Firecracker4: Four-mile race in Saratoga Springs on the Fourth of July

Jul 04, 2010

By: Andrew J. Bernstein

SARATOGA SPRINGS — It’s not your usual running race.

At four miles and with several challenging hills, this morning’s Firecracker4 will pit some of the areas top runners against each other and the terrain, as hundreds of runners more accustomed to running 5K races strain over an extra 0.9 miles.

The Firecracker4 bolts off the line on Broadway near the City Center at 8 a.m. Organizers are expecting about 1,500 runners to take the start.

Last year’s winner, Demetri Goutos of Saratoga Springs, took the win in a blazing-fast time of 20:44, and was a fitting winner — the race serves as a fundraiser for the Streaks Running Club, a booster organization that supports the Saratoga Springs High School Track and Field and Cross Country teams, of which Goutos is a graduate.

Goutos will look to declare his independence from the rest of the field and take a second win, and other runners still in the program think he may well have a chance to repeat.

“One of our past runners could win it,” said Katie Treichel, 16, a rising junior and member of Saratoga’s cross country team.

While she downplayed her own chances to win, Treichel called the Firecracker4 one of her favorite races of the year.

“It’s unique, because it’s four miles,” she said. “The course is challenging because of all the hills, but that makes it fun.”

Treichel’s 2009 time of 25:02 put her a little off the pace of female winner — and Saratoga teammate — Keelin Hollowood, who finished in a time of 23:44. Treichel’s goal for this year is 24 minutes.

Treichel said the most challenging hill for her was the rise on Broadway, which begins at the entrance to Congress Park and slopes up toward Circular Street.

That hill, early in the race, could prove an early indication of which runners are on form and which are a step behind.

But in the eyes of one of the race organizers, Peter Goutos — father of last year’s winner — the hardest hill will likely prove to be race’s final stretch on Excelsior Avenue.

The course’s Heartbreak Hill, a term borrowed from marathon terminology, starts at the Big Red Spring, at the intersection with High Rock Avenue, and tops out at the Old Bryan Inn. From there, it’s a slight downhill to the finish line at Ellsworth Jones Place next to the City Center.

Hoping to spur runners on at the early hour, organizers have placed 15 bands around the course — with a concentration on that final incline.

“We put five musical venues in the last mile,” Goutos said. “If that doesn’t get runners up the hill, then nothing will.”

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