Gate City Striders

"Millie" at the Track

Success!!! 

After a few years of knocking on the door, The Gate City Striders have finally broken through and won the 2008 Mill Cities Relay. Our club scored 99 points on Sunday 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 siding this way and that during the early stages of the race. 

Steve Wolfe - Finishing Up - Mens Masters Team

Our club had a record 26 teams & 124 runners participate in this years relay and countless others who volunteered, cheered and otherwise helped us on to victory. Our Male Open Team of Rich Smith, Mark Wimmer, Chris Merra, Justin Fyffe & Todd Callaghan finished second overall (just 3 minutes out of first) and scored 13 huge points for us, the most of any GCS team! Next was our Male Masters Team of Mike Wright, Michael Wade, Steve Wolfe, Joe Donnelley & Brian Crane who finished fifth overall and third in their division snagging 12 points. Also picking up 12 points was our Coed Masters Team of Jeff Hunt, Karen Ringhesier, Michelle Bociek, Mark Engermann & John Dalton and our Fabulous Female Masters Team of Cathy Merra, Janice Platt, Carla Chandler, Karen Long & Lori Lambert. These “Chicks With Experience” proved just that, as they also took first in their division!

Ken Snow handing off to Steve Tomasi - Mens Seniors Team

Our Male Senior Team of Jerry Fitzgibbon, Chuck Landry, Ken Snow, Steve Tomasi & Len Hall scored 10 big points for the club on their way to a second place finish in their division. Another team who scored 10 points (the hard way) was Coed Open Team of Joe Rogers, Kerry Litka, Lauren Eyenation, Randy Macneill & JP Lewicke. These so called “Diamond Dogs” lost the scent and charged off course for a bit before finding their way and rallying back to finish strong. I’m starting to think this Coed Open spot of ours may be a cursed one. Last year it was food poisoning, and this year was a poor sense of direction. So, just remember for next year, if asked to run on this particular GCS team, you do it at your own risk.

Karen Pattelena - Locked and Loaded - Womens Open Team

Next on the scoring sheet was our “Grumpy Coed Seniors” who were anything but as the Team of Trevor Ward, Fiona McDonnell, Sharon Pescetta, Richard Galera & Dick Stockdale cruised to a second place finish and picked up 9 points in the process. Our Female Open Team of Callie Hartnett, Liz Hall, Leslie Reap, Karen Pattelena & Amber Cullen put the Woo in “WooHoo Girls” with their fourth place finish and 8 “Big Girl” points. Also scoring a snowman were the old men on our “Way Past Fast” Male Veteran Team. Rick Stetson, Bill Spencer, Denny Leblanc, Bill Borla & John Lewicke made every second count (and they needed it) to finish first in their division and hold off a WCRC Vet’s team hot on their heels and just 52 seconds back!

Bill Spencer - A real MCR Veteran - Mens Veterans Team

Last, but certainly not least, were our “Sunshine Starters”. This was our Female Senior Team of Robin Rocha, Pam Hall & Deb Roy and our Female Veteran Team of Jane Levesque, Aline Kenney & Heidy McGaffigan. Combined these 6 gals scored 5 points total. While that may not seem like a lot, if you consider the small margin of victory in the overall Team Championship, it made all the difference in the world! And, not only did this small group of determined women prove to be the one of the deciding factors in the outcome of this important race, they also helped pick-up their fallen sunshine start comrades on the “Antsy to Start & Raring to Go” Coed Veteran Team who got to do neither when their car slid off the road and hit a telephone pole near the Presentation of Mary Academy in Hudson. Was that a “holy slip” I heard? Fortunately, no one but the car was injured. And, with any luck, Gary Circosta along with Steve & Judi Moland will give it another go with us next year instead of running a real “Sunshine Start” someplace a whole lot warmer, like Florida!

It's Potty Time!

Full race results and photos of this years Mill Cities Relay can be found at the MCR website And, photos/stories by your fellow club members will soon find their way into our newsletter and onto our soon to be updated GCS website

Thanks again to everyone who came out and ran in this great, season ending, club event with us this year! It really did take a total team effort to pull this one out and without the great support and sacrifice of each and every one of you we couldn’t have made it happen. I hope you all had as much fun as I did and you consider running with us again next year!