Gate City Striders

The Mill Cities Relay is a 5-leg, 27.1 mile race from Nashua, NH to Lawrence, MA. It began in 1984 as a way of celebrating the end of the local road racing season and determines bragging rights among the 18 participating Merrimack Valley running clubs. The race starts not with a starting gun, but with the drop of a ceremonial brick. The five leg distances are 5.6, 4.9, 2.5, 9.4 & 4.7 miles and points are awarded to teams in each of the 12 age/gender categories. Teams finishing in the top 3 get a brick trophy with a small plaque on it. After 25 years of competing, GCS has received enough brick trophies to build a small house! Any current club member is eligible to participate in this year’s race free of charge. Each relay runner gets a commemorative Mill Cities Relay gift and the post-race party at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence is not to be missed. As it is every year, the party is a great place to meet new members as well as catch up with old ones.

Gate City Striders - 2008 Mill Cities Champions

After many years of knocking on the door, the Gate City Striders finally broke through and won the 2008 Mill Cities Relay. Our club scored 99 points and needed every single one of them to hold off a strong, 96 point, challenge from The Winners Circle Running Club, a perennial MCR powerhouse. The Mill Cities Team Championship was only our second triumph in the 25 year history of the event and the first since 2000. The race itself proved to be quite an adventure indeed because, as luck would have it, the start of the relay just happened to coincide with the first snowfall of the season. Only an inch of snow fell over the course of the morning, but the flurries were enough to wreak havoc with the day’s events. There were cars off the road everywhere and runners sliding this way and that during the early stages of the race. Our club had a record 26 teams & 124 runners participate in the relay and countless others who volunteered, cheered and otherwise helped us on to victory!

2008 MCR - The start of something big

The 2009 Mill Cities Relay is being held on Sunday, December 6^th and with a club the size of ours, there is no reason why we shouldn’t own this race year in and year out. Our victory last year was a source of great pride among the members of this club. And, kicked off what has been a fantastic year of Team Racing here in 2009! This year we’ll need to work to defend our title and the other clubs are sure to be hungrier than ever. The Mill Cities Relay starts in our own back yard, and it should finish with the trophy ending up here again as well. The Gate City Striders are the defending Mill Cities Relay Team Champions. And, it’s not too early to start thinking “Repeat”!

The Mill Cities Trophy - aka "Millie"

Since every point counts in this race, the team captains and I will be working hard to assemble the most competitive teams possible and all team registrations will need to go through us. Remember, “Pick-up” teams will not have their entry fees paid by the club. So please let me know, as soon as possible at mwade@ganekarchitects.com if you’re interested in running and we’ll get you registered and on a team.

Mill Cities Relay Website