Friday, November 26, 1999
High school rivalry remains afoot
Read survives latest challenge from Fulmer
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For Fitz Read and Dean Fulmer, it was just like old times.
Read and Fulmer, rivals from their high school days, led the pack Thursday in the 90th Thanksgiving Day Race. Read won it with a surge at about four miles. He toured the 10-kilometer course in 31 minutes, 24 seconds. Fulmer finished about 40 yards behind in 31:34.
The last time Read and Fulmer raced for a significant prize around here, it was the 1995 Ohio High School Athletic Association 1,600-meter track final. Fulmer edged Read that day, 4:15.3 to 4:16.2.
Read was then a senior at Lakota High. Fulmer was a senior at LaSalle.
The week before, Read had beaten Fulmer in the regional finals.
“Dean and I go way back,” Read said. “It's fun to come back and run. It's like a reunion.”
Read has run the Thanksgiving Race every year since 1993, but he never entertained any hope of winning. That's because John Sence, the top local runner, has always been in the field. Sence ran Thursday but not competitively because of a foot injury.
Read knew about the injury; Fulmer didn't.
“We took the lead at about 600 meters,” Fulmer said. “I was like, "What's going on? Where's Sence?'”
The Read-Fulmer duel was true to the race's roots. For the first 65 years or so, it was almost always won by the top local college cross country runners.
Read and Fulmer are that.
Read, a senior at Miami University, finished 28th in the NCAA Midwest Regional last week. He and the RedHawks did not qualify for the NCAA Meet. Fulmer's University of Alabama team did. Fulmer finished 227th in the nationals Monday. “It was ugly,” he said.
Read's absence from the nationals worked to his advantage Thursday.
“My legs are shot,” Fulmer said. “I knew if it came down to a sprint, Fitz would win. This is my third 10-K in 13 days.”
It really didn't come down to that. Read surged at four miles and held the lead the rest of the way in.
“I tried to go after him a couple of times,” Fulmer said. “But I just didn't have it.”
Thanksgiving Race crowns new champs
High school rivalry remains afoot
New mom Tranter credits delivery for boost in speed
Thanksgiving Day Race results
Sports Stories
Xavier 81, Louisville 79
Kansas 88, Georgia 78
Xavier's menu not just hoops
Not just a day at beach for UC
Bengals fans staying home
Bengals as bad as old Bucs?
Steelers share doom, gloom
