Giuliano, Cieslak Best at RTGFL

The Race That's Good for Life went off extremely well this morning in eastern Oak Park as thunderstorms moved through and got out of the way well before the women's 9 a.m. race time. The men raced at 9:50 with the kids race in between. Kudos to the Oak Park Runners Club for all of its efforts to make this race stand out year after year. The top three in the rugged men's field were Ryan Giuliano, 27, of Schaumburg, in 15:06; Mike Ptack, 25, of Elmhurst, in 15:18; and Nick Bowerman, 29, of Dubuque, IA, in 15:27. 1-2-3 in the women's race went to Kylen Cieslak, 23, of Chicago, in 17:59; CARA executive director Wendy Jaehn, 37, of Chicago, in 18:04; and Columba Montes, 32, of Chicago, also in 18:04. As always, it was a treat to run such a well-organized race. I wish I had more speed, but at the moment, I don't. There were 453 male finishers and 513 female finishers. The first two CARA Runners Choice Circuit races are over with plenty more to go. (Thanks to Eileen Skisak for the photo of Ryan Giuliano winning)