Patterson Park 4 Miler

Patterson Park 4 Miler
Sunday, April 13, 2003 8:00am
Race Director: Fin Mears

The club 4-miler was held at Patterson Park on a beautiful spring day � the first nice day for a BRRC event in 2003. The third and shortest so far of the Grand Prix series, what it lacked in distance, it made up for in hills and mud. 
Flowers were blooming and the sun was out. The Life Sport Fall Marathon training group, jump-starting its training program, showed up with a contingent lead by their coach, Tim Knowlton. 
How could it be that of the sixty-seven people signed up, only sixty-two finished? Did they stop to smell the roses? More likely, it was the 430 yards of ankle-deep, shoe-sucking swampland that had to be traversed twice (once on each two-mile loop through the park)!
Patterson Park is in the midst of some wonderful renovations, one of which is the restoration of the boat lake that is in the center of the park. Fencing from the construction site blocked part of the roadway, requiring a section of the racecourse to be run cross-country. We missed an open course by two weeks. On April 26^th, the fencing comes down and the boat lake has its grand opening. For those note familiar with Patterson Park, it is well worth a visit. 
In spite of the hills and mud, Tim Knowlton turned in a winning time of 23:03. Winning the woman�s race was Francesca Dominici, sixteenth overall, in 28:21. Masters� winners were Maurice Pointer, third overall in 21:44, and Robin Goodwin, nineteenth overall and second woman, in 28:51. It was good to see Rick Bingham, past club president and current club handyman, back competing. 
Thanks as always for the invaluable help of volunteers: Tom Nasuta for bringing supplies, Chris Cucuzella, Dan Macedo and Deneen Habarta for working registration and the finish line, and Kristin and Ben Mears for being course marshals.