Paper: Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
Title: HOODLUMS' EXCEL IN OREGON
Date: September 3, 2000

Last weekend, when most people were thinking of rest and  relaxation, a dozen Lancaster athletes embarked on the Herculean  physical challenge of running a 195-mile relay.


Not only did the Pennsylvania "Hoodlums," as they called  themselves, complete the entire distance of the 19th edition of the  Hood-to-Coast relay, they finished first in their division.The race consisted of 1,000 teams with 12 runners on each and  2,000 vans to drop off and pick up the runners for the 36 legs of  the relay.


"It was amazing that through all the logistics of 12,000 runners  and all those vans and teams that our team could finish ninth  overall and first in the open race category," said team captain  Jeff Roth.


The race began Friday around 9 a.m., with 20 teams departing  every 15 minutes from the top of Mount Hood on their way to  Seaside, Ore., on the west coast.


Roth said, "We were placed in the 7:45 p.m. start group with some  elite teams containing all-American runners. One thousand teams  were on their way to the West Coast shore by 9:15 p.m."


The Hoodlums finished in a time of 18 hours, 45 minutes and 51  seconds, which is an average of 5 hours, 47 minutes per mile for  the 195-mile course.


This was an improvement over the team's 1998 finish of 20th  overall in a time of 19 hours, 37 minutes.


The top eight teams finishing in front of the Hoodlums this year  in the overall race were in the elite division consisting of  professional and collegiate runners.


Each runner raced three separate legs (4-8 miles each) in a  rotating order, for a total of 14-18 miles over terrain that varied  from steep all downhill legs to steep uphill legs on back country  dirt and dusty roads.


The runners, with their relay legs included: 1. Chris Goodling;  2. John Stoudt; 3. Pat Lafferty; 4. Matt Seigford; 5. Justin Krebs;  6. Mike Bomberger; 7. Phil Garland; 8. Scott Weaver; 9. Mark Amway;  10. Jeff Roth; 11. Tim Schuler; 12. Mark Hribar.


"Van drivers/race course navigators Bob Ulmer and Jim Garland  both did a fantastic job of driving and navigating the race course  for 19-plus hours," Roth said.


"Bob, having run the race with us two years ago, was familiar  with the complexity of shuttling runners to their drop-off points  on the race course."


The team captain commended the team's sponsors, Phil Garland,  owner of Garland Construction, and Mark Amway, owner of The Inside  Track, for their support.


"Being involved in a team event like this is both exciting and  inspiring," said Roth, "and I think Mark Amway summed the team's  feelings up best at the end of the race when he said, "People ask  us why we run. Participating in an event like this is why we run,  but most people wouldn't understand unless they did it.'"


Top five finishers in the Open Division: 1. Hoodlums,  Millersville, 18:45:51; 2. 11 Mad Dogs and an Englishman, Portland,  Ore., 18:54:27; 3. Class Act, Brush Prairie, Wash., 19:28:48; 4.  Synthesis of Insanity, Portland, Ore., 19:28:48; 5. Dirty Half  Dozen plus 6, Portland, Ore., 20:04.


Mimi Newcomer of Lancaster also ran the relay with an elite mixed  master team of runners from different areas of the country and won  that division this year in 19:55:17, good for 20th place overall.  Her team's name was Pace Setter -- WeB40.