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2008 Women's Race Winner
Florence Jeposgei
Time: 41:06 |
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| 323 Days to LHRR 2009! |
Course Description
The course is 7+ miles with a steep hill at the beginning of the last mile.
Real time Litchfield Weather Information
View the Course Map
The race starts at the top of the street on the Village Green. (The street with all the shops on it.)
Run down the hill and take a left onto Meadow Street (Aspen Garden restaurant is on the corner).
At the end of Meadow Street, take a right onto Gallows Lane and go down the hill (you will run up this hill later, so get prepared!)
At the bottom of the hill take a right, then your 1st left.
Run past the cemetery then take a right.
Take the 1st left and run past the schools.
At the bottom of the hill, go right onto White's Woods Rd.
Continue along this stretch until you come to your 1st right (Bissell Rd)
Continue on Bissell Road till the end and take a left into White Memorial.
Follow the dirt road up the hill, down the hill straight between the rocks and OVER the bridge. Bear left AFTER the bridge. (Be sure that you DO NOT take the left before the bridge.)
You will come back out on White's Woods Rd. Take a left.
Stay on this road back past the cemetery and back up Gallows Lane.
Run up the hill to the top and take a left on to South Street.
Follow South Street back to the center of town.
The race ends at the bottom of the hill you started on right in front of Aspen Garden.
Happy Running!
History of the LHRR Race Course
It was a dark and stormy night...no wait, that’s another story. So who in the heck planned out this 7+mile racecourse, anyway? Once the initial concept of the “great race” was firmly planted in the fertile minds of Joe Concannon, Billy Neller and company, the next thing was to decide the layout of the 7-mile run.
Since permission had already been granted from the State of Connecticut to use state roads, the thinking was to finish the race heading down North Street, past the stately mansions, with the incredible view of the courthouse tower and Town green. Unfortunately (and those of you who have ever run up Gallows Lane can understand this) there was no money in the budget at the time to pay for all the police needed to shut down the state highways. So….a different route to the finish was needed
So in the spirit of past adventurers like Mason and Dixon, Christopher Columbus and Indiana Jones, a valiant group set off through the wilds of Litchfield, plotting out the race course. The main idea was to imitate the famous Falmouth race, copy the distance and have a downhill finish.
With that noble ambition in mind, our adventurers left their barstools at the Village Restaurant and turned left out the door.
They cruised down West Street and wisely, decided to turn left onto Meadow Street, rather than heading down Route 202 (which at that time, was Route 7.) At the end of Meadow Street, they hung a right and headed down Gallows Lane. Now what? Hmmm. They headed out past the cemetery and toward the schools, about a 2- mile trek so far with a nice little grade there to make life interesting.
With gathering excitement, our gang traveled on, into White Memorial territory, with its beautiful pine forests and calming flat stretches of winding roads. As they cruised past the museum at the top of the hill into White Memorial proper (did I mention they were not running, but traveling by car?) they faced their first dilemma, Chickadee Bridge. It was decided that the runners would continue over the bridge, while the pace vehicle could travel over Little Left, a dirt road that travels back out to meet Bissell Road.
As an aside, there have been runners who have mistakenly taken this left and not traveled over the bridge; one year a lead runner had to backtrack to get back on the course and he still won!
At this point, several options were discussed. Should the race head through the golf course, which adjoins White Memorial? Maybe take a right out of the woods and head to Webster Road and then onto Route 63? As they cruised along, they found themselves at the bottom of Gallows Lane. Jimmy Cardello said, “Let’s just head up the hill and back to town.” which they did, as they were getting thirsty after all that driving around. So it was up the hill and left onto South Street, past the historic homes and of course, the Country’s first law school. As they rounded the bend into town, an available parking space beckoned to them and voila, they found themselves right back where they started, at the Village Restaurant.
Still puzzling over the finish of the race, the wisest one of the group pointed out that a) they had accomplished covering 7 miles, and b) what better place to end up than where they were and c) there was a downhill finish and d) Gallows hill isn’t really that steep—I didn’t feel a thing.
And to this day, this man’s name has been kept a secret...you figure out why. |
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2008 Men's Race Winner
Phillip Koech
Time: 34:59 |
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