7300 Women Run Through City In Fifth Staging of Bell Race

More than 7300 women--ranging in age from 6 to 80--raced along the side of the Charles yesterday in the fifth annual Bonne Bell 10 kilometer road race, the largest women's athletic event in the world.

The race was intended for "women of all ages and abilities," Dusty Rhodes, the race director and presidents of Conventures, Inc., the Boston-based company that has managed the Bonne Bell since the first race in 1976, said.

Jan Merrill won the race in a time of 32:03, "definitely a United States record, and maybe even a world record," Rhodes said a few hours after the race. Merrill, 25 years old, is a resident of New London, Connecticut.

Despite the professional calibre of some of the entrants of the race, Rhodes says the Bonne Bell "is just for fun," and the atmosphere at the Boston Common--where the race began and ended--was cheerful and supportive. Crowds lining Com- monwealth Ave. cheered on the runners as they finished the last leg of the 6.2 mile race.

Many of the spectators had originally gathered to watch the Columbus Day parade, which was on a parallel street; others had come specially to root for friends or relatives.

One woman was met at the finish by her husband, who presented her with a bunch of roses. Smiling, flushed, panting in the cold air, she wobbled off with her friends to check her time.

Barb Amoscato came in 818th with an officially clocked time of 47:30--she insisted, though, that it was really only 44:20. Though this was her first Bonne Bell, she will be back next year. "I had a great time," she said. "I was coached in college, but not now. I just run every day."

Amoscato was met at the finish by Bob Hesslein, who said, "I feel a lot better about women after watching the race. It showed me that, when faced with the kinds of challenges men have traditionally been faced with, they can meet the challenge and succeed."

Every participant in the race received a special Bonne Bell gift package, which one runner said was filled with "astringent, blushing gels, make-up, and other kinds of gook." Bonne Bell, which spent $60,000 to set up the race, is a cosmetics corporation.

Conventures Inc., the company that managed the race, also manages the Heartbreak Hill race in November, and the Kendall Women's Classic, the largest women's track meet.

No Harvard cross-country team members were entered in the race because of what Coach Pappy Hunt called an "iron-clad rule" that no Ivy-league athletes participate in a commercially-sponsored race during the season.