Holliston Newcomers 10K Road Race Goes Off Without A Hitch

The weather was dreary early on Sunday morning, but the spirits were as high as could be at the first annual Holliston Newcomers 10K Road Race held at .

The race, which serves as the HNC's major spring fundraiser, went off without a hitch, with Richard Bagge of Brookline winning the race in 38 minutes and 11 seconds.

"We're really pleased with the success that we've had with the first event," said Julie Damigella, president of the Holliston Newcomers Club.

"They help out with charities and things like that, which is all great stuff," Bagge said about the HNC.

The course began in the parking lot of Holliston High and looped around the Brentwood Conservation Land before returning to the high school.

"It's a good course, it's nice with the back roads and some hills, makes it challenging, but (it's) nicely spread out" said Bagge, who has run in many races and marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2006.

Profits exceeded expectation for the first annual race, with the HNC bringing in much more than it projected through registration fees, a bicycle raffle and sponsorship.

"We've made more than we were hoping to make," said Damigella. "We were just hoping to break even and get ourselves on the map so people would know that the race is here and build upon it last year, so I'm very pleased with how it went."

The Holliston Newcomers Club is a non-profit organization that welcomes new residents to the town, but is not limited to just Holliston residents.

New or old, all members are welcomed by the civic and social club, which arranges charitable and recreational events to promote community spirit.

"All of the fundraisers that we run, we give them back to the town as grants," Damigella said.

Traditionally, the HNC used the Spring House Tours as its major fundraising event, but decided that it was not a viable fundraiser for them.

"We decided that we needed to come up with a new idea, and we have  acouple runners in the club, and they both suggested we should do a 10K," said Damigella.

Preparation for the race began in September with the formation of a committee, with the first planning meetings coming in January. A big part of the preparation for the race was finding volunteers, and HNC encouraged its own members to take part.

"We targeted our membership for people to volunteer to be course marshalls, volunteer coordinators and registration and all that," Damigella said. "It takes a lot of the membership to help us with this."

In order for such a big event to go off smoothly, town officials needed to pitch in and help out, and the Holliston officials did just that.

"Auxiliary police are helping us today," said Damigella. "The has sent an EMT, we borrowed the bullhorn from the fire department as well. The helped us get the tables out, (and) the schools have been fantastic."

To see everything for the race come together with flawless execution was certainly a welcome sight for Damigella.

"It's awesome," said Damigella. "I'm really, really pleased. I really thank the 10K committee, because they did a fantastic job. I helped along the way, but they really took the ball and ran with it. I'm really psyched."

Gethin Coolbaugh is a reporter for Holliston Patch. He can be reached at 774-279-1995 or at gethin.coolbaugh@yahoo.com. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on Twitter.

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