1999 Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon

Report by: Eric Barron

Flip-flopping the last two years' weather conditions, the weather this year was pretty good for racing, but less than ideal for spectating. Fortunately, the TCLA'ers did not let a little rain and cold stop some good running and excellent cheering. Moreover, given the torrent of rain that fell that afternoon, the attendees should feel lucky the race occurred when it did.

Team I (Jacinda, Elizabeth F., Peter, Eric, Jeff S.) bested the TCLA mixed team record by fourteen minutes with a 6:14-per-mile average for a total of 2:43:24, and improved 18 places to finish as the 24th team overall. It repeated last year's second place in the mixed running team category, however, falling short of first by six minutes. Jacinda led strongly (she was the first woman to finish the first leg), and Elizabeth improved over last year. The men were all new to Team I, and they ran well, but the women were overheard muttering that if only Jeff could have turned in a 23-minute leg instead of his mere 29 minutes, we would have been sitting pretty.

Only ten overall places back, Team II (Jeff C., Paul, Tim, Brian, Jerry H.) muscled a 2:52:42, averaging 6:35 per mile. Considering that this team consists primarily of short distance specialists, they turned in a nice marathon time. They likely would have run even faster, but seemed distracted by the fact that they had not actually received their race t-shirts prior to the start of the race.

Team III (Elizabeth S., Josh, Sarita, Todd, Habib) was graceful under pressure considering that their fifth runner did not appear until sometime during the fourth runner's leg. Good thing, too, that Habib showed up, because it would have been pretty ugly to see how they would have determined which of the other four was going to have the pleasure of doubling on the fifth leg. Still, they eked out placing in the top 100 overall with a 7:19-per-mile average, 3:11:40 total time, and ninth place in the mixed running club division.

Team IV (Wenise, Bao, Deanna, Wayne, and Lawrence) consisted mainly of one of last year's teams, so one would have expected that they had their handoffs down to a "T." Nevertheless, as with last year, Wenise entered the relay zone and allegedly had to catch up to a sprinting Bao (it could be that Wenise was simply tired by that point, or it could be that Bao was a bit too excited to perform well having brought his own personal photographer). Also reprising last year's performance, Wayne gutted out his leg after suffering severe pain during the race. Two newcomers to the team, Deanna and Lawrence, ran well, and they finished with a 7:55-per-mile average for a total of 3:27:51, and 193rd place overall.

(Running for other teams were Ogie, Mike K., and Ellen. A dictionary definition of the word, "loyalty," will be furnished to these individuals at no extra charge.)