Saturday, February 12, 2000 -- Lincoln, VA
SVR Lincoln Valentine's 3.4 Miler
Story and photos by Marty Lamp

[Coverage] [Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2] [Pic Set 3] [Results]

When in Lincoln...Kevin Giles shows his spirit

On Saturday morning, February 12th, 70 runners of all ages and abilities gathered in the quaint town of Lincoln, Virginia for the Shenandoah Valley Runners Lincoln Valentine's 3.4 Miler. This turnout was more than double the attendance the previous year, despite the chilly temperatures and cloudy skies.

"I am not sure why we have such a good turnout, but it's great to have everyone here" said race director Raylene Scott as folks ventured toward the starting line.

The course was ran entirely on dirt roads, but don't think that it was easy. Of the eight SVR winter series runs, this is by far the most demanding course. From the start, runners were going downhill, but it didn't last for long, because if you weren't grinding up one of the three demanding uphills on the course, you were catching your breath on the rolling hills in between.

Waiting for the starting gun

The fastest person running this day was Frank Curiel(18:27). Just the weekend before, Curiel posted his best time ever (1:10:57) in a half marathon, finishing 9th out of 831 participants.

Despite admitting he was still recovering from the previous weekend, Curiel managed to hold off second place finisher Dustin Sweeney(18:37) and third place finisher Kyle Caudle(18:40). Sweeney and Caudle were side by side the final quarter mile, but the 17 year-old Sweeney managed to ward off Caudle on the final uphill.

The finish line always feels good

The fastest female on the day was Susan Rizzieri(23:31), finishing 17th overall. Besides being the vice president of the DC Road Runners Club, she also managed to run 52 races in 1999, and was one of six racers on the day who were members of the 50 Plus Club. Right behind Rizzieri was Kim Burns(23:41) running hard for second place while Krista Farris(24:51) finished third for the ladies. Burns and Farris finished 18th and 25th overall, respectively.

This was another fine example of the quality races put on by the Shenandoah Valley Runners. Thanks also go out to Karsten Brown for handling the results, and for providing a wealth of local information.