Rain stopped just before the start of the annual road race Saturday. Benjamin Bosworth, 22, was the fastest runner of the day. Sheridan Wilbur won the women's division for the fourth year in a row.
For 40 years, Hugh Weisman has been measuring Middle Road, spray painting markers, ordering T-shirts, collecting prizes and organizing the Chilmark Road Race.
Two course records were broken, but the Chilmark Road Race on Saturday was more a celebration of community and health than a contest.
Many of the fastest runners turned around after the finished the five-kilometer route and walked back up Middle Road to cheer on their slower comrades. Neighbors along the race route came out to the end of their driveways and others say on their lawns to greet the runners. Even a cow looked on, half amused, at the sweaty commotion in the road.
The sun made a rare appearance, an Oak Bluffs man blazed to a course record and a jumbo lobster stuffed the consequences Saturday at the 19th annual running of the Chilmark Road Race.
Art Smith, 28, of East Chop and Cambridge ignored soaring summer temperatures en route to winning the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race down Middle Road by a wide margin in a record 14 minutes, 38 seconds.
It was Mr. Smith’s second straight victory at Chilmark and - as is the custom - received to cash prize, but instead a large, Island-caught lobster.
