Seagull Six Spring Classic Road Race
Thank You
Thank you to all who ran in or volunteered at this year's Seagull Six Spring Classic. Joe Navas repeated as men's champion and Kathleen Colleran won the women's race. Here are results and a story on the race.
About the Race
Registration
Registration for 2009 Race to be announced.
Course Map
Elevation Profile
You may have heard this course is hilly. Here is an elevation profile.
Thank You To Our Sponsors
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Previous Years' Results and Race Stories
Course Records:
Jerry Kiernan, 1987, 27:51
Lynn Jennings, 1979, 31:53
Seagull Six Race History
The Seagull Six Spring Classic Road Race has been associated with the Falmouth Track Club since almost the beginning of the club's existence. The FTC started in 1972 and the Seagull Six Spring Classic was first run in 1978.
Born as a child of both the running boom and the social protests of the late '70s, the Seagull Six is a colorful and challenging race early in the spring season, the first or second Sunday in April. As former race director and race historian Fred Keller recounts, "But haven't you ever wondered how an obscure, little race like the Seagull evolved? Truth is, it started as a 'protest race,' in 1978, to draw attention to the evils of PAVE-PAWS radar site being built at Otis AFB. A small, but feisty group of local runner/hippie types known as the Seagull Striders, led by Karen and Henry Smith-Rohrberg and Betty Fuller, decided to stage the race as a fund raiser to help carry on the struggle." Shortly after the Seagull Six was born, John Carroll suggested that the 'Striders' and his own running group should combine into one club...making this special little race a catalyst for what we now know as the Falmouth Track Club.
Keller surmised that the 'six-mile' loop, starting and ending in front of the Woods Hole firehouse, and laid out around Woods Hole, was measured by whatever well-worn car Karen Smith-Rohrberg drove back then. The first race participants, thrilled with their six-mile PRs, were brought back to earth with the later discovery that the course actually measures only 5.74 miles.
In 1979, overtaken just at the finish line to come in second overall, was the race's most famous (runner) participant, Lynn Jennings, then just a high school student. Most years the race draws between 150-200 participants, although entries have reached as high as over 300. In 1983, Jack Weiss introduced the famous and much treasured Seagull Six glass mug (if you haven't seen one, you haven't been hosted for a meal by a Falmouth Track Club member). The race headquarters remains the drafty, but charming Woods Hole firehouse, warmed by sweating bodies consuming post race refreshments. A fitness walk was added in 1994, the Falmouth VNA's 'Walk for Well Women projects.'
Only within recent years did race directors Pete Sampson and Mike Norton break the long-standing tradition of giving out awards twelve months after the event! Mike Norton currently is the race director of this popular and challenging race. If you are looking for a good opener for your spring racing season, look no further than the Seagull Six.
