Mayberry 4-mile Run, 21 November 2004

Ward, McCubbin Triumph on Mayberry Course

On a cloudy and cool but not wet morning Bobby Ward, again the coach of a state championship cross-coutry team, and Tina McCubbin, running on her home course, captured top honors in the Mayberry Four Mile Run.

Bob Ward charged down the long but gentle hills in the first mile to post a 6:05 mark, good for a seven second lead over Bob Leatherman and ten seconds over Bob Paczynski. Bob McCubbin followed in fourth with a time of 6:40, with Joe Loveland fifteen seconds behind her and Sherry Clower another five seconds back.

After carefully navigating the four way stop intersection at which Mayberry and Stone Roads cross both on the way out and back, Ward passed the three mile mark in 19:28, with Paczynski fourteen seconds behind. Third place Bob Leatherman was at this point more concerned with McCubbin, some thirty seconds behind him in 20:40, than catching the leaders, while McCubbin was striving to stay ahead of Loveland.

Although Paczynski attempted to catch Ward during the early part of the last mile, the wily cross-country runner used the long climb to the finish to his advantage to lengthen his lead to nineteen seconds. Leatherman, whose lead over McCubbin was slowly being reduced during the last mile, was happy to see the finish line, and Loveland finished six seconds behind McCubbin in fifth.

With McCubbin breaking a 7:00 minute per mile pace to finish fourth overall, there wasn't much suspense in the female division. While Sherry Clower could not maintain her 7:00 first mile pace through the latter part of the race, she finished seventh overall , roughly three minutes behind McCubbin and six minutes ahead of first and only masters runner Liuda Galinaitis.

Other highlights included the second strong performance in two races by eight year old Zachary Rodriguez, the continuing saga of Skip Fennell, and the visit by Julia Kohr and Aiden Weisenborn to lend encouragement to the finishers.

The next race is the Union Mills 8K on our only certified course. The race starts at 9:00 am on Sunday, December 5, and the race director is Chris Reese. Chris is currently in Florida, a place that only the hurricanes have visited more this year. If she doesn't return, we'll just pretend that she did.