The King reaffirms his reign

In order to get SLG-ers excited about running again, I thought that maybe what I had to do was go look at some other races in the area. Not in Central Park, not in NYC but maybe a bit further afield... And this is how the next story unfolds.
For years, I had to hear about this 5 km run in Scarsdale where the first woman and man over 50 received the "Stanley Newhouse Trophy". For years, I had to listen to Gil proclaim that he would have won the trophy if he would have run it but "he didn't want to run it because he didn't want to get hurt for the NY marathon or the Chicago marathon etc"
So, when the subject of the Stanley Newhouse Trophy surfaced again, I reminded him that "you have to be in it, to win it" so he signed up. In order to lend him some support, and to go and check out this race, I decided to sign up as well. So here we were, in this fancy Wetschester suburb, the King and the coach, at the start of this "flat" race with some 200 odd competitors. There were no chips to be tied on your running shoe, no bar code strip to hand in at the end, a guy on a bike who gave the final instructions and pressed his stopwatch, and arrows on the road to indicate the course. I hadn't run a race like that in a long time, maybe never. But boom, the horn went off and we were off...
The course was as "flat" as the north hills in Central Park but it was over in a flash. Actually the wait for the trophy ceremony was longer than the actual race. But sure enough, when they announced the male winner of the trophy, our friend the King was called to the podium and hoisted up his prize, a silver bowl with some serious engraving on the side, stating the fact that on Ocotber 19th, 2008 the recipient had come in first in the over 50 category, in a time of 20 minutes and change, which meant that Gil had run better than 7 minute miles. Wow!!!!
And the Queen, never one for false modesty didn't do half badly herself. She passed one woman who looked like she could be in her age category around mile one. She left some high school kids, which had passed her early on in the 5 k, in the dust. When one of them had a late surge and caught back up with her a bit before the end, she gave it her all, and beat this young whipper snapper! All this resulted in a 5 k race in 23:50 which is about 7:40 minute miles! And a second place in the over-50 category.
Maybe we need to make this a SLG event next year. Maybe I can hold up the coveted Stanley Newhouse trophy some day!
(Newspaper article to follow!)