Runners beat the heat

BY ROB ROSE FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE

Monday, August 17, 2009 2:18 AM EDT

NORTH ATTLEBORO - Fifteen minutes after he won Sunday's Runaway Five Miler in North Attleboro, Jeffrey Ragazzini was still supine on the ground; his vitality completely drained by the enervating heat and humidity of the day that had all 146 finishers suffering.

The Somerville resident was in a rigorous test until he was handed an unexpected gift in the third mile that allowed him to win in 27:24. Waltham's Heather Cappello won the women's race by over seven minutes (28:58), broke the course record by 10 seconds and reclaimed first place for the Cappello family after a three-year absence.

The weather was the theme of the day as the runners took off from S. Washington St. in sun drenched and steamy conditions. The early stage gave promise of a competitive race as a group of five, Ragazzini, North Attleboro's Kent Taylor, Sharon's Dan Darcy, Mansfield's Mark McDermott and Guilford, Ct.'s Steve Bergentino, paced the field up the road. The fall out began when Taylor slipped back on Metcalf. At the first mile (5:33), a core of four was still intact, running abreast along Anawan. Shortly before the second mile (10:53), McDermott and Bergentino relinquished their share of the lead and the race was down to a duel between Ragazzini and Darcy. Then the unexpected happened.

With the duo holding a formidable lead on Bergentino on Ellis Rd., Darcy grabbed at his left side, moved to the side of the road and stopped running; done for the day with a groin injury. Instead of elation at being handed an apparent victory, Ragazzini had quite a different reaction to the removal of his only rival.

"I thought I'd be okay but right around two and half miles when Dan Darcy dropped out, the wheels kind of fell off and it wasn't fun from there," he said. "I was really scared. I didn't want to run the last two miles alone. It's very frightening when you know someone's back there and you don't know how fast they are. I was very scared for the last two and half miles that I was going to get my windows blown off but I held on."

For the balance of the race, Ragazzini was constantly looking back, never confident.

"I was trying to gauge how close the second place guy was," he said.

Bergentino, who took second place, wasn't ready to mount an offensive on such an oppressive day.

"He was definitely a good amount ahead," he said. "Didn't have enough time to close it totally. I was trying to push as much as I could but it's real hot out there today. Wasn't trying totally to kill myself."

Ragazzini was prepared to face a strong surge from Darcy but that all changed when injury intervened.

"He's (Darcy) incredibly fast in the last half mile so I didn't want to leave it to a half mile to go," he said. "I was thinking at three and a half miles I'll leave my cards on the table but I never got the chance and I'm glad I didn't."

Cappello's 7:14 margin of victory may have been the largest of any local 5K ever. When the lead runners were ascending Metcalf Rd. in the first mile, Cappello was just trailing the lead men. She placed sixth overall. Without another woman in the mix, Cappello had to adopt different tactics.

"I was here to race so I just used guys as kind of a gauge," she said. "You got to push it. I was running with a guy up until the two and half mile mark and he sped up a little and I tried to stay in contact. I just wanted to get out there and put in a good effort. It was really, really hot out there. I wanted to run a little faster hoping to run 28:15/28:30."

Cappello's sister Lisa had won the 2006 Runways women's race and recommended it. When asked how she felt about taking the course record and eclipsing her younger sister's time she smiled and said 'Good!'

Second-place finisher Tarsha Cicerone of Cranston was so far in arrears that she never saw Cappello during the entire race. However, she was upbeat about finishing second in only her third race and unlike most of the runners, seemed to have something left in the tank. Her return trip to Rhode Island passes a mall and "the endomorphs are flowing. I have a little adrenaline left. I'd like to do some shopping.