Falmouth Track Club Home Page

Date and Time: April 5, 2009, 11:00 am.
Race Distance: 5.74 miles
Location: Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street, Woods Hole, (Falmouth), MA
Course Description: A scenic and hilly loop, the last three miles of which are the first three miles of the Falmouth Road Race course backwards, including the hill at Nobska Light.
Directions: From any direction take Rte. 28 into Falmouth and turn at sign for "Woods Hole" which puts you onto Locust Street, which almost immediately turns into Woods Hole Road. The start/finish is approximately 4 miles on the left in Woods Hole Village. Registration is at the Woods Hole Community Hall, just past a metal drawbridge that is currently under construction.
A minor change in the course, for 2009: The race usually begins directly in front of the Community Building and immediately crosses a metal drawbridge, but this bridge is under construction, so the starting line will be moved on or near Millfield St., and the finish will be just before the drawbridge on Water St. The new start/finish lines will be measured to keep the distance 5.74 miles. More information further down on this page.
Entry Fees: $15 pre / $20 post-entry. Seagull Six signature glass mugs to the first 200 registrants.
Organized By: The Falmouth Track Club
Race Director: Mike Norton. Email mnorton@lawrencelynch.com

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Post-registration and number pick-up will be from 9:00 am to 10:30 am on race day (Sunday, April 5) at the Old Woods Hole firehouse on Water Street in Woods Hole Village. Here is the Seagull Six Entry Form [PDF]. Entry fee on race day is $20.00

On-line registration is now closed.

Awards ceremony will be in the waterfront dining area of the Captain Kidd on Water St. across from the Firehouse, beginning between 12:15 and 12:30.

Entry fees are non-refundable.

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Course Map [PDF]

Due to construction of the Eel Pond drawbridge, we have made a slight alteration to the start/finish area for this year's race, while retaining the 5.74 mile distance.

Registration will still be at the Fire House as usual, and awards will still be across the street at the Captain Kidd.

The new start line will be on Railroad Ave. at the corner of Water St., approximately a 5 minute walk from the registration location. The course will route runners down Railroad Ave. onto Luscombe, crossing Water St. and rejoining the traditional course at School Street.

The race finish line will now be on Water St. in front of Redfield Hall, approximately 50 yards shy of the draw bridge.

Here is a map of the new start/finish area [PDF].

You may have heard this course is hilly. Here is an elevation profile.

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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.

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