Gate City Striders

39 Triad Racing Team members toed the line in Hampstead, NH for the fourth race in the 2009 New Hampshire Grand Prix Series - The St. Anne’s Lakes 5m. And, despite the fact that Greater Derry outnumbered us once again, we managed to come out on top at the end of a very hot and humid day! Preliminary results had GCS finishing with 160 points, to Derry’s 146 points, with Granite State a distant third with 74 points.

Rich Smith continued his winning ways by finishing first place overall with a time of 27:22. Of course, Rich also took first on our Mens Open Team ahead of Denis Tranchemontagne (29:49) and Frank Pilhofer (30:00). Our next fastest runner after Rich was Alex Brown who finished in 7^th place overall in a time of 28:59. Alex was 1st in his 29&under age group and first on the Mens Youth Team ahead of newcomer Greg Indruk (31:48) who finished 2^nd in his 29&under age group. Next across the line was Mike Wright. Mike finished in 32:01 which gave him 5th in his 40-44 age group and was enough to hold off a much improved pair of Keith Obrien (32:30) & Richie Blake (33:19) for first place on the Mens Masters Team. Trevor Ward finished 4th in his 50-54 age group and tied for first on the Mens Seniors Team with Steve Tomasi. Each finished in a time of 32:12 and just ahead of third place teammate Rich Galera (32:35). John Lewicke once again led the way for the Mens Veterans Team with a time of 35:11 ahead of Terrence Kenney (42:45) and Roy Dennehy (48:22). And, Shu Minami (who was a team of one) finished in 42:55 which gave him 1st place in his 70+ age group.

On the womens side, GCS had 5 of the top 10 fastest womens times of the day. These fleet-footed ladies were led by Karen Long who was the first female runner, of any age, across the line (31^st overall) which obviously made her first in her age group and first on the Womens Masters team with an impressive 32:19. Behind Karen was teammate Tammy Gaffey (33:58) & Janice Platt (36:32). These three ladies combined for whopping 24 points in their 40-49 age group. The next fastest female runner was Yuki Chorney who finished 2^nd in her 30-39 age group and first on the Womens Open Team ahead of Alison Findon (40:47) and Laura Rallis (43:35). Hot on Yuki’s heels was Cassie Wright who finished in 36:40 good enough for 1st in her 29& under age group (even though she’s just 14) and first on the Womens Youth Team. First across the line for the Senior Women was Andrea Pierce in a time 39:28 ahead of Deb Roy (46:36) & Leeann Ward (47:55). Finally, Aline Kenney finished in 42:43 and took the first place spot on the Womens Veterans Team while finishing 1st in her 60-69 age group ahead of Jane Levesque (47:56). Both Jane & Aline achieved an asterisk for finishing under the USATF guideline time for this distance. In short, they’re a couple of fast friends!

GCS-Triad Racing Team Individual Results for the St. Anne’s 5m can be found here.

The preliminary NHGP Team Scoring for the year still has us in second place with 544 points - 10 points behind Greater Derry who has 554 and 121 points ahead of Granite State who has 423. Our next New Hampshire Grand Prix race is The Moose on the Loose 10m on August 23rd in right here at Mine Falls Park in Nashua, NH. With this race being right in our own backyard, there’s no reason we can’t us our “home field” advantage to overtake Derry and jump back up into first place in the standings. But, we need everybody’s help to do it!

For additional information on The Moose on the Loose 10m race including a course map, application form and directions to the start please check out the race website here.