Sunday, August 25, 2013

Chamberas Race A Record Success


New England Track and Trail hosted another successful Thomas Chamberas XC Race this weekend, providing a fun and challenging event for more than 200 runners.

We had runners from a number of clubs near and far. As always, Greater Boston Track Club and Greater Framingham Running Club brought a swarm of runners. US Navy Prep made the long haul up from Newport again this year and the Western Mass Distance Project came out in force as well. HFC Striders, Greater Lowell Road Runners, Central Mass Striders and Cambridge Running Club were also out there.

But the race isn't just a club race. We strive to create an event that welcomes runners of all abilities and we did that again this year. I talked with people who had never done a trail race and one girl who had never done a race of any kind! This was her first race and she completed it!

The runners all loved the water bottles they got and as always, Michael P. Mahon provided a moving tribute and rousing rendition of the national anthem to get things moving.

Full results are posted here. 

After the race we were all treated to a free pizza party at the British Beer Co. in Westford! Free pizza for dozens of sweaty runners--that was really really nice of those folks. In fact we had a LOT of very very generous sponsors. I am always amazed by the generosity of these companies--not every company will support a small event like ours no matter the cause, so please pay it forward by supporting all the companies that donated to our race.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out. A special thanks to our huge crew of volunteers. It takes a lot of bodies to pull this kind of race off and I am continually amazed by these people willing to give up their Saturday (and a good chunk of Friday for some) for this event.

But the biggest highlight of the day came when Thomas came across the finish line. He ran the entire race on his own! He's a fit and healthy kid, thanks to the knowledge and therapy available for CF patients today and your running this race helps move that forward.

On behalf of myself and the Chamberas family (and really all CF patients that will benefit from your donation) thank you thank you thank you!

See you next year.

-Dave Hannon

2 comments:

Frank said...

It was amazing to see how many runners came over to the Pizza place. Hopefully a win-win for everyone.

Karyn said...

Nice work everyone! And Congratulations to Dave and Anthony, and of course to Thomas, who we all hope will be the biggest winner of all.