The stone structure that serves as a sentry post to the LaSallette Shrine is where I'll be this Saturday morning. It has become a spring ritual for me, scanning the crowd looking for talent a few minutes before the Run for Humanity 5K gets going.

At that point, the runners are strolling up the driveway and beginning to congregate near the starting line on Rte. 118. It's a hectic time because I like to chat with friends but simultaneously I am scrutinizing the crowd to see who may have a chance to win. Sometimes, a known entity will appear, but most times, I need to use other means to identify potential contenders. Runners who wear the blue singlet of the B.A.A. are always prime candidates to walk away with the top prize.

In recent years, something has become very noticeable. There has been a dearth of quality local runners who compete in area races including the Run For Humanity 5K.

Six years ago, Attleboro's Justin Lewis entered the LaSallette race wearing a gray T-shirt with the word 'ATTLEBORO' emblazoned across the front. You could sense that his choice of attire was no coincidence.

"Whenever you're running in Attleboro, you gotta defend home turf," he said that day. "I like to wear the Attleboro shirt around school and doing workouts and stuff. I figured I'd come back and be the home town guy." Not only did Lewis won in 16:35 but he led a promenade of other locals (Mansfield's Bill Stanley, Attleboro's Larry O'Toole, Mansfield's Mike Atwood and Norton's Phil Smith) who placed second, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Locals ruled in 2001 as it was a high water mark for home town achievement. Mansfield's Joe Esposito won both the Eaglebrook Saloon Five Mile and the Mansfield Boosters 5K. Foxboro's Bill Spierdowis took the Foxboro Diabetes 5K. Wrentham's Paul Powell came out on top at the Wrentham Elementary 5K, Wrentham's Andy Krantz got the Norfolk Community 5K and North Attleboro's John Gautieri won the Plainville 5K. Alex Curry of Attleboro ran a 39-minute Falmouth Road Race. Attleboro's Kevin Myles won the John Lawlor 5K and to cap off the year, set the course record at the Billy Kelly 5K, which still stands.

Local women were just as proficient with Norfolk's Nanci Cahalane winning five races and Mansfield's Kerri Murphy taking three. North Attleboro's Heather Johnson, Wrentham's Jennifer Firth and Mansfield's Kim Giannouloudis all won women's titles that year.

From the Run For Humanity's perspective, 2002 was even better. An undertrained Myles waltzed through a 4:54 first mile en route to a course record 16:04. Local runners were still grabbing hardware that year as Mansfield's Esposito won four times and others, such as North Attleboro's Kyle Doran and Jacquie Cavallaro and Wrentham's Jane Lilley and Tom Lehan continued the winning ways.

The well has gone dry since then. In 2003, Chris Volante came to Attleboro and ran a powerful race, decimating the field and setting a Run For Humanity 5K course record (15:24). Then, for a two-year period, women moved to center stage. Kim Thallman flirted with destiny when she held the lead through the first mile but she couldn't hold off Jeremy Ruud of Medfield, who won the 2004 race. The next year, Rhode Island's Trish Hillery became the first woman to win a local road race when she broke the tape. Last year, B.A.A. interloper, Levi Severson, took the race with ease.

In recent years, Foxboro's Pat Benson, Mansfield's Ben Nephew and North Attleboro's Lynn Johnson have become the last bastion of local winning tradition.

I don't have any answers on why this is but I am not the only one that has noticed the trend.

"As I travel around the area or look at results on Coolrunning(.com), there are very few runners from the area winning but even running," said Attleboro YMCA race director Bob Withers.

A lot of the names from those years past have not been heard from in some time for various reasons - injury, retirement, relocation, revaluation. Hopefully, we are coming out of the down side of a cycle. Runners come, rise to ascendency then leave. The quality runners from the front end of the decade haven't been fully replaced yet.

I'll be standing near the stone sentry on Saturday, craning my neck, looking over shoulders in the quest for Sunday's story. I don't expect to see the 'ATTLEBORO' T-shirt because Justin Lewis is now living in Brighton and not expected in Attleboro that day. Someone else needs to step up to defend home turf. Footnotes

The Wampanoag Road Runners are sponsoring a training run on the Boston Marathon course this Sunday, March 25; runners meet at DB Sports in North Attleboro at 7:30 a.m. and drive to Boston College, run 9-11 miles towards Hopkinton, turn around and return to B.C.; the club is also looking for volunteers to staff the club water stop at the 12-mile mark at the Boston Marathon on April 16; call Sean McNamara (508-222-5561 or seanmcnamara@hotmail.com) for more details on either event ... This year may have the most local runners in the Boston Marathon since the 100th in 1996; 111 have already checked in ... Blackstone's Harry Carter can still, at the age of 70, race a seven-minute mile pace as he did at the Raynham K of C 5 Mile (35:12) last weekend. Wow!

ROB ROSE is a Sun Chronicle correspondent. Send running news to 34 South Main St., P.O. Box 600, Attleboro, MA, 02703 or via e-mail at lsxplrer@comcast.net