By David Rogers. LITCHFIELD HILLS, Conn. — The “starting gun” the Litchfield Hills Road Race is an old cannon, its “boom” echoing in and around the surrounding woods, hills and valleys. Then there is that featured part of the course called “Gallows Hill.” You run down at the start — and then have to run back up at the end of 7.1 miles. And the “fun times” in waiting carry the organizers’ stiff, pre-race warning that goes something like, “If you haven’t trained, we recommend that you don’t run this race.”
Blowing Rock’s Andrew Colley, a veteran member of the ZAP Endurance professional elite running team, brushed any doubts aside on June 11 in winning the historic Litchfield Hills Road Race against a competitive field that included almost 1,000 hardy souls. The High Country equivalent might be “The Bear,” run up Grandfather Mountain.
“The first mile was down Gallows Hill,” said Coffey in describing his first race back in competition since running the Rotterdam Marathon in April. “I ran it in 4:19!”
That pace for 7.1 miles is not sustainable, especially considering you have to run back UP Gallow’s Hill at the end. In spite of the elevation changes and switching periodically from asphalt to dirt and gravel surfaces, Colley still maintained a blistering 4:56 mile pace to cross the finish line in 34:34.37, roughly 45 seconds ahead of No. 2 Vann Moffett of Niantic, Conn., a collegiate star from Stony Brook University on Long Island (N.Y.). Moffett ran 35:19.58, a 5:03 mile pace for the distance.
No. 3 was Ryan Eiler of Boston (36:36.87), with Alex Norstrom of Glastonbury, Conn., at No. 4 (37:08.08) and Spencer Bossi-Johnson of San Diego, Calif. in the No. 5 spot (37:21.90).
Almost 1,000 runners competed.
“This was a good run for Andrew,” said ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea after the race. “There is a lot of history to this race as well as for the venue. The race was started back in 1977, so has been going for 46 years now and the entire community comes out to support the event. Gallows Hill got its name because that is where they executed people convicted of certain crimes, like murder, back in the 1700s.”
The brief video below shows Colley having just crested Gallows Hill and on his way to the finish line.
CLICK: IMG_1723
