Editors, Vineyard Gazette;

Your annual coverage of the Chilmark Road Race is one of the summer’s highlights. It was wonderful to read about the competition between 18-year-old Island favorite Jack Lionette, whose exploits many of us have followed since Jack was in single digits, and 18-year-old Arlington, Va, native Charlie Ortmans.

Here are some other stories from the day.

Marion Johnson, duly noted in the Gazette as having earned her sixth lobster, did so at the age of 39, a fact that inspires and terrifies fellow female Chilmark competitors of all demographics.

Second-place winner Sarah Tully, 24, of Cambridge, has been crushing the Chilmark hills (along with her sister, Emily) since at least 2010. The Gazette revealed that Sarah and Emily’s father had recently undergone a liver transplant. In April, the sisters ran the Boston Marathon for the American Liver Foundation, raising over $50,000 for that lifesaving organization.

Eric Seiff, 90, of the Bronx, and Susan Wilson, 93, from Princeton, N.J., both took on and conquered Middle Road, inspiring competitors and spectators of the remarkable resilience of the human body and spirit.

Vineyard Haven resident and Harvard Business School professor Jim Austin won the men’s 80-89 division in the T-shirt he wore at the inaugural Chilmark Road Race and perhaps at every contest since then. In 2007, this paper spoke with Mr. Austin about what makes Chilmark such a great event, and his answer applies now as it did then: “It’s so special because it’s become part of the summer biorhythms. I’ve got three generations of my family who’ve run this race. Man, this is the hottest event of the summer — there’s room for 1,600 runners and it’s sold out!”

Mark your calendars, runners: registration for next year’s race opens in July 2024.

Barbara Basbanes Richter

Oak Bluffs and Larchmont, N.Y.