A sea of Y2K revellers showed up for the
3rd Annual
First Night Resolution Run on the evening of December 31, 1999. Well
over
300 registered runners made this race by far the biggest in the growing
line of successful New Year's Eve runs. The night was calm and warm
(near
40), making it ideal for a winter 5K. Many of the runners were
dazzlingly
bedecked, some in rather alarming costumes. The first place women's
finisher,
Laurie Corbin of Boonton, NJ, wasn't wearing a costume, but got quite a
few looks as she flew through the course in 17:45 in very sleek
aerodynamic
attire. One crew of what looked like aging frat boys had the
distinction
of sporting the highest entry number (320), together, as they ran the
course
linked up in some kind of Y2Katerpillar costume. Added to this lot were
innumerable clowns, jesters and fairies (one of them, Katie
Kisenwether,
was a "fairy gone bad" and wore a pirate hat and eye patch), as
well
as at least one lady bug, Liz Kisenwether.
The race was loaded with "duffers" out to have some fun. Aside from a few fast finishers up front, most participants were truly "Resolution Runners". I normally struggle to finish in the top third these days, but this time I had no trouble nearly cracking the top 6th. As Mike Dooris glided up to me near the halfway point, I remarked that it should be the goal of any serious runner to catch any costumed runner ahead of him. At this time, there was one dazzling jester, dressed in silver and pink lycra with crazy colored ribbons in her hair about 50 yards ahead of us. Mike turned on the jets, caught the jester and rolled to a 4th place age group finish. It took me till the final downhill on Shortlidge to catch her. I later found out that the jester was our own Heidi Rickard, who finished 2nd among females 15-19 and was probably the fastest costumed runner. (Heidi and her mom were a great help in this Fall's Youth Cross Country series.)
There were a few very fast runners in the pack, including some out-of-towners. The overall men's winner was Larz Selmer-Larsen in 16:38, followed very closely by Jeff White of Tyrone in 16:42. Tom Cali, finishing in 17:42, had to settle for second in the men's Masters category, getting beat by Guy Gordon of Sparta, NJ, who clocked 17:13. As mentioned earlier, Laurie Corbin of Boonton, NJ, won the women's overall contest in 17:45, followed by Stacy Gaynor of State College in 18:56. The women's Masters prize went to Sue Crowe in 19:29, with second going to Mary Petrak of Hollidaysburg in 22:56. Christina Crowe won the women's 15-19 prize in 19:55.
Thursday Track paid bonuses for a few runners, including Sandy Gregorich (1st in the women's 35-39 group in 19:17), Liz Kisenwether (2nd, women's 40-44, 23:41), Tom Cali (2nd men's Master, 17:42), and Marv Hall (2nd, men's 45-49, 19:27).
Gratitude beyond measure goes to Dave Eggler for
organizing
this great success and drumming up the volunteers that made it so.
Thanks
also go to Tom Cali, Tammy Bert, Mike Dooris, Marvin Hall, Jim Moore,
Paige
Andrew, Jan & John Melonas, and others who helped out. Thanks for a
great race!