Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race brings in speedsters, donations

Another successful edition of the Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race is in the books, thanks to the hard work of our organizers, volunteers and the runners who participated.

First and foremost the race raised upwards of $2500 in donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so thank you to all who entered, donated or volunteered.

After an uplanned but rousing version of the national anthem courtesy of Michael Mahone, the Can Man, the race was off. This year’s race saw some of the steepest competition yet at the front of both the men’s and women’s races. NB Boston’s Ryan Carrara successfully defended his title in Carlisle this year by outkicking Aaron Price of the BAA to win by a mere three seconds in 18:02. But man oh man, what a deep field up front. As part of the USATF-NE XC Series the Chamberas race drew runners from several of the top clubs in New England and as you review the names in the top 25 or so finishers, you see a lot of very well known names on the list, an indication of how competitive this race was.

The same holds true on the women’s side, where Lara Johnson kept the women’s overall title with the BAA winning in 20:38, good for 29th overall. But Johnson certainly had to work for it with the likes of SISU’s Caitlyn Clark, Emily Kroshs, NB Boston’s Christy Mae Carrara and always impressive GBTC’s women’s squad in hot pursuit.
We’ll hold off on posting team scores to avoid any confusion, as there may be minor differences between our race’s team scores and those in the USATF series (series scoring requires USATF membership).

Thanks to the sponsors: Greater Boston Running Co., Etonic, Brooks, Asics, Reebok, CitySports, DarnTough Vermont, Eastern Mountain Sports, La Sportiva, Welchs, the Boston Athletic Association.

As always, huge thanks to our crew of volunteers this year including: Ben, Cindy, Ted and Elsa Winther, Paul Young, Doris Chow, Karyn Miller-Medzon, Dima Feinhaus, Karen Ringheiser, Mary Smith, Michelle Lang, Adrienne Cyrulik, Joe Hardin, Frank and Maggie White, Jack Burke, Eric Bucher, Chris Smith, Bill Newsham, and the myriad others I forgot. A special thanks to the Chamberas family who always shows up in droves for the event, including Thomas himself who took part in his first of many races on foot (as opposed to the baby jogger where he normally races).

Special thanks to Jim Rhoades for another batch of top-notch race photos posted here.

For another race review courtesy of Jim Johnson of MVS, click here.