By Chris Gobler
Since ~1990, SoMAS (formerly MSRC) has gone through an annual, spring rite of passage: The Flax-to-Vax road race. Through the years, it has been Flax-to-Vax, Vax-to-Flax, and this year, Vax-to-Vax, but it has always been fun.
Participation has waned in recent years, and this year’s race participation yielded double disqualification by traditional rules, which were scrapped in favor of a standard ‘top-five a side’ competition in which the faculty-staff bested the students in the 4-mile course by about one minute, on average: 32:30 to 33:30.
Faculty-Staff runners were Kamazima Lawiza, Joe Warren,
Jake Thickman (staff), Kurt Bretsch, and Chris Gobler.
Student runners were Adam Younes, Liz Henderson, Lindsey Roupe, Irvin Huang, Lin Jion Zhou, Syash Bire, Liz Gomes, and Bennedtte.
The race was followed by a lunch BBQ. The faculty thank the SoMAS GSC for sponsoring the event. Further, the faculty encourage a greater participation by all next year, but especially the students: This is the fourth year running the faculty have won. This is the fourth year running a faculty member won the event. Come on, graduate students! Given that recently released research links cardiovascular performance to cranial performance, you may even graduate sooner by hitting the pavement.
Photos by Kurt Bretsch are available on Google Photos.
