Bill Rodgers Jingle Bell Run This Sunday in Boston

For
Release on Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Jock
Semple and Will Cloney Award Winners to be Recognized at

Bill
Rodgers Jingle Bell Run this Sunday

Awards
recognizing service and achievement in the sport of
running

presented
to Richard A. Johnson and Bill Riley at annual Jingle Bell
Run.

The
Bill Rodgers Jingle Bell Run, presented by the
Boston Athletic
Association is this Sunday, December 12 at 5:30 p.m. Runners will assemble at
the Hyatt Regency Downtown Crossing before the
2.3 mile fun run and wind their way through the Boston Common and the financial
district before returning to the Downtown Crossing area for the post-race party.
As is the tradition at the Bill Rodgers Jingle Bell Run, holiday dress and
costumes will be in full-form among the field of 1,000 runners.

Entry
remains open here: http://www.baa.org/races/jingle-bell-run/participant-information.

About the
Semple and Cloney Awards

Will
Cloney and Jock Semple were longtime caretakers of the B.A.A.’s athletic and
administrative efforts. In their honor, the B.A.A. and brothers Bill and Charlie
Rodgers bestow awards upon worthy local recipients.

The
Cloney Award is presented to an individual who has promoted the running
industry, especially locally. The
Semple Award is presented annually to a local athlete who has made an impact
within running, especially through performance. Both
awards will be presented by four-time Boston Marathon champion and running
legend Bill Rodgers, along with representatives of the B.A.A. before the start
of the Bill Rodgers Jingle Bell Run.

Will Cloney
Award – Richard A. Johnson

Richard
A. Johnson has served as Curator of The Sports Museum since 1982. He has also
authored or co-authored books on running including: The Boston
Marathon, A Century of Boston Sports, and Young at Heart, The Story of Johnny
Kelley.

Johnson
also created and serves as editor of the Sportstown Series, first published by
Northeastern University Press and now by the University Press of New England.
This series is comprised of original and reprinted titles related to Boston and New England
sports.

Johnson
graduated from Lawrence Academy in 1974 where he was an All New
England Prep cross country runner for two years. During his years at
Bates College (’78) Johnson worked in Kildare, Ireland for the Irish Georgian
Society and later for the Print Department of the Boston Public Library where he
served as an intern. Following college, Johnson completed the Publishing
Institute at the University of Denver and later worked for both the
Worcester Evening Gazette and Houghton Mifflin Publishers before joining The
Sports Museum as its first employee.

With The Sports Museum, Johnson has
mounted exhibits on topics as diverse as: “Women in Sports, Insights from Her
Past;” “Rocky Marciano, A Life in Pictures;” and “Sylianos Kyriakides, The Human
Race,” among many others.

Jock Semple
Award ‰ÛÓ Bill Riley

 Bill
Riley, known as “Cape Cod’s Ironman,” has consistently won his age division in
races around New England for decades. The
74-year-old harrier from Centerville is a five-time Outstanding Athlete
of the Year winner as recognized by USATF, and has been ranked number one in the
country in his age group six times since 1997.

A
six-time winner of the National Triathlon Championships and a four-time winner
of the National Duathlon Championships, Riley is a frequent face at New England races like the Falmouth Road Race, Beach to
Beacon, and Mount Washington Road Race.

Riley
has completed more than 40 marathons around the country with a PR of 2:44,
including 21 Boston Marathons, with a best on the historic course of 2:50 in
1997. Not bad for someone who began his running career at age 40.

Earlier
this year, he won the USATF Half Marathon US Championships 70-74 division with a
time of 1 hour, 33 minutes. And in June, Riley won his age division in the USATF
National Mountain Running Championships at the Mount Washington Road Race. These
accomplishments helped Riley become the USATF Long Distance Running Athlete of
the Year for 2010 in his age group of 70-74.

Reilly
is currently a member of the Boston Athletic Association Running Club and the
Cape Cod Athletic Club.

About the
B.A.A.

Established
in 1887, the Boston Athletic Association is a non-profit
organization with a mission of managing athletic events and promoting a healthy
lifestyle through sports, especially running. Each year the Association manages
a comprehensive schedule of youth-running events, distance running training
programs, and large-scale races in the city of Boston. Most noteworthy is the Boston Marathon, the
world’s most prestigious and oldest continually run marathon. Since the
inaugural race in 1897, the Boston Marathon has been the pinnacle for distance running
worldwide, a position which was reinforced in 1986 with the help of principal
sponsor John Hancock Financial. In 2006, the Boston Marathon joined the Bank of America Chicago
Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, the Virgin
London Marathon, and the ING New York City Marathon to form the World Marathon Majors.