For twenty-five years this race has been the crown jewel of the turkey day races. With scores of races to chose from, each year this race grows larger and faster than all of the others. Including the 2 mile fun walk, the event topped 7,000 entrants this year making it the race with the largest participation in Montgomery County. The race had the fifth highest total of 10K finishers for the entire year in this region last year. Who would not want a chance to race down Old Georgetown Road and circle back onto Wisconsin Avenue without a single car to slow down your commute? In fact, there were scores of police out on the course to insure a safe non-vehicular passage through downtown Bethesda, returning back up Old Georgetown Road to the finish line at the Bethesda YMCA. And the parking - who knew that it would be easy to find free parking in Bethesda for thousands of runners?

Now this race is a chance for all the people coming into town for the holidays to prepare their bodies for the coming caloric enhancement. The race was listed as a wave start. The first corral of runners were for runners planning the jaunt in 6:30 pace or faster. They also mentioned possible age group winners could be placed in this corral as well. That was not really necessary because the race was being scored by Capital Running Company and they use the ChampionChip. This handy device tied into the runners shoe allows for each individual to have their own chip or net time. A runner could start ten minutes after the gun sounded and finish the race in one hour by the clock. Their chip time would be 50:00.

In photo, the crew set up the starting line with the Championchip mats for the 8:30 AM start..

The awards in the open division, with no duplications, are for the top ten finishers using gun time. Surprisingly for a race of this size, the age groups are only two deep in ten year age groups. They are scored by chip time. For this reason, it was not startling that the first corral was very sparsely filled. The warm weather drew out a record crowd with many novice runners or runners that use this race as their annual holiday pilgrimage. In the first corral, one runner decided he would go out in the first mile in 4:50. That would be very possible for a very good runner in the down hill first mile. However, this man did not even bother to line up in front. The race is all about casual. One award new for this year is a $1000 scholarship to the high school with the most participants

The course is a moderately fast course. It is even faster when the fall temperature descends to a more normal level. This year runners were already shedding excess clothes in the short quarter mile climb to Cedar Lane. From there was a wondrous ride, which is know as a long, steep down hill. Many runners joyously forgot or ignored the credo, "what goes up must come down." Soon, many were flaming out as the long stretch up Wisconsin is somewhat unforgiving and their spinning wheels were having trouble going round. Yet, the general tone of the race was very friendly. Most everyone was in a happy mood and runners encouraged each other.

One of the real joys was accurate mile markers with a digital clock at every mile. Maybe one might not be happy with the time on the clock but it was correct. There were two water stops on the course and they were very well managed. Marshals made going off course nearly impossible. Indeed, every side street was coned off. Only an oxygen deprived fool could possibly go wrong. Virtually everyone was always in sight of scores of other runners. It was as if the entire town was out running in the streets. There was a lively percussion band drumming up energy at the YMCA. This race along with its two mile walk and 50 meter toddler event brings out perhaps the second largest group of youngsters (behind MCRRC Halloween Kids' Run). With that, there was an obligatory moon bounce.

The final two miles are a gentle climb along Old Georgetown Road and there were quite a lot of spectators cheering on the racers. Coming in to the finish was like making a pit stop at the Indy 500. Everyone was tired but you had better get that chip onto of your tire and move quickly to the refreshment area. Some races put out all the stops for refreshments. The Chase knows already that you have a turkey dinner coming up so they stayed very basic. They upped the ante a little over past years with the arrival of a Starbucks booth, but try to get a seat. The water was a tremendous improvement from earlier days when the hose was passed around. Today there were scores of cases of DrinkMore water. Still, you had to step lively because the day was unseasonably warm and many runners really need more than a couple of bottles of the refreshing liquid. At the bagel booth, it was a clinch of jackals circling around hoping to sneak in and grab one of the bagels and a schmear.

Centered within the track, the after-race was like Grand Central Station. People were milling around everywhere. Nobody was talking about their race. People were catching up with friends and family that were here for the holidays. The awards ceremony is always a quiet event as the awards are mailed. Nobody comes here for the awards. It is a friends and family gathering.

By the way, after collecting more than 600 race T-shirts, not all of them are great. This year's grey race T-shirt is definitely one of the better ones. Often the shirts are designed as walking billboards and end up being used to wash the car. This one was thought out so it would be worn by runners. It is comfortable and cut to fit.

Awards

MALE OPEN Gun Time
    1  2838 Jan Foerster          24 North Bethesda MD     33:02 
    2  3083 Michael Rooney        22 Arlington VA          33:05 
    3  3146 Karl Dusen            25 Montgomery Village MD 33:36 
    4  3082 Brian Rooney          17 Arlington VA          33:46 
    5  3151 Jossi Fritz-Mauer     23 Ardmore PA            34:03 
    6  1045 Andrew Jesien         20 North Bethesda MD     34:25 
    7   905 Mark Handelman        21 Memphis TN            34:28 
    8  3010 David Bernstein       20 Chevy Chase MD        35:04 
    9  2794 Tom Banchy            40 Catonsville MD        35:34 
   10  1937 Chris Tyson           19 Rockville MD          35:37 
FEMALE OPEN Gun Time
    1  3135 Aileen Conlon         25 Montgomery Village MD 37:32 
    2  2246 Anya Oleynik          19 Gaithersburg MD       39:13 
    3   574 Andrea Costella       29 New York NY           39:33 
    4  3175 Alicia Pease          24 Silver Spring MD      40:16 
    5  1325 Suzanne McHenry       22 Philadelphia PA       41:35 
    6  2815 Cindy Conant          46 Kensington MD         41:58 
    7    51 Elizabeth Feldman     40 Chevy Chase MD        42:01 
    8  3136 Emily Conlon          24 Montgomery Village MD 42:14 
    9  3122 Liliana Baron         49 Potomac MD            42:19 
   10  1026 Debbie Isen           17 Bethesda MD           42:19 
MALE AGE GROUP:  12 - 19 Net Time
    1  1504 Billy Orndorff        17 Rockville MD       37:17 
    2   422 Alexander Booth       19 Bethesda MD        38:29 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  12 - 19 Net Time
    1  1736 Eliza Schalch         16 Bethesda MD        42:58 
    2  5596 Colleen Gannon        13 Rockville MD       43:09 
MALE AGE GROUP:  20 - 29 Net Time
    1   673 Nate Ennist           20 Bethesda MD        35:37 
    2  5726 Michael Montano       23 Rockville MD       35:47 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  20 - 29 Net Time
    1  2785 Ashley Albrecht       22 Gaithersburg MD    41:53 
    2  2197 Emily Grunewald       20 Potomac MD         42:49 
MALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 39 Net Time
    1  2554 Matt Byron            30 Washington DC      35:04 
    2  7728 Paul O Neill          33 London UK          38:05 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 39 Net Time
    1   109 Karen Colbert         34 Bethesda MD        42:24 
    2  5610 Gaby Grebski          36 Silver Spring MD   43:56 
MALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 49 Net Time
    1  2945 Dale Richardson       47 McLean VA          37:51 
    2   175 Kevin D'Amanda        45 Bethesda MD        38:15 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 49 Net Time
    1  2374 Donna Goldberg        49 Potomac MD         39:39 
    2  1505 Rhonda Orndorff       47 Rockville MD       42:52 
MALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 59 Net Time
    1  6007 Charles Wise          51 Bethesda MD        39:43 
    2  1705 Roland Rust           55 Bethesda MD        40:59 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 59 Net Time
    1  1876 Amy Subar             51 Potomac MD         45:22 
    2  3107 Kiki Sweigart         56 McLean VA          45:40 
MALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 69 Net Time
    1  2869 Richard Jefferson     61 Germantown MD      47:20 
    2   184 Marc Leager           61 Bethesda MD        47:49 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 69 Net Time
    1   582 Chris Craun           61 Bethesda MD        46:52 
    2  5553 Shirley Cullen        63 Gaithersburg MD    49:00 
MALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 99 Net Time
    1  2054 Nianxiang Xie         80 Rockville MD       56:50 
    2  2616 Henry Guyot           73 Washington DC      1:00:05 
FEMALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 99 Net Time
    1  3053 Lennie Libes          75 Potomac MD         1:42:37 

Full Race Results
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