There's No Run like the S-No-W Run

I'll admit I haven't run the S-No-W Run 5-miler in Lake Geneva, WI, since I lived in Milwaukee in the early 1980s. It was a great run then and it's a great run now. As always, it's very competitive, features one-year age groups and quite the party event after the hard work is over. There were 726 finishers in the cool race. The leaders were familiar names on the Chicago-area circuit, starting with overall winner Christian Escareno, 22, of Mount Prospect. Christian won it in 26:38.1 (you can see him in a 4 on the 4th photo to the right), beating Ryan Giulano, 26, of Schaumburg, who took second in 26:54.5. Jesus Escareno, 21, also of Mount Prospect and Christian's brother, took third in 27:06.0. The women were led by Shannon Ring, who rang in the New Year with a nice 28:59.5. Next was local powerhouse Jean Marinangeli, 27, of Schaumburg, who clocked 29:29.9. Third place went to Jacqui Aubert, 24, of Crystal Lake, with a fine 31:11.8. I have to apologize for being late on this one. I have been pre-occupied with trying to stage the 12th annual Northern Illinois Nordic cross-country ski race in Wheaton. We've postponed it twice now and will try again on Jan. 22. Imagine a sport where you don't even know if you'll have a course with less than a week to go before the race! I still love it though, probably as much as I love running. Way to go, all you S-No-W runners!