Dennis Crowne Completes Steamtown Marathon

On October 9, Dennis Crowne ran the Steamtown Marathon. The well organized marathon is run point to point from Forrest City to downtown Scranton Pa. School buses take the 1,800 runners on a 45 minute ride to the Forrest City High School where they are greeted by enthusiastic students and cheerleaders. They wait in the warm gyms and lunch rooms with plenty of bathrooms and port-a-potty's.

On the way back to Scranton they run through many small towns with bands, cheerleaders and town folks cheering for them.

A surprise for Dennis was at mile 20 where he was greeted by three masked Wanderers with posters, cow bells and weird dances. Petra Kretschmann (fresh off her Ironman a week earlier), Megan Boyle (preparing for her two marathons) and Susan Hurrey (with her broken foot) made the trip to Scranton to cheer for their fellow Wanderer.

Later in the run he noticed some writing in chalk on the ground. Thinking it must have been the kids from St. Joseph's Hospital he wasn't paying much attention until he saw his name and a nick name only a wanderer would know, Hot Hen.

But the big surprise came about 50 yards from the finish line when he looked over at the three cheering Wanderers. In plan view of all the downtown crowd they raised their shirts to expose CR,OW,NE spelled out on their bellies.

The marathon took 15 minutes longer (4:53) than last year's Steamtown, probably because he was having so much fun.

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