Guest blog by Victoria Barnaby of the GBTC (originally published on 9/24).

Yesterday the Greater Boston Track Club put on their annual Cross-Country Invitational at Elm Bank Park in Wellesley, MA.  In years past the Invite has been traditionally held at Bradley Palmer in Topsfield but this year the Board of Directors seized the opportunity to hold the race in a new location on a new date.  GBTC spread the word to local clubs looking for a an opportunity to race during the weekend when normally the annual Codfish Bowl would be held at Franklin Park.  For those of you unfamiliar with the race it was unfortunately cancelled due to park construction.

Brennan Bonner, Matt Haringa and John Raguin were the leads in racing planning and directed the day’s events.  They created the challenging 2k,5k and 8k courses that included trail terrain that was mostly flat with an occasional hill and stretch across a grassy field.

A successful new addition to the Invite was the Youth 2k race which kicked off just after 9 AM.  It was the largest race of the day which unleashed a wave of 100 young racers.  Daniel O’Donoghue of the Waltham Track Club was triumphant and finished with an overall time of 7:44.  This youthful start to the Invite set the tone for a positive and fun morning of competition.

A stacked Master’s Men field of 46 runners took to the 5k course shortly thereafter and Dmirtry Drozdov of NETT finished victorious with a time of 16:45.

Next up on line was the Open Men’s 8k.  Sean Duncan of the Western Mass Distance Project led for majority of the race and finished the course in 24:57 with a healthy lead over the next runner in.

And lastly the Women’s race combined both Open and Master’s Women in a 5k run.  The GBTC and BAA duked it out for almost all of the top ten finishing places.  In the end Allison McCabe completed the course in an impressive 17:59.

At the awards ceremony top teams received freshly baked pies with engraved forks and serving utensils.  The top three finisher’s in each race also received a gift certificate for a 1BandID, a customizable ID band that attaches to watches, GPS’, heart rate monitors and trainers.

In recent years the GBTC Invite has seen a diminishing number of participants in the club-sponsored race. However with this year’s event 230 runners came out to compete and a number of volunteers and spectators showed up to give their support.

You can find all race results on the club’s website as well as Cool Running.  GBTC tweeted throughout the event with their handle @GBTCrunning so make sure to follow them on Twitter and “Like” them on Facebook to get updates on next year’s events and this year’s happenings.  GBTC also holds an annual Indoor Track race in January at Harvard University so make sure to mark your calendars now.

This originally appeared on Victoria’s blog on 9/24/12 (click here).

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