The final installment of the 2009 Weekly Back Cove Race Series was this evening, and 113 runners came out to participate. I also got out for my 7^th race this year in the series, and my first one since I broke my foot.

Curtis Wheeler (01:42:14) brought his overall time down by almost 2 minutes with his win in 17:49 today, which left him in a solid lead for the free shoes this year.

Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) was not present this evening, but nobody even came close to beating her in the series standing.

The win for the women tonight went to Nan Lobo, who ran 20:16 and completed 2 races this season.

The community spirit award went to Craig Whiten (02:19:56), who ran all but 2 of the races this season.

For myself, tonight was the first time that I have run in 45 days. I went out a bit quicker than I needed to but quickly settled into a more appropriate pace. My foot felt fine, which is good, although I am going to come back very slow and easy so that I don’t have to worry about injuring myself again.

I have no plans for my running until January, and have canceled everything I had had scheduled for the rest of the year so I can concentrate on getting better and building back my base.

I’d like to thank Stu Palmer, John Rogers, and Diane Fournier for all the work that they do throughout the Summer to put this series on. Without them, these races couldn’t happen.

I’d also like to thank Colin Ingram and Mizuno for their support, as well as Portland Trails and the Maine Track Club.

This year, we had 2864 finishers from 1203 runners, which is over a 30% increase over 2008. There was 1 person who ran every single week, Richard Dawson (02:26:47). There were 157 people who ran 6 races and found a place on the leaderboard, which is 37 more than last year and 104 more than in 2007. 23 people ran at least 13 of the races.

I hope to see everybody again next May when the 2010 series starts! Thank you for coming out.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)