Photos by Emmalee Raiford.

Cooler than usual weather still leaves plenty of hot air [balloons] in the summer sky.

To race with the big dogs, you have to train with the big dogs. But that does not necessarily mean you will beat them, just yet, anyway.

Chris Raabe stuck close to his occasional training partner, Wilson Komen, through three miles, but Komen showed he is still the alpha male over the last two miles and sealed a third straight win in 24 minutes 14 seconds at the 21st Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest. Raabe (27), from Washington, DC, finished second in a breakthrough performance of 24:44.

"He's been running hard, doing well," Komen (28) said of Raabe, who improved eight places and 39 seconds in this race from last year. But Komen, from Kenya and living in Washington, DC, ran smoothly and was never seriously threatened. "I didn't pay attention [to my split times], I don't know about the pace," he said. "I knew we were running good, we're training good."

Outaleb Mouhcine (28), a Moroccan living in Baltimore, MD, took third in 24:59 and Chris Banks (28), from Alexandria, VA, was fourth in 25:14. Edmund Burke (37), from Burtonsville, MD, ran 25:17 to finish fifth for the second straight year.

Another pair of training partners, Russians Tatyana Chulakh (24) and Elena Orlova (36), who live in Gaithersburg, MD, took first and second in 27:06 and 28:37, respectively. Both moved up one position over their 2005 finishes in the absence of last year's winner, Olga Romanova, another of the Russia House in Gaithersburg.

In photo left, Kyle Gaffney (16) of Silver Spring, MD (27:00) starts his move to gun down Chulakh.

This year, Chulakh broke quickly from the start and led wire-to-wire. "My strategy was to pull away in the second half, but that didn't work because no one came with me," Chulkah said through an interpreter. "I didn't feel that I was going out that fast; I felt very comfortable."

Keira Carlstrom (21) from Washington, DC was third in 29:45, Diana Pool (25) from Westminster, MD was fourth in 29:56, and Donna Palisca (28) from Fayetteville, NC took fifth. Palisca, who has a personal best of 2:54, will be aiming to qualify for the Olympic Trials at this fall's Marine Corps Marathon.

Former Olympic marathoner John Tuttle (47), from Villa Rica, GA, dropped out of last year's race with an injury but managed a nice double this year, winning the masters division in 26:39 after taking first in the 45-49 division at the Derby Day 5K the same morning in Richmond, VA.

Rebecca Nathan (40), from Arlington, VA won the women's masters race in 31:59; she was 17th overall.

Falls Road Running, from Baltimore, MD took the open team competition for the second straight year. They were led by Brian Godsey (25), running forward, who finished eighth in 25:30; Godsey once held the world record for the backward 800- meter run. The Montgomery County Road Runners Club Taskmasters took the masters division title and were led by Mark Hoon (41), who ran 27:25.

A field of 1,713 finishers enjoyed a warm and humid 8K run, and hundreds of kids ran the 1K Fun Run. Cascading water from a fire hose, musical entertainment, and post-race refreshments provided welcome relief in the Rockville Town Center afterward.

Street scenes before the race show Rockville skyline is undergoing a dramatic change.

Awards

MALE OPEN
    1     2 Wilson Komen          28 Washington DC      24:15   350 
    2  1882 Christopher Raabe     27 Washington DC      24:44   250 
    3    54 Outaleb Mouhcine      28 Baltimore MD       24:59   200 
    4    36 Chris Banks           28 Alexandria VA      25:14   175 
    5    34 Edmund Burke          37 Burtonsville MD    25:17*  150 
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE OPEN
    1    37 Tatyana Chulakh       24 Germantown MD      27:06#  350 
    2    38 Elena Orlova          36 Germantown MD      28:38*  250 
    3    32 Keira Carlstrom       21 Washington DC      29:45   200 
    4    69 Diana Pool            25 Westminster MD     29:56   175 
    5    71 Donna Palisca         28 Fayettville NC     30:06   150 
# Under USATF OPEN guideline    
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE MASTERS
    1    47 John Tuttle           47 Villa Rica GA      26:39*  150 
    2  1297 John Piggott          41 Williamsburg VA    27:13    75 
    3    40 Darrell General       40 Hyattsville MD     27:15    50 
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE MASTERS
    1   133 Rebecca Nathan        40 Arlington VA       31:59   150 
    2    42 Monica Grillo         42 Arlington VA       32:29    75 
    3  1252 Laura Nelson          40 Woodstock VA       32:37    50 

MALE AGE GROUP:  1 - 19
    1   529 Andrew Jesien         19 Rockville MD       25:26* 
    2  2150 Larry Contrell        19 Millersville MD    26:08  
    3   465 Kyle Gaffney          16 Silver Spring MD   27:07* 
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  1 - 19
    1   491 Halsey Sinclair       17 Silver Spring MD   32:24* 
    2   480 Cara Harrison         17 Gaithersburg MD    33:29  
    3   492 Ashlyn Sinclair       17 Silver Spring MD   33:35  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 34
    1     4 Eric Lavigne          30 Leesburg VA        25:33  
    2    14 Aaron Church          30 South Riding VA    25:53  
    3    20 Frank Sprtel          33 Silver Spring MD   26:33  

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 34
    1   860 Allyson Schindel      31 Glen Allen VA      32:13  
    2   876 Liz Aquino            31 Springfield VA     33:45  
    3   941 Judy Grobstein        33 Washington DC      34:19  

MALE AGE GROUP:  35 - 39
    1    10 Ray Pugsley           37 Potomac Falls VA   25:42* 
    2  1176 Hans Rotman           38 Pittsburgh PA      27:17  
    3    66 Max Lockwood          36 Washington DC      27:24  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  35 - 39
    1    21 Hilary Cairns         35 Washington DC      30:23* 
    2     9 Cathy Pugsley         37 Potomac Falls VA   30:23* 
    3    63 Vicki Lang            37 Columbia MD        33:06  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 44
    1    41 Mark Hoon             41 Kensington MD      27:25  
    2    56 Chris Chattin         42 Columbia MD        28:24  
    3   148 Ted Poulos            44 McLean VA          29:04  

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 44
    1    59 Kelly Ort             40 Baltimore MD       33:49  
    2  1246 Nicola Elliott        40 Vienna VA          34:13  
    3  1950 Holly Marcum          40 Annapolis MD       34:20  

MALE AGE GROUP:  45 - 49
    1    99 Dave Berardi          45 Baltimore MD       27:37* 
    2     8 Jim Hage              48 Kensington MD      28:03  
    3  1489 Mark Malander         48 Oak Hill VA        28:09  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  45 - 49
    1    55 Cindy Conant          45 Kensington MD      33:16* 
    2    46 Win Persina           46 Washington DC      34:16  
    3  1780 Jeanne Grillo         45 Potomac MD         35:26  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 54
    1    52 Terry Permar          52 Perkasie PA        28:15* 
    2     6 Dan Lawson            50 Gaithersburg MD    28:41* 
    3  1536 Peter Darmody         50 Gaithersburg MD    30:52  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 54
    1    50 Deborah Flynn         50 Gaithersburg MD    34:33* 
    2    53 Betty Blank           53 Falls Church VA    36:49  
    3  1567 Carol English         51 Germantown MD      39:53  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  55 - 59
    1    57 Jim Wright            57 Gaithersburg MD    31:02  
    2  1628 Timothy Morgan        55 Damascus MD        31:40  
    3  1631 James Carbary         55 Clarksville MD     33:03  

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  55 - 59
    1    58 Alice Franks          58 Rockville MD       38:09* 
    2  1951 Maria Shields         55 Davidsonville MD   40:09* 
    3  1651 Freyda Greenberg      57 Falls Church VA    40:54  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 64
    1    61 Patrick Griffith      61 Alexandria VA      31:06* 
    2    60 Dan Murray            61 Keswick VA         32:21* 
    3   200 Lou Shapiro           64 Silver Spring MD   35:23  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 64
    1  1669 Chris Craun           60 Bethesda Md        39:25* 
    2  1681 Barbara Attardi       63 Rockville MD       53:56  
    3   196 Teresa Revanna        60 Falls Church VA    67:52  
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  65 - 69
    1  1690 Bernie Gallagher      65 Fairfax VA         36:52  
    2   201 Stephen Forman        66 McLean VA          37:28  
    3  1695 Ronald Chiariello     67 Rockville MD       44:37  

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  65 - 69
    1  1713 Brenda Murray         66 Chevy Chase MD     51:07  
    2  1691 Mary Kate Berglund    65 Richmond VA        51:39  
    3  1958 Joan Weintrob         67 Potomac MD         62:41  

MALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 74
    1   203 Jerry Lewis           72 Reston VA          40:18  
    2   202 Richard Williams      70 Alexandria VA      40:43  
    3  2193 Keith Olson           74 Silver Spring MD   47:36  

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 74
    1    70 Tami Graf             70 Lusby MD           49:21* 
    2  1699 Lilli Metzger         70 Silver Spring MD   59:21* 
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

MALE AGE GROUP:  75 - 99
    1  1706 Jack McMahon          75 Rockville MD       45:49* 
    2  1709 Nianxiang Xie         79 Rockville MD       49:20* 
* Under USATF Age-Group guideline

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  75 - 99

There was no missing the band, which set up just past the finish line, and opened up a spot for runners to try a cool down dance.

Full Race Day Results
Photo Gallery 2006