Marathon Notebook: Rowe bounces back from injury

MANCHESTER – After missing the 2008 Manchester City Marathon with an injury, 2007 champion Scott Rowe made a successful return yesterday, finishing second to Ethiopian Fikadu Lemma.

A 35-year-old Dover runner, Rowe injured his arm in September 2008 when he was kicked during the swimming portion of a triathlon. He returned to the roadways in January and ran this year's Boston Marathon, but didn't start training in earnest for Manchester until two months ago.

Before starting his 140-mile-a-week regimen in September, "I was 15 pounds heavier and a lot slower," Rowe said. His time of 2 hours, 28 minutes and 9 seconds yesterday was 18 seconds slower than his personal best set in the 2007 race.

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A team of Massachusetts high-school runners won the first Manchester Marathon Relay. Or make that a pair of runners.

Braintree High School students Shane Roche and Ian Kola each ran two legs of the four-leg relay and won with a time of 3:13. The 17-year-olds didn't expect to pull double duty, however one teammate bailed out of the race Saturday night, while the other got lost on the way to the first transfer zone.

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Sheri Piers finished third in the women's half marathon running blind "" sort of.

A 38-year-old Maine runner, Piers is scheduled to have Lasik vision correction surgery in two weeks and couldn't wear her contact lenses. Nearsighted, she opted to run without her glasses.

"I've had to be without contacts for two weeks," Piers said. "It was awful. I felt so out of touch with things." Last month, Piers ran in the Twin Cities Marathon and qualified for the 2012 Olympic Marathon trials.

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It was a day of mixed results for Patrick and Casey Moulton, the 27-year-old twin brothers from Pelham who qualified for the 2008 Olympic Marathon trials.

Three weeks removed from winning the Hartford Marathon, Patrick dropped out of yesterday's race at the 18-mile mark. Casey, meanwhile, finished fifth at 2:36:23.

"I realized really early on that it was not going to be my day," Patrick said. "I tried to keep my brother company for as long as possible."

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Four of the top five finishers in the men's half marathon masters division (40 and older) call New Hampshire home: Joseph Rogers of Lyndeborough (1:20:43), Eric Williams of Concord (1:25:33), Scott Davis of Bow (1:26:21) and Jason Massa of Concord (1:28:02).