Ably transported to New London by Carmen, Rose, Jeannette and Lee arrived super early to run the 49th Annual John and Jessie Kelley 11.6 Mile Road Race. Jeannette and 4 others were offered the option of starting an hour early and they took it. Lea, Randy and Mandy arrived (Judi was on Annie Rose duty) and, after sending Jeannette off @ 8 AM, we hung around for the 9 AM race to start.

Lea did 2 or so before the race. Lee and Barry Stoner ran real short before the race. We recruited a friend to take a shot of 3 of us before the race started.

Mandy was looking for an 8 minute pace and managed an 8:01. Impressive.

Randy ("Monkey Shoes") Nokes walked briefly at about 8 miles but picked it up and finished strong. This is his first long race in quite a while.

Lee ran a bit under a 9 minute pace and then headed back to find Lea, Jeannette and Rose. He spotted Lea who reported Rose was about a minute behind her.

Lee went back after Lea finished and found Rose a bit later than he expected to. Her first words were "I fell," and then showed him a pretty nasty arm bruise. Somebody had thrown a Gu on the road in front of her and she slipped on it. A couple of people helped her get cleaned up and encouraged her to not run for a bit. She eventually got going again and finished well.

In fact, she placed 2nd!

Jeannette looked great at the finish and also placed (first).

Lea found a place for Rose to get a few band aids on her cuts. She's one tough Momma Rose.

Other friends spotted included Bekkie Wright, Joe Poliquin, Jill Ramos, Tom Walsh (we'll get you your Scottish Rite trophy one of these days!), Rich Fargo, Keron Smith, Rick Konon, Karl Fuller, Lesley Fearnley, and Gale Balavender.

We managed to collect no fewer than two plants, a gift certificate to New England Runner, a book bag, a calculator and a shirt for random prizes! (They called Randy's bib number twice so Mandy and Randy will have to decide who gets the book bag and who gets the magazine. Rose will deliver the goods to Judi.)

Run for Cover provided great music after the race and before the awards. Snerro officials did an awesome job timing and managing the whole event. John Kelley was unable to attend as he is ill and we missed him. He usually starts all the runners. About 500 runners participated.

Another Ocean Beach 11.6 is on the books! Well done, everybody!

Results