Yara

Robert Yara isn't indestructible after all.It's not that he had a bad showing in Sunday's 12th-annual Zoo Zoom Five-Miler; it's difficult to contest a 28-second, first-place finish in a better-than-average field.It's just that Yara, the man who ran fourth in last year's Stamford (Conn.) Marathon and came back the following week to win the Maryland Marathon, sat out a race last week.But Yara had good reason for the decision. Yara is in training for the Stamford Marathon, and two weeks ago, he ran in -- and won -- the American Legion Parkton 10K a day after he had completed a 20-mile training run."

During the past eight years, Samira Husein's family has had windows in their Gaithersburg home shattered, had epithets hurled at them - including "You stupid Arab" - and had "Go Home" scratched into the paint on their cars.She believes it happens because they are Muslim. The incidents seem to intensify during long holiday weekends, Husein says, particularly when violence implicating Muslims has occurred recently overseas.This weekend might be tense for the family.It has been two weeks since the United States bombed suspected terrorist-related locations in Sudan and Afghanistan in connection with bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Baltimore Road Runners Club kicked off its 1991 championship series Sunday with a 10-mile run through the Loch Raven watershed.The number of entries increased for the third straight year. In 1989, the field grew by 20 to 120, and last year, the field grew by another 20. There were 160 entries in Sunday's field.Robert Yara and Marge Rosasco won the open divisions of the race -- Yara by 16 seconds over Jack Peach and Rosasco by 1 minute, 14 seconds over Stacey Nicholson.Dave Lowe, who won the masters in 58:20, finishing 14th overall, hopes to pick up where he left off in last year's championship.

Conditions were nearly perfect for Saturday's 15th Last Train to Boston Marathon: temperature in the 50s and a drizzle that cooled off the field of 194.The only drawback was a fog that blanketed the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground and prevented the lead runners from keeping an eye of their closest competitors on the four-loop trek around the arsenal.But save for a wrong turn on loop one that cost John Duffy 2 1/2 minutes and dropped him to fifth place, not even the fog was much of an impediment as Duffy ran off a 3-minute, 41-second victory over second-place finisher Robert Yara.

Robert Yara is a threat to win any road race he enters hereabouts, but by his choice, he made the task tougher than it had to be in Sunday's American Legion 10K Country Run in Parkton.Yara, 35, made off with a 31-second victory over John Floyd, but it was anything but easy. That's because Yara is training for the Stamford (Conn.) Marathon on Oct. 14, and he had done 20 miles in preparation for it Saturday."I got confirmed for Stamford on Saturday," Yara said, "and I knew if I was going to race [Sunday]

Ralph Morales took a circuitous route to the Baltimore Road Runners Club's eight-miler at the Loch Raven watershed Sunday, but in keeping with the spirit of the Father Time Frolic, he wasn't that far off track.Morales, who lives in Mount Washington, drove to Robert Yara's house in Cockeysville. The two of them ran to the start of the Father Time Frolic at Peerce's Plantation and then ran the eight-miler to the old dam and back. They finished the race tied for first place in 44 minutes, 1 second.

The Howard County Striders and Montgomery County Road Runners Club have their annual Brighton Dam challenge, in which the neighboring clubs vie for bragging rights in a 7-mile road race.And the Renaissance AllSports Athletic Club annually issues a challenge to running clubs across the state in the JFK 50-Miler in Boonsboro.But come the last Sunday in February, Road Runners Club of America affiliates in Maryland and the District of Columbia stage the area's most prized club competition -- the 10-mile Maryland-District of Columbia RRCA Challenge.

Sometimes, successful marathon running means backing off when pressing on seems the only way to go.For Robert Yara, one of those times came last week, and as a result, come Sunday, Yara will be running in his second marathon in 15 days."

Conditions were nearly perfect for Saturday's 15th Last Train to Boston Marathon: temperature in the 50s and a drizzle that cooled off the field of 194.The only drawback was a fog that blanketed the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground and prevented the lead runners from keeping an eye of their closest competitors on the four-loop trek around the arsenal.But save for a wrong turn on loop one that cost John Duffy 2 1/2 minutes and dropped him to fifth place, not even the fog was much of an impediment as Duffy ran off a 3-minute, 41-second victory over second-place finisher Robert Yara.

"No respect for your elders," Robert Yara said to Doug Mock after Mock beat Yara to the finish of Saturday's Quacker Quick Quint at Friends School by 37 seconds.All kidding aside, his elders are the reason Mock, a 25-year-old senior at Salisbury State College, made the trek from the Eastern Shore for the second annual 5-miler at Friends School."I've raced a couple times in Delaware," said Mock, who is doing his student teaching this semester, "but I don't think there's any point in going to a race even if there's prize money if my times are a minute or two slower."

The Baltimore Road Runners Club kicked off its championship series Sunday with its annual 10-mile run at Loch Raven watershed.For most of the 131 finishers, the race was a chance to get in on the club's championship competition, in which a runner must complete at least six of eight races. But for women's winner Charlotte Thomas, it was just another stop on the way to the 1992 Olympic Marathon U.S. Women's Trials."Long runs, pace running and track workouts" is the way she described her training regimen for Jan. 26's Houston Marathon, which will serve as host to the women's trials.

"No respect for your elders," Robert Yara said to Doug Mock after Mock beat Yara to the finish of Saturday's Quacker Quick Quint at Friends School by 37 seconds.All kidding aside, his elders are the reason Mock, a 25-year-old senior at Salisbury State College, made the trek from the Eastern Shore for the second annual 5-miler at Friends School."I've raced a couple times in Delaware," said Mock, who is doing his student teaching this semester, "but I don't think there's any point in going to a race even if there's prize money if my times are a minute or two slower."

The field in yesterday's St. Agnes Labor Day 8K was enough to make Stavros Rologas run a good race, but despite the presence of Brad Uhlfelder and Robert Yara, 25 minutes was Rologas' biggest hurdle.Rologas had come close to breaking 25 minutes, most recently in the To Market to Market 5-miler in which he ran 25 minutes, 4 seconds two weeks ago."I said, 'Come on, man, you've got to break it one day,' " Rologas said about his To Market to Market finish.That day came yesterday, when Rologas ran 24:41 in the inaugural St. Agnes Labor Day 8K -- nine seconds faster than second-place finisher Uhlfelder and 12 seconds faster than third-place Yara.

Robert Yara, Brad Uhlfelder and Jim Hage ran away with victories in the area's Fourth of July races. Marge Demarrais, Stacey Nicholson and Maureen Hall won the female divisions.Yara took the 5th annual Firecracker 5K at Kingsville in 15:25.1; Uhlfelder beat Stavros Rologas by 21 seconds in the inaugural Dundalk Heritage 6K; and Hage outran Dave Berardi in the ninth annual Arbutus Firecracker 10K.On the women's side, Demarrais won at Kingsville, Nicholson at Dundalk and Hall at Arbutus.Kingsville drew 372 finishers, Dundalk 317 and Arbutus in excess of 400.Dave Cooley, the director of the Dundalk run, had this explanation for the race's unusual distance: "It's because they [parade committee]

Sometimes, successful marathon running means backing off when pressing on seems the only way to go.For Robert Yara, one of those times came last week, and as a result, come Sunday, Yara will be running in his second marathon in 15 days."

The Baltimore Road Runners Club's Layne Half-Marathon, until last year 9 3/4 loops around Lake Montebello, was changed into a 5K around the lake and two 5-mile loops through Herring Run Park for its last two runnings.The club's intent was to make the Layne, now in its 19th year, a more interesting run.Nevertheless, founder and sponsor Donn Layne says of the half-marathon: "It's the most boring race in the country. That's why it's so established."BRRC president Willard Freeman may have been the lone dissenter when it came to changing the course.

Joe Chamberlin had done a 4-mile training run at Herring Run Park earlier Saturday morning, but there he was an hour later, circling Lake Montebello at a somewhat slower pace.And it wasn't as a warm-up to the Baltimore Road Runners Club's Santa's Sack 6-Miler that would take off at 9:30. It was to accompany 2 1/2 -year-old son John Kirk Chamberlin on his debut on the road-running circuit. A host of other children, assorted elves, fun runners and walkers, and Santa Claus himself, also were on hand for the BRRC's annual Santa's Sack Run, a fun run around the lake.

The field in yesterday's St. Agnes Labor Day 8K was enough to make Stavros Rologas run a good race, but despite the presence of Brad Uhlfelder and Robert Yara, 25 minutes was Rologas' biggest hurdle.Rologas had come close to breaking 25 minutes, most recently in the To Market to Market 5-miler in which he ran 25 minutes, 4 seconds two weeks ago."I said, 'Come on, man, you've got to break it one day,' " Rologas said about his To Market to Market finish.That day came yesterday, when Rologas ran 24:41 in the inaugural St. Agnes Labor Day 8K -- nine seconds faster than second-place finisher Uhlfelder and 12 seconds faster than third-place Yara.

The Howard County Striders and Montgomery County Road Runners Club have their annual Brighton Dam challenge, in which the neighboring clubs vie for bragging rights in a 7-mile road race.And the Renaissance AllSports Athletic Club annually issues a challenge to running clubs across the state in the JFK 50-Miler in Boonsboro.But come the last Sunday in February, Road Runners Club of America affiliates in Maryland and the District of Columbia stage the area's most prized club competition -- the 10-mile Maryland-District of Columbia RRCA Challenge.

The Baltimore Road Runners Club kicked off its 1991 championship series Sunday with a 10-mile run through the Loch Raven watershed.The number of entries increased for the third straight year. In 1989, the field grew by 20 to 120, and last year, the field grew by another 20. There were 160 entries in Sunday's field.Robert Yara and Marge Rosasco won the open divisions of the race -- Yara by 16 seconds over Jack Peach and Rosasco by 1 minute, 14 seconds over Stacey Nicholson.Dave Lowe, who won the masters in 58:20, finishing 14th overall, hopes to pick up where he left off in last year's championship.