Relay Marathons Getting Popular
Excerpted from a column by Ron Marinucci
The Oakland Press
October 29, 2000
Page 12-B

One of the popular features of this month’s Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank International Marathon was the team relay.  Actually, there were two relay events, five person and two person relays.

   This year’s two-person relay drew 41 teams, while the five-person event attracted an additional 104 teams.  That’s more than 600 runners.  There were different divisions, too:  three corporate divisions, one for running clubs, and an open division at each distance.

   Snagging the five-person open title was Front Line A-Team, with a combined time of 2:36:04.  That was good for second place overall, behind only the Corporate C Division team Miar Industrial Services (2:30:35).  With its time, the last Miar runners finished only behind full marathon winner, Kenyan Joseph Maina.

   Front Line A Team included three Oakland runners:  Matthew Yacoub (Farmington Hills), Todd Kelly (Troy), and Steven Shablin (Bloomfield Hills). Rounding out the team were Ken Cook and Michael Capraro.

   After the relay, Shablin said, enthusiastically, “I have been an avid runner for over 20 years and this was the first time I participated in a five-person relay team.  It was a lot of fun.” Jokingly, he added that the Miar team was “a bunch of speedsters from the University of Windsor, 19-20 years of age.”  He noted the ‘old timers’ of Front Line:  29, 51, “two in their 40’s, one late 30’s.”

   Corporate B Division winner, Ef2, included three Oakland runners, too – Katye Abramson and Teri Bennett, both from Royal Oak, and Paul Buckley, from Rochester Hills.  Kevin Kroll (Walled Lake), was a member of Front Line Crispy, the first Running Club Division team.

   In the two-person relay, the winner was Team Piazza/Wilk, composed of Tomas Piazza (Troy) and John Wilk, who had a combined time of 3:04:05. There were several “Front Line” relay teams put together by Fred Vanhala.  These are not one-time shots.  He indicated that the teams are aiming at other events, such as the Toledo Marathon and possibly the Flying Pig (Cincinnati) and Pittsburgh marathons and maybe even Old Kent in Grand Rapids.
Shablin expressed his optimism.  “I relay team phenomenon is here to stay.”
I think he’s right.