With each age group starting at different times, the younger woman are nearly the last to start the race.

Road racing is not just about who finishes first. Knowing that we slow down as we age, some clubs have developed a way to even the playing field - age grading. This is designing a handicap, an extra amount of time, which the younger, presumably faster runners must wait to start there race. In a perfect world it would make for a really busy finish because everyone would finish at the same time.

The DC Road Runners have their age graded handicapped race set on the C&O canal at Carderock. The course is a double out and back. First runners head north along the flat by rock strewn trail. Just before 800M then turn around and head back. The course is not wide and there are bicycles and other people enjoying the wonderful, cooler than average summer morning. Dodging past runners waiting in line for their turn to start, the racers head south for what purports to be a mile and a half. This would make it a four mile race upon returning again to the start. The course is indeed between mile markers 11 and 9 on the canal. However, for those believing that the markers are accurate, we have a bridge to sell you. Most runners have rightly concluded that the real distance is closer to 4.1 miles. Still, tradition and the fact that everyone does run the same distance, will most likely keep the course the same.

The first runner to start is 76-year-old Lee Glassco. Runners have a chart that tells them when they are to start and virtually self start themselves when the clock turns over to their appointed time. Three minutes into the race seventy-year-old Tami Graf (in photo) sets out after Glassco. The age groups are five years until age 75. This makes it tough on soon to be eighty-five Walt Washburn as he starts out another three minutes later with young whippersnapper Keith Olson (75). One thing runners know well is that at either end of the age scale the drop off is much greater. Four years ago Walt set three American records for 80-84 (25K, 30K & 20M).

Of the top seventeen runners to finish, only one was an Open runner (19-34). That was Joe Racine (in photo) who earlier in this century ran a 4:10 mile. Still, he just nipped swift grandmaster Roberto Rodriguez at the wire to get eighth place with the fastest race time of 22:44. He started 18:44 after the first runner. The top open woman was Toni Marie Diegoli at eighteenth place. She started 15:47 after the first runner. The top woman finisher was Graf in tenth place.

For the men, former race champion Stephen Forman (67) was relegated to fifth place. At least for him he saw his competition the whole way. Second place Lou Shapiro (65) started at the same time as him. Sixty-year-old Jim Noone was the first runner to catch these two. Shortly after, overall race winner Jim Wright (58) hurried by. He did not have much time to worry about fast younger runners as he caught Shapiro with less than a quarter mile to go. Shapiro knew he was not going to get the overall. Then with a flurry, the second youngest racer in the top seventeen, David Haaga charged up and just missed catching Shapiro by a mere second. His net time was 23:08.

This marvelous handicapping allows all kinds of runners to use either their net or handicapped times for bragging rights. Older runners can have the thrill of being out front. Younger runners are secure that as the come up on a runner in front of them that that rival probably is running enough slower that they can safely be passed.

After the race, Race Director Ian Clements made sure there were lots of food and drink for the more than 100 finishers. He has a large eclectic group of prizes for runners to choose from such as old baseball cards and a singing lobster. Little surprise the five pies he brought went to the top finishers.

The race is part of the annual summer Bunion Series. This group of eight races, which includes three straight 4 milers along different parts of the canal offers runners a chance for further awards. There is a volunteer obligation as part of the series, which helps staff the races and ensures that runners help do their part to keep the magic alive.

Full Race Day Results
Race Day Report for 2007
Photo Gallery 2007