Lynn Woods Relay a success

LYNN – With 110 teams, the 44th annual Lynn Woods 10-Mile Relay set a record for attendance on Wednesday.?It?s great, and we were challenged with all those people,” race director Bill Mullen said, “(keeping things) organized and orderly. We?re trying to get results tabulated. There were a lot of people there (Wednesday night).”Relay teams consisted of four people, with each running a 2.5-mile leg.Mullen said he thought the first-place team was Not for Ambition or Bread, whose four members – Ryan Collins, Rick Brunelt, Tim Liponis and Mark Dawson — ran a combined 57:23.?Mark has been a frequent runner on the Wednesday (races),” Mullen said. “He?s a good runner.”Liponis? time of 13:22 was the fastest on the night.Complete results will be posted in Friday?s Item.The Great Woods Road parking lot was packed with runners, some waiting to embark on their relay leg, others having completed their leg and cheering on their teammates. After finishing the course, runners could hydrate with water and Gatorade, enjoy refreshments such as watermelon and cookies, and watch other people finish.?From 15 minutes in to an hour and a half later, if you want to study styles, there are all different styles,” Mullen said. “Some have saved everything for the end (of their leg). Others are completely spent at the finish and are struggling to get to the end of the line. There?s action there all the time.”Those who ran included members of local running clubs and high school teams.?There were a number of young kids in high school who were there for the first time,” Mullen said. “I talked to some folks there who were in six teams from their work group. They registered very early for the race. Virtually all were there for the first time. They started asking questions, if they could come here and run on their own. Their reactions were that it was great, a beautiful place, and ?a lot harder than I expected it to be.? All those are pretty true. It?s surprising in an urban city like Lynn how beautiful and wild the Woods are.”In addition to the crowds of competitors, volunteers were on hand to help guide aspects of the race from parking to directing runners. One of them was Lynn resident Paul Gouthro.?I arrived a couple hours early, got a good parking spot myself and helped people park,” Gouthro said. “When (the lot) filled out, I?d ask them to park on the softball field and stay till it was over. You can?t have cars driving through runners. (Wednesday night) we sent people to Briarcliff Lodge or Lynnfield Street. It worked out well.”For the race itself, Gouthro laid out orange markers to guide runners and stood about 15 feet from the stone columns near the bottom of the first hill, directing the flow of runners.Mullen reported that one senior veteran runner fell several times. However, he added, “he still had a wry smile on his face. He said he?ll be OK, and he?ll be back next year, if he?s able to.”