The day started with Sal Genovese on a mission to improve on last year's leg one time, which he eclipsed by almost three minutes. Then, as the sun began to rise, Kathy Moore flew up and down the hills with an excellent performance on the relay's longest leg. Stephanie Crawford wanted to take on the very challenging leg 3 this year and was able to stay tough through the hills and the heat. Then we had a nice, consistent performance from Joanne Liburd, who ran the same leg last year in almost the same conditions and time. Wendy Cashen helped the team by enduring the long leg 5 and, even though it was the most scenic and rural, almost 11 miles of rolling hills are never easy. I was thankful for the help from Joe Heaney, whose team was generous with the water even as I ran past their teammate (although they would eventually recover to slip past the finish line just before us). Kelly McQueeney was hit with the full force of the afternoon heat as she was reminded by bank thermometers that it was a blazing 87 degrees throughout the long ascents of her eight and a half mile leg 7. Finally, Susan Ericson bravely faced the three monstrous hills of the final segment even after having run them just the year before and impressed us all by taking almost a minute per mile off of her previous pace. Thanks to everyone for a tremendous day (which ended with a feast at the farm featuring a gargantuan turkey leg)! ~ Mike