Re: CMS 52-Week 5K #7

[... Would any of you long-time CMS members know the fastest time that a dog has run the WSC 5K loop? (Don? Jan? Kemibe?)]

I don't recall a dog having finished any of the WSC 5K's at which I was present. However, that doesn't mean that I don't have a 5K dog story.

During the late 80's/early 90's, a fairly popular St. Patrick's Day race was organized by the Worcester Boys Club and started/finished at Tweed's Pub on Grove Street. It annually attracted 400-500 runners before it passed out of existence.

Back then, all races timed/scored by CMS were done with the legendary CMS tag system. For this race, CMS set up just one chute. However, it extended some 250 feet. As always, the goal was to have the number of runners timed at the finish line match the number of runners who were given place of finish tickets at the end of the chute.

When some 225 runners had finished, the finish line/end of chute numbers were in sync. At this point, however, a runner approached the line with a small, yappy, rat-looking dog in toe on a leash. The dog was dressed in a green St. Patrick's Day outfit. It was also not registered for the race, if for no other reason, USATF insurance regulations prohibited any/all four-legged competitors.

As they crossed the line, I told whoever was operating the Seiko timing devices not to time Rat Face. When Rat Face's owner was leaving the chute, he was given his place of finish ticket. He then insisted on getting one for Rat Face. When he was told no, he pulled a ticket out of the hand of the ticket volunteer. This, along with the commotion this caused (several runners missed getting their tickets), threw the timing and scoring out of whack and ultimately necessitated a manual back-check. This slowed the posting of the final results by about 45 minutes.

A search was of Tweed's parking lot was made with the intention of finding Rat Face and his owner and kicking them both to Chuck Wagon heaven. Alas, they had vanished.