Spencer Johnson: Mum-A-Thon champion

Graduate student Spencer Johnson continued his excellent road racing as he prepares for indoor and outdoor track season. On Sunday, he won his hometown Mum-A-Thon 8-kilometer race in Bristol, CT, in 25:56, outdistancing the second-place finisher by 1 minute, 28 seconds. This was the 48^th annual race. Here is Spencer’s brief race report: The race was called the Mum-A-Thon for two reasons.  1. Bristol used to be one of the highest exporters of the mum flower (chrysanthemum) producing up to 80,000 mums, which is why we are called the Mum City. 2. It’s around Halloween time so they made it Halloween theme where kids could trick or treat, paint pumpkins, and awards went out for the best costume. The course had rolling hills and was an open road race so there were lots of cars so we had to be careful.  Overall, I was happy with the race!