I n the early ’80s the Cambridge SportsUnion’s proverbial clubhouse wasabuzz with news that the Great CowHarbor 10K was offering a few NewEngland clubs transportation $ to theBig Event on Long Island; hence, sever-

al of us piled into a van and…hello, Northport.Arriving at dusk, I remember Northport as aquaint village perched right above a pic-turesque harbor.

The following day we stood waiting forthe start on Laurel Avenue. My ersatz coach atthe time, Henry Finch, cautioned: “Follow mefor the first mile. It’s kind of downhill andthere’s a lot of really fast guys here. There’s ahill in the second mile, so you don’t want toget sucked into going out too fast.” Finch flewthrough the first mile in 4:45 with yours trulyin tow. The next memory is turning right onJames Street and looking straight up “WidowHill.”

“Coach” was fired after the race, but theevent itself was world-class right up to andincluding the staggering post-race party atScudder Beach. The Greater Cow Harbor 10K,now in its 33rd year, is past due as NER’s“Race of the Year” owing to our procrastina-tion in getting back to the epic. Vacation in

Sonoma took us out this year but no morewaiting, because Cow Harbor, as the kidssay…no, as the kids text these days: is THEBOMB!

Our team’s only regret was not being ableto stay an extra day for the Cow Harbor DayParade, when bovine floats and marchingbands take over the streets. There are rides,arts & crafts, food and entertainment, kayakand boat races along with live music. Whichbegs the question, “Where does the name‘Cow Harbor ’ come from. It seems thatNorthport was once known as Great CowHarbor. From what locals told us, during therevolutionary war the British were in controlof the area for a stretch of time and built astockade that included cattle to feed theEnglish troops…voila, Cow Harbor.

The ‘idea’ for the race arrived in 1977 withthe advent of the Northport Running Club, thecreation of five local running zealots. John‘Rak’ Rakucewicz was the driving forcebehind the race and the club’s first president—albeit for a tenure of only two months as thewheels of his brainchild began to spin everfaster. That September’s inaugural event drew1,002 finishers. Word got out about the cir-cuitous, hilly course with spectacular views of

Race of the Year

30 New England Runner, January/February 2010

Photos courtesy of Island Photo

There’s one in every crowd.

MOOve Out, It’s Cow Harbor!

Long Island Sound. The roller-coaster routeended with a downhill finish that emptiedonto Main St. among throngs of spectators.The awards and post-race social were top-notch.

Within three years a total of 2,515 finisherscrossed the finish line in front of the NorthportHardware Company. In the days of paperapplications, the first 3,000 were accepted forthe 1981 race as a ‘cap’ was put in place to con-tain the field. This held until 1985 when startcoordinator John Pitfick implemented a stag-gered start. When Pitfick passed away, themajor improvement he’d supplied to the racewas officially coined, “The John Pitfick GreatCow Harbor Staggered Start.”

The race soon became a victim of its ownsuccess. With expanding fields and theincreased time pressures of his own business,Cow Harbor creator, director and managerRakucewicz reluctantly stepped out of thespotlight. The race wasn’t run in 1986 but wasback on in 1987 through the efforts of an orga-nizing committee (The Great Cow Harbor 10-Kilometer Run, Inc.) the Northport RC and theNorthport American Legion Post 694. The racehas been held every year since except in 2001following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks(Northport is only 40 miles from GroundZero).

In 1991, eventual three-time champion JeffJacobs ran a course record 28:44 for men andthree years later Kenya’s Jane Omoro set thewomen’s standard of 32:33. Lynn Jennings led

the ’94 race but struggled on the James St. Hilland was passed first by Omoro, then AnnHare (32:58) and Laura Mykytok (33:16) toplace an uncharacteristic fourth in 33:50. Themen’s race that year saw Khalid Khannouchiwinning by 3-seconds in 28:47 over Kenya’sSteve Nyamu with Jacobs third. Omoro’srecord stands today and Jacob’s record sur-vived Khannouchi (by 3-seconds) along withTodd Williams, Steve Spence, Budd Coatesand Rod DeHaven (among others), to last 16years until Ryan Hall visited Northport in 2006and clocked 28:22. In addition to the first placeprize of $1.5K, Hall picked up another $5K forthe course record (donat-ed by title sponsor CapitalOne Bank).

The race’s toughestchallenge came in 2004 inthe wake of HurricaneIvan when waterloggedtiming equipment failedto record half the field.Nothing, however, canstop this juggernaught forlong. A record field of4,453 runners crossed thefinish line this year withWalpole, NH’s HeidiWesterling placing secondto Minnesota’s KatieMcGregor in the women’srace. Westerling isn’t theonly regional elite to havedone well here in therecent past. In 2008,Lowell, MA roadster NateJenkins pulled in third at29:44, six seconds aheadof MN’s Jason Lehm-kuhle—the race’s most

prolific performer with two wins in 2003 and2007, a second to Hall in 2006 and another sec-ond in 2009.

The main beneficiary of the race is LongIsland Special Olympics but many other localcauses also benefit, notes Event CoordinatorRich Boziwick, who serves on the RacingCommittee with Bill Fleming, HarveySussman, Ron Mataza, Fritzi Gros-Daillon andoutside consultant Jerry Wood. This yearBoziwick’s son, Matt, brought about a partner-ship with Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organiza-tion that collects ‘gently-used’ footwear to dis-tribute to the poor and victims of natural dis-

asters. A total of 750pairs of shoes were col-lected. In addition, therace shaded green in2009 with the recyclingof glass, plastic andmetal objects. This yearalso saw the addition ofa 2K Fun Run/Walk thatdrew over a thousandparticipants and startedafter the last wave of 10Krunners went off.

When the huffingand puffing is over, ahuge party by the harborensues with plenty ofgiveaways and livemusic. We could contin-ue to ‘milk’ this story,but seeing is believing,so if you’ve got anopportunity to make itout to ‘Cow Harbor ’come September, don’tprocrastinate!

—Bob Fitzgerald

New England Runner, January/February 2010 31

Cow Harbor CR ProgressionMen

Jeff Jacobs 28:44 1991Ryan Hall 28:22 2006Women

Diane Rodgers 33:15 1985Jane Omoro 32:33 1994

Prize PurseTop 10 M & F

$1,500 $1,000 $900 $800 $700 $600 $500 $400 $300 $200

Top 3 Masters M & F

$500$300$100Top M & F Senior

$100

Race Facts

Team USA Minnesota runner Jason Lehmkuhle hascertainly been Cow Harbor’s most prolificperformer over the past decade.

The Bay State’s Nate Jenkins (2) ran 29:44 in 2008 to place 3rd.