Cherry Tree 10-Miler

Cherry Tree 10-Miler

President's Day has come and gone and with it the running of this year's Cherry Tree 10-Miler.  Thanks to Mother Nature for the early spring-like weather conditions - if this keeps up, even the most die-hard global warming deniers are going to be demanding that we drop the "race for the hardcore" description from the name, and we'll have to give the volunteers sunscreen instead of handwarmers.

This year's race was - according to most everyone - a resounding success, with an unprecedented 867 individual 10-milers and 138 relay teams competing.  In a testament to the growing popularity of the race, we came close to reaching the cap of 1,500 before online registration closed.

With the spotlight on safety in the park, and at the request of the Parks Department, we changed the course a little, moving the start off the main roadway and onto Wellhouse Drive.  Thankfully, this was accomplished without too much confusion (everybody not only got but read the memo).

There were plenty of fast times recorded with a close 1-2 finish going to Kieran O'Connor and Michael Cassidy, with times of 52:19 and 52:20 respectively.  The women were led by Jane Vongvorachoti in 59:02 and the first relay team was Front Runners United with a collective time of 55:10.  A special shout-out to the 88 individual PPTC members who ran, led by Tom Greene for the men in 1:02:03 and Laura Vernikoff for the women with a time of 1:11:42, and the numerous PPTC relay teams with Tony's Angels (you know who you are) posting a time of 1:08:55.  Since I value my life, I'll also give special mention to the team anchored by the winner of this year's Harry's Handicap, Bunny Ellerin, who with fellow PPTC member Marcy Greenberg and ringer Shanna Huston posted a very nice 1:31:13.

Our sponsors JackRabbit Sports kindly provided the locations for packet pick-up Thursday through Saturday, whilst Bishop Ford was host to race-day pick-up as well as the post-race refreshments and awards.