1997 New Year's Five Mile Run

Forty five men and women and two dogs began 1997 with a hilly five mile run, the fifth event in the Godiva Winter Series. Hurricane Fran forced the run out of Duke Forest for the first time in five years, but the golf course provided several hills. It was rainy and chilly at the start, but that didn't stop Luke Lucas from beginning the year bare-chested.

The first three runners broke 30 minutes on the tough golf course run; Jim Clabuesch outduelling Tom Appenheimer for the win with Betsy Kempter third. There were two women in the top five with Heather Appenheimer fifth, and three women in the top 10 with Missy Foy eighth.

Mike O'Foghuldha, in his first master's race and one week after turning forty, was the first master; Kathy Wides was right behind him as the first woman master.

Cotton Kempter was the first dog, in sixteenth place down two positions from last year.

In an upset, the winner of the trivia contest was incorrectly determined on site: I mistakenly thought that Auckland was the capital of New Zealand when, in fact, Wellington is the capital. Thus, instead of Paul Gronke winning, Tom Fowler is the winner. Note: Charles Alden didn't win this year, but he did Wellington correct. He did not carry a map of New Zealand in his pocket.

Judy Green won the prize for having the largest high school class (900), Mickey Lackey took the prize for the smallest (37). Deb Bialeschki and Karla Henderson tied for having set foot on the most continents (5).


Volunteers for the race were Happy Running in 1997

New Year's Results 1997

1 27:58 M Jim Clabuesch
2 28:03 M Tom Appenheimer
3 29:01 F Betsy Kempter
4 30:23 M Paul Gronke
5 31:13 F Heather Appenheimer
6 32:03 M JP Xu
7 33:12 M Rich McNally
8 33:23 F Missy Foy
9 33:31 M Chris Crowder
10 33:42 M Mike O'Foghuludha
11 33:48 M Daniel Labrecque
12 33:51 F Kathy Wides
13 33:59 M Harvey Goldstein
14 34:19 M Gene Casale
15 35:02 M Brian Kempter
16 35:10 D Cotton Kempter
17 35:13 M Bill Vann
18 35:59 M Tom Lada
19 37:31 M Curt Clausen
20 37:45 M Luke Lucas
21 38:00 M Charles Alden
22 38:10 F Lisa Beck
23 39:04 M John Charlton
24 39:22 M Ole Holsti
25 39:42 M Kim Anglin
26 39:56 F Brenda Leeper
27 40:19 M Gary Schultz
28 40:36 M Gordon Keeler
29 40:38 M Ray Dooley
30 42:12 M Phil Ficks
31 42:35 F Carolyn Huettel
32 42:36 M Walter Rogan
33 42:42 M George Antonelli
34 43:33 M Tom Fowler
35 43:57 M Mickey Lackey
36 44:04 F Kari Richardson
37 44:27 F Kim Pearce
38 44:34 F Deb Bialeschki
39 44:36 F Karla Henderson
40 45:26 M Joe Oleniacz
41 45:40 M Jim Green
42 46:49 F Judy Green
43 48:56 M David Sandlin
44 49:07 F LaRee Nance
45 50:13 F Maggie Sloane
46 51:01 M Dick Grant

Owen Astrachan, 1/2/1997