Wanderers Produce the Goods in New Hampshire

Under siege from dissident members (see Letters to Editor October and November issues) and beset by performance woes over the summer, the Wanderers brain trust issued a blunt set of instructions to race director Tad Sperry before the Reach the Beach Relay in late September.

“Win or else!”

Tad rose to the challenge brilliantly producing a team which was more than a match for the rugged 200-mile course. The Wanderers did not actually win the race, but their 51st place finish, 66th without handicap, out of 96 teams was close enough.
With the pressure on, Tad played his trump card, Bob Zock, right away. Through the efforts of Kilian Mullett and Simon Newman, the Wanderers have been establishing a nice little reputation as mountain running specialists. Bob further enhanced the club’s mountain running credentials by flying up the Bretton Woods Mountain in the opening leg of the relay race. Bob won the leg by several minutes over the approximately 12 teams in our heat and in the process thoroughly demoralized the competition.

Opposing teams quickly regrouped and the Wanderers soon found themselves in a 24-hour dogfight with the teams from Toe Jam, Bull Moose, Team 212, and the New Balance Shoe team.

Stars abounded on the Wanderers’ team. Susan Branson proved that her performance at the Dances with Dirt relay earlier in the month was no fluke by turning in three impressive legs in the race. The Syracuse duo of Richard Gardner and Ruth Yanai teamed up with veterans Scott Quitel and Dan Gordon to battle the many speedy teams who had traveled to New Hampshire for the competition.
As darkness fell, the question remained whether the night shift of Nick Sullivan, Peg Gaillard, Michele Tulino, Tad Sperry, Wayne Hamilton and Duncan MacGuigan could sustain the pace and keep the Wanderers in the race.

That question was answered most definitively in the affirmative when dawn broke on Saturday morning. The Wanderers might have lost a little ground to Team 212, but the team was still locked in a seesaw battle with Toe Jam, Bull Moose and the New Balance team. It all came down to Duncan MacGuigan to bring the team home on the anchor leg. Duncan did not disappoint crossing the finish line in Rye Beach culminating a hard days work for the Wanderers on the road . The Wanderers finished in an overall elapsed time of 28 hours, 10 minutes and 47 seconds, not exactly the speed of sound, but still very respectable.

It was only left for Tad to file his race report with the Wanderers’ brain trust. His message read simply "Mission accomplished."

Wanderers Sizzle at The Philadelphia Marathon Francois Bernatchez ran the Philadelphia marathon in 3 hours and 17 minutes on November 18. In a show of strength, eight Wanderers completed the race. For complete race results and photos of the event, click here.
Wayne Hamilton passes the baton to Nick Sullivan as Duncan MacGuigan ensures a smooth transition in the background.	Ruth Yanai kicks into overdrive during one of the closing stages of the race.