Running: A day full of drama at the Boilermaker

Monday, July 14, 2008 - 05:54 PM

UTICA — Drama wasn't hard to come by in Sunday's 31st running of the 15-kilometer Utica Boilermaker Road Race.

- Early rainfall that stopped just in time for yet another precipitation-free run.
- Narrow wins by a pair of Ethiopians in the men's and women's races.
- The first 15K run by the state's governor.
- And a monumental timing snafu that will leave 2008's runners forever wondering exactly how fast they ran.

Amid the dizzying array of sights and sounds, a proud Utica Mayor David Roefaro called Sunday's Boilermaker “the best one ever.”

The mayor walked and ran the first mile before getting a ride to the finish line to greet the winners.

“It's amazing how much work goes into this,” said Roefaro, who became mayor in January.

Race officials called it “the most dramatic Boilermaker finish ever” with tight finishes in the men's and women's 15K races.

In the men's race, Ethiopia's Terefe Maregu, this year's Peachtree winner, defeated three competitors by a narrow margin. One of them veered off course yards from the finish when he followed the media truck instead of the race course.

Maregu finished the race in an unofficial 44 minutes, 17 seconds.

Ethiopian Ashu Rabo Kasim won the women's race in 50:39, pushed all the way by her competitors.

“This was an exciting race,” said Mary Earl, who had set up a seat just before the finish line on Court Street. She came to cheer on her daughter, but said she was surprised at how much she enjoyed watching the elite runners come across.

Among the finishers were new Gov. David Paterson, who became a celebrity of sorts out on the course as the crowd cheered him on.

None of the runners, however, will learn their exact time. The computer-chip timing system failed because signals from mats at the race's start were not reliable, race timer Pat Leone said.

As a result, the only times reported reflect the “gun time,” from the moment the starting gun sounded until each runner crossed the finish line.

It can take as long as 11 minutes after the starting gun for some runners to even reach the starting line.

The race lucked out in another respect however. In 31 years, it has never rained on the Boilermaker, and it didn't this time, even though drops were falling as the earliest runners arrived for the start.

Racetime temperature: 73 degrees. Cloud cover helped keep temperatures from soaring during the morning.

“But it's just as muggy as every other year,” runner Dan Casler of Little Falls said.

He and his three sons completed the 5K and then cheered on his wife Karen in the 15K.