2000 Roxbury Run #39 3.55M

Roxbury, CT, November 25, 2000

Results courtesy of Ed Sandifer's Roxbury Running Page.

Another Old Guy Wins

About ten years ago, Steve Johnson was a regular at Roxbury. Life, though, intervened, marriage, kids, soccer practices, career, and all, so for the last several years, he's shown up maybe once every three years or so.

This was our lucky week, though, and Steve was able to get away for a few hours to come to the race.

As is his style, he went out quickly, staging a duel with 16 year old Nunawaug star Matt Cole for the first mile, while geriatrics Ed Sandifer and Tony Benivegna watched from behind. After a mile, on the downhill on the dirt road, Steve put on a powerful surge to break away from Matt, and Steve thought he was clear and could coast to the finish line. Since he didn't look back, he didn't know how close the race was.

Sandifer caught Matt Cole, and, unbeknownst to Steve, the pair were only about 60 meters back with a mile to go. Sandifer, known for his strong last miles, pulled away from Cole, and when Steve Johnson finally looked back with half a mile to go, he saw Sandifer giving him the evil eye from about 50 meters back. Johnson gathered himself for the two little hills that end the race, while Sandifer waited patiently for Johnson to fade.

In the end, Johnson waited until after the finish line to fade, and held on to win by nine seconds, about 35 meters. Though barely able to talk after the race, and unable to shake Sandifer's hand, not due to ungraciousness but because of fatigue, he did hold on to win.

With his win, the 49, soon to be 50, year old Johnson became the second oldest winner on record at Roxbury. Just last week, the old record was set by this week's fourth place finisher Tony Benivegna.

Cole rolled in third, ten seconds behind Sandifer, and last week's winner Tony Benivegna, was about a minute behind that.

Among the women, Peg Molina won her fourteenth race of the season, in 16 attempts, in beating Alyssa Cole by 28 seconds. It was good to see the Return of the Coles, absent since August for the fall high school season.

The Roxbury Races are now listed on the Internet both on CoolRunning.com and on HiTekRacing.com.

This week's Roxbury results

1	21.12	Stephen Johnson	5.58	min per mile
2	21.21	Ed Sandifer	6.01	min per mile
3	21.31	Matt Cole	6.04	min per mile
4	22.20	Tony Benivegna	6.17	min per mile
5	24.20	Peg Molina	6.51	min per mile
6	24.31	Bob Derringer	6.54	min per mile
7	24.48	Alyssa Cole	6.59	min per mile
8	24.58	Jay Kuenzle	7.02	min per mile
9	25.02	Ed Keplinger Jr	7.03	min per mile
10	25.04	Jacob Maentz	7.04	min per mile
11	25.50	Bill Shantell	7.17	min per mile
12	26.09	John Murphy Jr	7.22	min per mile
13	26.26	Wayne Blackman	7.27	min per mile
14	26.34	Lynn Zuback	7.29	min per mile
15	26.40	Chris Childs	7.31	min per mile
16	26.53	Scott Benjamin	7.34	min per mile
17	27.13	Michele Goldberg	7.40	min per mile
18	27.54	Chris Powderly	7.52	min per mile
19	28.27	Walter Schuttler	8.01	min per mile
20	28.42	Al Mletzko	8.05	min per mile
21	28.48	Carl Hunt	8.07	min per mile
22	30.17	Bob Lewis	8.32	min per mile
23	30.28	Ed Keplinger	8.35	min per mile
24	30.35	Katie Neils	8.37	min per mile
25	30.51	Bob Satterlee	8.41	min per mile
26	30.58	Kyle Gancher	8.43	min per mile
27	30.58	Nate Beatty	8.43	min per mile
28	31.27	Terry Lyons	8.52	min per mile
29	32.04	Shiloh Gawe	9.02	min per mile
30	32.05	Sharon Gawe	9.02	min per mile
31	35.33	Dennis Harrington	10.01	min per mile
32	36.25	Corinne Bellemare	10.15	min per mile
33	36.59	Jeanne Keplinger	10.25	min per mile
34	56.33	April Neils	15.56	min per mile
35	67.54	Rob McNamare	19.08	min per mile
		Alt 2.4 mile
1	37.22	Ken Neils	10.32	min per mile