This regular Westminster Roadrunners' event starts at the crossroads of Pleasant Valley and Pleasant Valley South across from the Fire Department. In the summer the race goes north south over hill and dale and the heat just kills you. In the winter the course heads east with enough rolling hills to make you feel as if you were headed for the North Pole. This year's race winner was the only one foolish enough to run in shorts. One of five runners in the race who ran a combined 500 races last year, Karsten Brown enjoys belonging to many clubs and races every weekend at least twice. This year he has already been the overall winner four times including today.

As the racers started into the main street of the town, Brown was already easing away from Tom Yinger at a sub 6:00 pace. Last year's winner Bill Stahr of The Plains, VA started with his customary slow start sidling up to runners as the hills deepened and the winds began to howl. Stahr was running his 16th race of the year and his second of the day. As he passed runners moving from tenth to third, to win the masters he barbed them with encouragements designed to elicit responses, such as "Drop dead!"

Many of the wind chilled racers expected to be refreshed because at the 2-mile turnaround the course is mostly downhill. It was then that they discovered that the relatively mild chill on the way up with surprisingly fast times was aided by a fierce 20 MPH tail wind. Now experiencing the headwind, runners found it quite easy to slow their pace.

Many top finishers like to jog back out on the course to, oh so politely, remind the "other" runners that they have already finished. Brown (in photo) prefers to move out to the finish line and take pictures. Indeed, the pictures in this article are there just to prove that I did NOT finish last.

At the beginning, as a runner would come alongside of me, I would graciously (helplessly) allow them to pass. As the race (and me) was about to expire, I heard footsteps and mustered all I had into a final sprint. It is no fun at all to give up a place in the last few yards. Poker faced Brown took the pictures and race scorer Dave Herlocker's eyes gave no hint at the impending photo finish. Women's winner Ashley Baker came up just a heartbeat short and settled for eighth place instead.