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Teams from Revere and Saugus are ready to challenge a team of Winthrop runners in the all-night, "A Midsummer Lights Relay" starting at sunset on Friday June 24 and finishing at sunrise on Saturday.

The race hosted by the Friends of Deer Island is a running event intended this year to remember Winthrop runner and Greater Boston Track Club member Dave Cochrane who measured the course two years ago and worked to organize the race but died later in 2003. Says race director Tom Derderian of Point Shirley, "We remember Dave every time we run on the island." Any money raised, says Derderian, will be used to erect granite mile markers along the perimeter path around the island at the points Dave Cochrane marked so precisely.

The race will also remember GBTC member Margaret L. Bradley who participated in the inaugural race but died last summer.

The first year's event raised money that is sitting in an account with the Boston Harbor Alliance, a nonprofit corporation. The MWRA endorsed this event fully last year and welcomes the public attention to the continued public health use of the island for walking and running. The biggest public health services of providing clean water, removing waste, and offering places to move under muscle power prevent more diseases than all the drugs supplied by all the drug companies in the country. Derderian says, "That is why we are working so hard to preserve this new place."

Last year the team from Revere beat the team from Winthrop by a fraction of a lap. Both teams covered 66 miles between sundown and sunup. The Greater Boston team placed third. Several of the up and coming stars of the Winthrop High School track teams have expressed interest in race for the Winthrop team. Race night management will be provided by the Greater Boston Track Club. Dave Cochrane was a board member of the Greater Boston Track Club in the 1980s. The event will be sanctioned and insured by the United States Track and Field association.

Entry blanks can be obtained from Tom Derderian, tderderi@ix.netcom.com, Art Gray, or at various spots around Winthrop or at GBTC practices. The first year one runner ran alone through the entire night. There is a plan that at least one Winthrop marathon runner will run the marathon distance of 26 miles on the course during the race.

A team may be composed of as many as ten runners running in any order and in any number of laps. Members of each team are issued the same race number to pin on which is recorded each time that number completes a full 3 mile lap of the island. The race starts and finishes at the top of highest hill on the island that the MWRA calls Airport Hill. Individuals may enter and form or add to teams with others on the night of the race.

Sunset will signal the start of the race at 8:25 pm. Moonrise at 11:09 will offer a reason to give a prize to the leading team at that point. Camping equipment may be set up on the island.

Last year Muffin Town provided all the muffins the runners needed to power them through the night. Red Bull will provide their energizing drink.