It was an ‘Old School’ victory in the 20-mile West Hartford Relay.

By Ronni Newton

The sun was shining brightly on a beautiful early autumn morning as the grounds of West Hartford Town Hall were crammed with shouting and cheering kids, fans clanging cowbells, and hundreds of runners.

Nearly 50 teams completed the 5-mile kids relay course of the 2014 West Hartford Relay, and more than 20 teams participated in the full 20-mile relay.

The kids’ race, which was supported through a partnership with local non-profit Growing Great Schools, has the primary goal of promoting fitness among elementary school age chlidren. Teams of four or eight students ran the 5-mile course through Blue Back Square.

Most of the participants in the full relay – a 20 mile course consisting of four laps of 5 miles each – were adults competing in four-person, two-person, and solo teams.

“Old School,” an ultra-team of Seth Oriol and Ted Newton (who are both in their 50s), took first place in the 20-mile relay in a time of 2:15.00, with an average pace of 6:45 per mile.

Second place in the 20-mile relay went to “The Herd,” in a time of 2:21.26. Three of the four members of that team (Colin Cowherd, John Lawrence, and Dan Stanczyk) also work together as a team on the ESPN radio show “The Herd.” Andy Lawrence was the fourth member of ‘The Herd” relay team.

ESPN personality Andy Katz, a West Hartford resident, also ran in the relay. He was part of ultra team “PadKat” with his wife, Denise Padilla. Both recently ran the Surftown Half Marathon and plan to run the Newport Half Marathon in a few weeks. “We’re good friends with Kim and Vito [Iacovazzi, the race organizers], and it was great to have a training run with the course already set up for us,” Padilla said.

The West Hartford Relay was a fundraiser for the physical education department of West Hartford Public Schools. Organizer Kim Cowherd-Iacovazzi estimated that more than $5,000 had been raised, but the final figures had not been calculated as of Sunday evening.

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