Krista Farris! Each of their guesses were off by just a hundredth of a mile. | |
Paul Grosz, Krista Farris
|
Ed Grainger and Michelle See were the next best guessers, missing the true distance by a fiftieth of a mile. Mary Smith got within a twenty-fifth of a mile, and Tom Aldstadt, Ric Francke, and Bob Gurtler all guessed "3.47 miles"-- off by a twentieth. (Our apologies to Tom and Ric, whose cards we apparently missed when figuring out the best guessers after the race!) The worst guesser? That would be Robbie Olsen, who wrote "19.24 miles" on his card. Guess we should've inspected his water bottle before the race, eh?
Our thanks to Colleen & Cheryl for their race directing efforts, along with volunteers Alexander Snyder, Jason Page, and Kim Yeck. And we'd also like to thank Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School for their hospitality! Perhaps we'll return again next year to take another stab at running the cross-country course. Until then, be sure to check out the Mystery Distance Run race results our selection of 125 race photos!
|
