Women's Distance Festival Run, 17 July 2005

McCubbin Captures WDF for Second Time in Three Years

Running on a sticky, cloudy morning under conditions which produced relatively slow times, WRRC club member Tina McCubbin captured the Women's Distance Festival 5K, held at Union Mills on Sunday, July 17. McCubbin has now finished fourth or better in this event in each of the last five years, including winning it in 2003 and 2005.

Grabbing the lead immediately, McCubbin paced the 54 runner field through the first mile in a time of 6:35, good for a five second lead over FSK runner and WRRC member Maggie Leathers, with Kristin Stromberg, Becky Leathers, and Baltimore Road Runner member Robin Goodwin trailing Maggie by eight to thirty seconds.

After making the turn at two and one-half kilometers, McCubbin surged through the early portion of the mostly downhill return trip, and with a mile to go, her time of 14:17 gave her a 24 second lead over Maggie Leathers, with Goodwin moving to third, Cindy Cohen moving to fourth, and Becky Leathers dropping to fifth.

Although a number of experienced runners moved up several spots during the last mile, no one posed any threat to McCubbin, as she produced the only sub-seven minute per mile finishing time, 21:03, fifty seconds ahead of Goodwin. Maggie Leathers finished a close third, almost a minute ahead of Cohen, and Kathy Schaffer moved up to fifth. Club members Sherry Clower, Chrissy Pennington, Dee Nelson, and Becky Leathers also finished in the top ten.

Led by McCubbin in first place, Maggie Leathers in third, and Clower in sixth, the host WRRC retained the fame team trophy for yet another year. The Baltimore Road Runners finished second, and the Howard County Striders finished third.