HAMMOND | One cold morning last January, Dennis Rotz woke up in no mood for a cruise.

"I was stressed mainly because it was the first race of the year," Rotz said of the annual Mid-Winter Cruise road race in Park Forest, which often gives cabin-fever runners a brutal welcome to a new season.

"I didn't sleep very well," said Rotz, 60, of Dyer. "Then when I saw it was below zero, I felt like passing it up."

Rotz didn't, and went on to compete and complete the remaining races from the Calumet Region Striders' Gold Cup Series to earn his seventh Jim Cox Award.

"I only have six in a row," Rotz pointed out. "After I got my first one (in 2000), I didn't complete the series the following year.

"I have a streak going (159 consecutive Gold Cup races), but I don't think it's going to last."

Famous last words Rotz has issued before during the closing ceremonies of the Fall Frolic 4-Mile Run at Purdue Calumet -- the final race of the series. But if he does do it again, he'll likely be granted a warmer opener as the Gold Cup Series for 2009 has been refigurated to start in March.

The award is in memory of former CRS member Jim Cox, who was the first runner to complete the series. Cox died of leukemia in 1993.

Other award winners included Adrian Harvey, Pete Klaeser, Joseph Rodenbucher, Felicia Schuster, Dan Sturgell and Karen Nagel, who was the Frolic's overall female winner on Nov. 9 with a time of 24:04.

The overall male winner was John Tessling (21:23), and the top masters were Jeff Mescal (22:31) and Betty Funkhouser (28:13.29).