Low-key race is a tradition

By L.E. Crowley
Town Correspondent

For a while, 23-year-old Megan Brousseau challenged Weymouth’s Jill Strathdee for first place prize in Norwell’s annual Fourth of July road race.

A racer in front of her, Mitchell Paulin, kept pushing Brousseau as they ran through the hilly 5-mile loop through farmland and grass pastures.

In the end, Brousseau couldn’t keep pace with Strathdee, who won the women’s division. But with Paulin's help, Brousseau took second place.

“It was nice to have someone push,” Brousseau said, who shared a handshake with Paulin after the race (above). "People came out of their houses to clap and cheer us on, too. I didn't expect that. It was really nice."

Brousseau, who lives in Scituate, ran the race with boyfriend Ben Haber, who won the men’s dvision, finishing at 29:32. According to race officials, it was the first time anyone broke the 30-minute barrier in the 34 years of the event.

“It’s all those young legs,” said Dick Elliott, a volunteer who has run in Norwell’s race and twice in the Boston Marathon. This year's race was organized by Elliot and several volunteers, such as Selectmen Thomas Bigger and Richard Merritt, Town Administrator James Beaudreau, and secretary Denise Nestor.

Merritt said the 62 participants who walked and ran the race were about all organizers can handle. “We couldn’t manage much more,” Merritt said.

The road race was started by Dr. Arthur Garceau, a member of the Board of Health. Over the years, sponsorship has been passed from the board to the Norwell Men’s Club, a firemen’s antique society, and now the Board of Selectmen.

There are no “down-to-the-millisecond” digital timers, no starting gun, and race results won’t be posted on CoolRunnings.com. But that's just fine with the runners and organizers, who say the “low-key” race takes the pressure off competitors and organizers.

This year’s race winner, Haber, said he's training for another shot at the Boston Marathon. A qualifying runner in 2008, Haber made it past Heartbreak Hill, only to pass out two miles before the finish.

Haber said he woke up in the emergency tent being rehydrated, and his attempts to get off the cot and finish the marathon were prevented by emergency crews. “It wasn’t for lack of trying,” he said.

At Norwell's race, officials give a special trophy to the runners or walkers who live the farthest away and to the town official who crosses the finish first.

Selectmen John Mariano was the only town official in this year’s race and took home the town official’s trophy. The farthest away award went to Linda Rissman, 48, and Michael Krivitsky, 49, who were visiting from W. Bloomfield, Mich. They received congratulations from Merritt (below).