Photo Above: Ecris Williams of Reston (in black cap) takes off amid a pack of runners at the start of the Rotary Resolution 10K.

Last year the weather was ideal. No, not the fifth annual race, that was clear but a brisk twenty-five degrees. Yesterday [December 31, 2002], at four in the afternoon, it was clear blue skies, no wind, and a toasty sixty degrees. Then, the winds came a-blowing and about the time we were hearing Dick Clark make the final countdown to 2003, the raindrops began falling. There were many choices throughout the area for runners to start their racing year. Nearly four hundred runners and more than one hundred 4K walkers made this year's race by far the largest race among them.

The race offered an option to just enter the race or to purchase a sturdy sweatshirt for only $15 more. All finishers received a classy medallion. One of the biggest plusses for this race was the huge indoor facility with lots of nearby parking. Runners dashed from their cars to the waiting shelter and listened to spirited music while waiting for the start of the 10:45 AM main event. There was loads of food and drink, which was generously set out even as the runners arrived to pick up their race numbers and their ChampionChip.

The Chip is used to ease scoring, improving accuracy and speeding the results. The Chip, placed in the laces of the runners' shoes, records when the runner crosses both the starting line and the finish. This allows all runners to know how long they took to run the race, without crossing the starting line immediately when the horn sounds. "Chip time" was used for the age group winners. This allows runners in slower age groups that seed themselves at their correct pacing place to do so without being penalized.

The temperature was a near perfect, windless forty-five degrees. Once the sporadic showers stopped just before the start of the race, the only place it was going to be tough was the ground. The course is nearly unique among road races. Normally, there are three kinds: strictly on roads, cross-country, which is run on paths though the countryside, and trail running, which can be cross-country but is mostly street-quality bicycle paths in our parks.

The accurately measured 10K course takes participants through the rolling hills and pathways of the Morven Park Estate. Morven Park is the former home of both a Governor of Virginia and a Governor of Maryland. Morven Park is not open to runners on any other day of the year. The course is listed as approximately eighty percent paved or gravel roads and twenty percent grass.

As we walked from the gym to the starting line at the top of a long sweeping countryside hill, we carefully avoided the puddles. On the way back from the finish line, brown-stained warriors trudged a wearier straight line, ignoring the drier side paths. When the horn sounded the start, we raced down the field toward the headlights of a car placed at the bottom. Later in the day, the fog would have made even that hard to see. For now, we were more concerned with leaping over the various runoff ditches and gamely avoiding the larger wet areas.

At the bottom of the quarter-mile hill, we turned briefly onto a paved road, and watched as the elite runners pulled steadily away. At a half-mile, we entered Morven Park estate and found, as expected, that the gravel road winding through the estate was mostly softened dirt hidden by large water hazards and seas of mud. Early on, runners chose to run alongside the path in the long grass in hopes of delaying the shoe soaking and gaining a hint of traction. It seems the nearer your destination the more you keep slip-sliding away.

Soon the race took on a cross-country feel, where place was more important than time. The opportunity to look at the beautiful countryside was limited by the need to watch every step. Each turn or step to avoid water offered a chance for a skid. Runners farther back noted that the course was pretty torn up by the flailing feet of the runners ahead of them. There were many brave volunteers directing us. Scores of red arrows kept us on course. There were two water stops, which was plenty, and mile markers the whole way.

Near the three-mile mark, we passed a marshal's car whose blasting music urged us up over a hill. Soon we touched down on a real paved road and, even going up hill, the wet asphalt felt so much easier than the once dirt/now mud road we had just left behind. The middle of the race was nearly all on paved roads with a short pace-changing hill on gravel near mile five. Soon after, we could look down the last hill and see the final half- mile in front of us. The course is not a true out and back, more an oblong circle attached to the first and final half mile.

At the finish line, runners traded their Chips for finishers' medals and made their way inside. There were bagels and Sara Lee pastries calling to us just inside the door. The helpful volunteer staff kept everyone quickly supplied with water. A nice innovation was having the volunteers pouring the coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for the runners. Tired runners can make a mess left on their own. Apples and bananas added to the refueling repast.

The results were announced on time at 12:00 Noon. Random awards were distributed by calling out a number and anyone whose bib number ended with that number was a winner. As could be expected, the times were much slower than past years. Still, there were many previous age group record-holders racing today.

For the men, an out-of-towner, young twenty-year-old Andrew Person of Kirksville, MO held off the field with the winning time of 35:26. Brian Schmidt, one of many hometown Leesburg finishers, was next about 150 meters back in 35:53. Todd Martin of Herndon, VA easily held off fifty-one-year-old Chuck Moeser of Sterling, VA 36:07 to 36:45. Moeser, now an age group winner, disappointed fellow fifty year-olds who were counting on him having a top three finish. Moeser, both the 40-49 [34:44 for second place in 2000] and 50-59 record holder, who had predicted an overall win earlier, moved up from last year's record-setting fifth place finish in 35:36.

Susannah Kvasnicka (30) of Reston, VA repeated as champion, besting her 20-29 age group record [39:43] from last year with an impressive 39:21. Last year she felt the pressure from Patsy Long who had run 40:26. This year Kvasnicka was running in pursuit of Sharon Servidio's course record 38:36, as she was more than seven and a half minutes ahead of Jennifer Ragone of Sterling, VA and nine minutes ahead of third place Joan Sloyan of Paeonian Spring, VA. Rose Moeser (21) copied her dad as first age group winner, fourth overall.

The ten-year age groups went two deep. Winners earned a nice jacket that looked as if it would stop some of the harder rain that was beginning to start up again outside. Suzanne Scoggin (39) of Reston, VA was shut out of the awards for the first time with her lowest place, ninth. She has run all six races, including a second place at the inaugural race behind three-time winner Patti Shull. Scoggins won the following year in 40:44. In 2000, she finished third behind Shull and course record holder Sharon Servidio. To gauge this course, women have only broken forty minutes four times, Kvasnicka's last two victories and Shull and Servidio in 2000. Scoggins finished sixth in both 2001 and 2002.

Dustin Sweeney of Berryville, VA has only run five of the races. Still, he is only 19 years old. At age fifteen, he finished in 40:11 in 19th place, third in the division. The following year he moved up to 36:12, finishing seventh place just behind Matt Maline, also 16. In 2001, Sweeney took advantage of a tough year by Maline and moved to sixth in 36:27. James Kawalek (18) was fifth place in 36:15. Last year Sweeney took no prisoners, setting the age group record in 34:39 for second place overall. This year 18-year-old David Bolton of Leesburg, VA used the inspiration to leap frog from last year's ninth place finish to sixth place a mere 50 meters in front of Sweeney.

In her sixties, E.C. Williams of Herndon, VA won all six years the race has been held. Well, actually in 1998 she was 59 when she ran 57:14. She is listed as having set the record in 2000 of 58:08, reset it in 2001with 57:11 and like a broken record in 2002 with 56:52. Yet, the 1999 results show the then sixty-one year old runner finishing in 55:15. This year she ran 58:09. For the men, Stephen Forman of McLean, VA set the record with 44:47. This year he won his division in 46:23. I would bet that conditions cost him a record resetting.

Second place Brian Schmidt (35:53) took away sixth place David Bolton's Leesburg resident record from last year of 36:02. Eighth place Stephanie Brazell (22) ran 50:17 for this year's first Leesburg resident, still a ways off the record set by last year's fifth place finisher Martha Cammack in 43:59. In the oldest finisher category, Lee Glassco (71) tied the record while Bob Atkins (77), who finished just fifteen seconds behind her, missed Walt Washburn's record by a year. Still another reason to come out and run this fun race again next year!

See complete results of the Rotary Resolution 10K race.

See the Photo Gallery.