See Times Leader photo by Fred Adams, article on Berwick race 11/25/2010

This Thanksgiving morning race is about 100 miles north of Harrisburg, reached for me by interstate highways then a final 15-mile country road over a mountain.

There were almost 2,000 finishers last year, so perhaps the weather accounts for there being only 1,566 finishers this day. From hours before the start at 10:30am, snow fell steadily until my final mile, with the temperature probably about 34 and no wind. The road surface was either wet (with puddles on the road in the town) or slushy and a bit slippery out in the country. The road camber seemed quite severe in places, where I thought I had to choose between a possible slide into the ditch on one side or under a guard rail and down the hill on the other.

The third mile was clearly to be the steepest part of the 4 1/2 mile climb in the first half of the race (300 feet in that one mile!), but other than concern about slipping, it was not has hard as I had remembered from my first time here two years ago. I knew I was in better shape this time, and good enough shape to hope to break a 9-minute pace. All my miles were between 8:18 and 8:36 except for the slow miles 3 and 4 and an 8-minute mile 6.  Clearly I should have pushed a bit harder through the latter half of the race. I had dressed warmly, fearing hypothermia on the potentially wind-swept and drenching open farmland at the peak, but I never felt overheated. My heels were soaked by the first milepost, but neither toes nor calves were drenched until the final two miles.

The winners were Jon Phillips, Brooklyn NY, 45:25, pace 5:04, and Heidi People, Scranton Pa, 53:52, pace 6:00. Rick Platt, tireless race organizer of many years in Williamsburg Va, was the first man over 60, 1:01:21, pace 6:49. First woman over 60 was Barbara Zeske, Hanover Twp, Pa, 1:17:20, pace 8:36

The results show me as 12th of the 40 men aged 60-64, a time of 1:18:17, and a pace of 8:42 per mile.

Noted in the days before the race:Looking forward to my second attempt on this famous Thanksgiving morning race at Berwick, a small town on the banks of the Susquehanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania. Prizes for the winners are real diamonds, but I won’t get anywhere close to any of those. The course runs north out of town towards the ridge, quite steeply at times, climbing for about four miles. On a chilly day, I’m sure the winds could be fierce on the exposed hills but they were mild on Thanksgiving morning 2008. There can be interesting views across farmland to mountains in every direction, but none I recall of the Susquehanna. It’s quite a competitive race. Last year there were 1,987 finishers, and the first man over 60 ran a pace of just under 7 minutes per mile. I’ll be hoping to do it in just under 9 minutes per mile.

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