Orleans County Citizen Advocacy

Orleans County Citizen Advocacy, Inc.
P.O. Box 247
Glover, Vermont 05839
(802) 873-3285

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Echo Lake Road Race

Hot, muggy weather - and the threat of a thunderstorm - didn’t scare off the spirited racers at the 15^th Annual Echo Lake Road Race in Charleston on Saturday, August 25.

From a toddler in a stroller to a sprightly 86-year old, 185 bikers, runners and racers registered to circle the road around Echo Lake. The bikers and 10 mile runners tackled it twice. A good number of racers jumped (or rode) into the lake once they crossed the finish line, and they were joined by some of the spectators!

Despite the heat and humidity, no one let it get the best of them. Everyone returned safely. In fact, two new biking course records were set. Rose Long,19, of Sutton, VT, beat the female biking record time set in 2000 by 16 seconds with a time of 30:20 for the 10 mile ride. Thorin Markinson, 24, of Danville set a new course record of 28:56 in the male bike event, breaking the old record of 30:36 set in 2000.

Other top finishers:

Name	Event	Sex	Age	Home	Time
Jack Fahey	5 M run	M	51	Belmont, MA	32:00
Susan Dunklee	5 M run	F	21	Barton, VT	34:29
David Herr	10 M run	M	42	Canaan. VT	61:58
Elizabeth Markinson	10 M run	F	23	Danville, VT	81:21
Bob Gruber	5 M walk	M	57	Milton, VT	55:55
Deb Batista	5 M walk	F	45	Newport, VT	66:43

These top 8 winners each received a medal and had their pick of the prize table, laden with 100 prizes donated by area businesses. The remaining 92 prizes were raffled off among all the entrants. In all, 58 five-mile runners, 24 ten-mile runners, 56 bikers and 38 walkers competed and enjoyed bagels, oranges, bananas, peanut butter and ice cream after the race while all enjoyed visiting with new and familiar attendees. In all, 90 businesses donated prizes and contributed money to pay for the T-shirts, and 10 businesses supplied the food and goodies, with 49 others volunteering their time working before, during and after the race.

This 2007 T-shirt featured a photograph taken at the 2005 Echo Lake Road Race, showing a young child playing in the lake with pails and shovels on the beach. It was taken by Linda Bradley of Connecticut. Ms. Bradley's husband, Lee, has been at almost every Echo race as a runner.

Each year free passes for the next year’s race are awarded to racers with various distinctions. For example, traveled the farthest, the oldest runner, and the youngest biker. This year, race organizers decided to name he youngest runner prize, in honor of a runner who has been an inspiration to all of us over the years, Don Osborne, of Connecticut. He has missed only 3 of the 15 Echo races, and this year again tackled the 5 mile run at age 85. The first-ever Don Osborne Award went to 11 year-old Lizzy Lena Alexander of Derby, VT. Lizzy competed in her first race of this length. Her challenge is to keep running as long as Don has!

Racers especially appreciated the encouragement along the way of drummer Derek Piette of Newark, VT, and Bev Davis of Brownington, VT, who could be heard playing the bag pipes at the top of the hill.

This year over $5,000 was raised to support Orleans County Citizen Advocacy, a non-profit organization whose mission is to match community volunteers in one-to-one relationships of friendship and advocacy with people with disabilities.

Since OCCA began in 1988, over 70 such relationships have been formed, and over 25 continue to this day. The Echo Lake Road Race raises about a quarter of OCCA’s annual operating budget. The funds raised are used primarily to support the OCCA coordinator, Ellen Bowen, who recruits and trains the advocacy volunteers, and provides ongoing support to the relationships. Of note: The most recently matched advocate learned about the program when she was a racer at last year’s race!

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