WELLFLEET — Mild temperatures and a gentle breeze on July 6 complemented the cooling spray of garden hoses neighbors trained on the 247 runners on the hilly 5-mile course from Mayo Beach across the Herring River bridge to the Great Island trailhead and back in the town’s 51st annual road race.
Jack Newton, 20, took first, finishing in 28:20.1 — an average of 5:40 per mile. Second place went to Noah Daponte-Smith, 28, who finished in 29:34.4. Jonathan Cohen, 31, took the bronze in 30:15.2.
The fastest Wellfleeter in the race was Maya Braga De Lima, 18, who finished in 36:03.8. Jake Puffer, 37, was second at 43:08.3. Arthur Brown, 67, finished third among locals at 43:29.2.
Runners’ ages ranged from 13-year-old Fleet Taylor (who finished in 39:16.3) to 82-year-old Linda Brimm (1:05:57.4). After the 5-mile race ended, a few dozen 12-and-under runners lined up for the “Fun Run,” 1.2 miles from Mayo Beach to the intersection of Kendrick Avenue and Chequessett Neck Road and back.
Rec Director Becky Rosenberg says times for the Fun Run aren’t official, but she clocked Wellfleet’s Deacon Reeves, who crossed the finish line first, at 8:43. Reeves’s grandmother, Katie Sugg, was one of the founders of the road race in 1975.
Rosenberg says the twin events were created by teachers and students at Nauset High at a time when road racing was becoming popular. She added that the Wellfleet race was the second on Cape Cod, predated only by the Falmouth Road Race in 1973.
At the time, Rosenberg says, the Nauset track team was dominated by students from Wellfleet. The race was the late Brewster Fox’s idea. Fox enlisted the help of his friend Bob Morse, then a Nauset High English teacher, to organize the race. Bob’s son Brad Morse, who came in at 53:09.6 this year, ran the inaugural Fun Run in 1975, Rosenberg says. “It’s a beloved race that people come back to.”
Rosenberg still has a trophy for participating in the Fun Run in 1978. The inscription under the winged figure reads “consolation award.” She hasn’t competed since she took over as the organizer, she says. “People know I’m not a runner, but now I have a good excuse.”
