Taking advantage of the wet weather in a most unusual way, Millbury's Peter Gleason won the 19th Grafton Gazebo Road Race finishing 13  seconds ahead of Scott Leslie of Worcester. Gleason's winning time was 28:16 for the five mile racewith its traditional run through the historic Grafton Common.  A field of 173  unners took to the starting line Saturday morning in  Grafton under gray, damp skies.

Top Grafton finishers were Rob Reinhardt, a sophomore at Grafton High School
who finished 11th at 33:39, followed by Paul Oparowski finishing 12th at 34:03, David Rice, 13th (34:09) and Bob Shumeyko 14th at 34:30.

Gleason, the varsity cross country and assistant spring track coach at
Grafton High School, had expected to be with his team for Saturday's District
E  Central Massachusetts high school track meet, but when that event was postponed on Friday due to the forecast heavy rain, it gave Gleason a chance to enter the  Grafton race and run over some very familiar terrain.

"Our Grafton teams run on the Gazebo Road Race course frequently, so I know
it well." Gleason said in a post race interview. I was able to push out  hard
through the hilly stretch of the course coming up North Street to the two mile
mark

Gleason held the lead almost the entire race distance opening up a 25 yard
lead at the one mile mark and increasing that to some 150 yards by the time the
race reached the Grafton Common, the half way point. When Gleason exited the
Common and headed onto South Street, Leslie was just entering the Common at its  other end.

"I was just running my race and I honestly didn't know I had someone behind
me until I looked back at the four mile mark and saw him (Leslie) on my back."�
Gleason still had a kick coming through the race course's cemetery stretch
four and a half miles into the race on Hudson Avenue. As he turned onto Brigham
Hill Road he had reopened a 50 yard lead heading toward the finish line.

The Grafton Gazebo Road Race is conducted by the Town of Grafton and its
Recreation Commission, headed by Betty Wright. The race was started in 1986. The 19th Grafton Gazebo  Road  Race and Children's Fun Runs are conducted with the generous community support  of the Grafton Police Officers Alliance, Gaudette Insurance Agency, Inc.,  Grafton Water District, LeClaire Properties, Grafton Stop & Shop, G.N. Prunier &  Sons Inc., Millbury National Bank, Savers Bank, Magill Associates, Inc.,  Temp-Flex Cable, Inc., Grafton Suburban Credit Union, Collette Motors, Inc., and  the Grafton Recreation Commission