Christmas Relays - 12/14/03

Christmas Relays: Masters 5th Overall, Open 8th

For the second road race in a row, the master men ouch beat the open men . . . and this time without OMS. For the masters, Tim O'Rourke led off with the club's second fastest split of the day, 24:10 around the 4.464 mile Lake Merced course. Peter Lewandowski ran a strong 24:52 next, followed by Lloyd Stephenson's 25:36, with Tim Wallen closing in 24:32. The team finished fifth overall, first master, beating the Aggies for the second road race in a row. This put the team in second place on the year, just four points behind the Aggies! 

Open Women Byline Patti Bershers

At the end of a long but largely successful season, the open women, realizing that heroics at Xmas Relays would change nothing in our year-end standings, opted to simply enjoy the sunny day. Our total time was 1:58:38, which was 2nd in the Submaster division, and 4th in the PA behind the Impalas, the Transports, and West Valley. Shelly Pierson ran our first leg, looking strong and fully recovered from her fall marathon effort. Up next was Nicole Britvan, in her super-cool RED singlet. Patti Bershers ran the third leg as a marathon pace workout, accomplishing her objective of testing but not re-injuring her newly-happy hamstring. Allie Bigelow took the lonely fourth leg and looked great doing it. The open women will finish the year at 2nd place in the PA Roads - well done, everyone! The 2004 Road Grand Prix kicks off on the second Sunday of January with Cal-10, the same day as Helen Kao's marathon in San Diego. Good luck to Helen, and everyone enjoy your holidays! 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

After the end of a long road and cross country season it's pretty difficult to get a complete team together for the Christmas Relays. For the last team race as Hoy's Excelsior, the open men were able to field a team with a few last minute fill ins. Brian Gilliss led the team with a 25:36 opening leg. He handed off to Cesar Guillen who ran a 25:14, followed by Cliff Lentz, just back from Mexico in 25:10, and Chris Phipps anchoring in 24:04. No one had a stellar day, but we still finished in the top 10 in 8th place. Unfortunately, Tamalpa's team was 7th, 3 seconds ahead of us. Still, we did get the coveted Christmas Relays mugs!

Time to start putting in the miles, the 2004 season opens with the Cal 10 on January 11th, just 3 1/2 weeks away!

California International Marathon - 12/07/03

Men's Report Byline Daniel Shore

Yay, the season's finally over!!! Well, for us marathoners anyhow. On Sunday, four open men (OK, three open men and one semi-master) ran CIM in Sacramento in near-perfect conditions. Believe it or not, the rain actually cleared out prior to race time this year, yielding a cool, sunny and slightly windy morning. With such weather, fast times should have been ripe for the picking. However, perhaps due to solar flares or an unusually strong pull from Confusion Hill, most people didn't run the race they had planned.

One notable exception to this trend was Matt Regan, who ran a stunning 5-minute PR of 2:37:35 for 36th place overall. The rumor is that he was even strong enough to put in a kick at the finish. After a season riddled with illness and injury, he found a way to keep his composure and run a damn fine race. Way to go Matt!!! [Note to T.H. from M.R.: "Doh!" -Ed.]

Things didn't go so well for the remaining open men. After suffering from a severe cold all week, a lingering cough left Jared Crave unable to get enough oxygen to hold his pace. He eventually stepped off the course at 16 miles. Craig Steinmaus, semi-master and honorary open member, simply didn't have a good day. Never really feeling good and unable to maintain his goal pace, he dropped out at midway leaving himself to fight another day. Dan Shore achieved his two goals of running sub-2:22 pace for as long as possible and finishing the race; however, not with spectacular results. Severe blisters on the balls of both feet brought his trials dream to a halt at 13 miles. Dropping out seemed like a real (and much welcomed) possibility by 14 miles were it not for the cheers and encouragement from Allie Bigelow and the Pierson family. He jogged/tempoed the remaining 12 miles to finish in 2:34:06 for 31st overall.

Oh well, the season's finally over and a much-deserved break awaits [Note: except for Christmas Relays! -Ed.]. Rest up for the 2004 circuit! 

Women's Report Byline Whitney Stephenson

The women of Hoy's braved the (wait a minute, is this CIM?) SUNNY weather to post 2 PRs (sort of.) Micha ran strong to finish in a satifying 3:11, one minute off her best time. Christine Wang ran a smart, but aggressive second marathon at CIM. Her goal was to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which she accomplished with a time of 3:31:34. She had a slow start, (Lesson learned--make sure to take the 5 a.m. bus if you want to have more than 2 minutes to warm up and stretch!!!) but by mile 9 had caught up with the 8:00 minute pace team. Feeling strong and relaxed Christine pushed herself in the middle of the race and ran 300 meters in front of 8:00 minute pace pack until mile 23. Her CIM time was a 25 minute PR from the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Alaska in June 2002. Whitney had a good race, staying right on PR pace all the way up to mile 25 when the barricade came down with the red lights flashing and a TRAIN crossed the marathon course. Whitney (and about fifty other runners) stood there for a minute and a half watching the flatcars pass by and her PR slip away. Ack! When one of the race directors heard the story he commented "heads will roll." It was still a good day. And congratulations to Malinda Walker on a fine race as well.

Special kudos go to Christine Jegan who went up to cheer on friends and teammates. Thank you, Christine!

Cross Country Nationals - 12/07/03

Gorman Second at Cross Nationals!

On Sunday, Dan Mancini and Jim Gorman competed in the Fall XC National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. Though the day was a fine one for racing - sunny and 45 degrees - the undulating 10k golf course loop proved challenging and SLOW. In the Men's Masters race, Jim Gorman narrowly missed grabbing the top spot in the 55-59 age group, finishing 2nd in 39:26 (70th overall). Meanwhile, in the Men's Open race - won by miler Alan Webb in a spirited sprint finish - Dan Mancini ran 35:56, good for 155th (and 10th in the nonexistent 35-39 age group) in his final XC competition as an Open runner. Ryan Gallagher, competing for his Seattle Running Club team, finished 143rd in 35:21. Times were about 1:45 slower than our Golden Gate Park 10k course.

Tucson Marathon - 12/07/03

Spangenberg Second @ Tucson

Brian Spangenberg ran 2:28:18 for second place at the Tucson Marathon on Sunday. He was going for 2:25 but it didn't look like he had much help (winning time was 2:22:12). Also, team friend Michelle Hannaford won the women's race with a trials-qualifying time of 2:46:30!

Bah Humbug 5K - 12/06/03

Wallen Wins 5K

Congratulations to Tim Wallen on his win in Saturday's Bah Humbug 5k in San Ramon. Tim ran ouch 16:00.85--great job!

Run to the Farside - 11/30/03

Our own Chris Lundstrom finished a strong third at the Far Side 5K Sunday in 14:46, just behind PA luminaries Jason Lunn and Christian Hesch. Tim Wallen finished first master in 16:11, after having to stop to tie his shoes!

In the Ten, H-E had a 2-3-4 showing with Eric D.B. Ollila finishing second in 32:31 to Brad Hauser and Greg Menegat (33:35) outkicking Chris Phipps (33:39) for the last money spot. Raymundo Cruz followed Chris in 33:49.

I'm afraid I haven't completely culled the results, but I know Susan Beck, Whitney Stephenson, Christine Wang, Katie Litzenberger, Brian Schultz, Andy Chan, and David Moulton were out there. Congratulations all! (And I apologize for the many others not mentioned here.)

Pacific Association XC Championships - 11/23/03

PA Champs: Steinmaus Wallen Gouwens 2-4-8 for Masters Men

For the third race in a row, the masters men fielded a top team, this time finishing a not-so-close second to a dominant Aggie team. The women fielded a very strong team they've had in a while, and seem to have beaten a competitive Humboldt team for 2d in the grand prix. The open men showed the strains of a long difficult fall, with the last scorer almost but not quite breaking the top 100 in an EXTREMELY competitive field, but still stayed ahead of Empire to take 4th in the GP. More below . . . 

Women Byline Patti Bershers

With second place in the PA on the line, the H-E girls came out swinging at the GG Park cross country championships this weekend. We had our scoring five in before HTC got even their 3rd runner in, so congratulations are in order as we've locked up 2nd place in the XC Grand Prix. Woo hoo! On an individual level, Kathryn showed she's bounced back from what little marathon fatigue was left to finish strong in 6th place with a PR on the course (and she beat Tyler). Melissa MacPherson, taking a break from her law school studies, was in next at 39th place. Our East Bay contingent was next: Jenny Wong ran a smart race, blazing through the second lap to place 51st. Christine Brighton (welcome back!) was in next at 61st place, running very well despite some lingering hip pain from her fall marathon. Rounding out the scoring team was Allie Bigelow, who was right behind Christine in 63rd place. Achieving her stated goal to get out and have a good time was Shelly Pierson, who was 74th and enjoying herself the entire way and helping out with some displacement (Shelly got in before HTC's fourth runner). Micha Lowe came out for her last CIM tune-up, placing 103rd as our second displacer. Jamie Chomas re-acquainted herself with racing (OUCH! said Jamie) after a few weeks' break post-marathon, placing 121st. Helen Kao still amazes - she worked a 32-hour shift at the hospital on Thursday/Friday - and ran well to place 160th as she trains through to her January marathon. Also thanks to all of the other women who came out to cheer their teammates on even though they couldn't run - Christine Jegan, Helena Kimball, Pat Reilly, Jen Major, Christine Wang, Lee D'Alessandro, Susan Beck, Amy Pierson, Whitney Stephenson, and any others I didn't see! Oh, me too. That's it for XC. Next up: although not a PA race, several women are going up to CIM the weekend after Thanksgiving, so good luck to the very fit Christine Wang, Micha Lowe, Malinda Walker, and Whitney Stephenson up in Sacramento (hope I didn't forget anyone...). 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

The Open Men's race at the 18th annual PA Championships was delayed, and had the course changed due to the tragic fatality of Tamalpan Ed Mooney who was competing in the earlier Masters race. The delay certainly didn't diminish the level of competition though in the traditionally deepest race on the PA circuit. In addition to strong squads from the Nike Farm Team, Adidias Transports, and Reebok Aggies, were large numbers of collegiate runners from Stanford and UC Davis. This was arguably the strongest field at this race in many years. Final scores have not been posted, but it looks like our open men placed 6th, but were ahead of Empire to hang on to 4th for the season and $200. Paul Wellman was our top finisher in 57th with a time of 30:37. (Mancini, when was the last time that we didn't have a single runner in the top 50 in a PA race?)

Marathon men Dan Shore (67th in 30:52), and Stephen Donahue (87th, 31:55) were next, followed by Chris Phipps (92nd, 32:06), Dan almost a master Mancini (102nd, 32:46), Matt Regan (107th, 32:51), Parker Kelly (120, 33:46), Brian ? Gillis (134th, 34:56), Adam Lucas (147th, 36:35), Eric Yan (151st. 37:04), Dave visiting from the east coast Moulton (153rd, 37:20), and Brian Schultz (154th, 37:23). Due to the course alteration, times are approximately 1:30 faster than they would be on the regular course. Dan Mancini will verify the exact conversion later in the week.

Old'uns

Craig Steinmaus again led the squad with a second place by one second finish to archrival Tim Minor (33:16 on the newly measured 6.123 mi course). This gave Craig second in the GP! Tim Wallen followed closely in his best masters race to date, finishing fourth in 33:35. Hans Gouwens continues to give some of us hope that running and fatherhood are not mutually exclusive with a strong 34:06 8th place finish. Lloyd Stephenson (36:36, 25th) and Tyler Abbott (36:39, 26th) closed out the scoring. Ian Hersey (38:59, 65th), Michael Gama (40:43, 84th), David Schmidt (42:07, 100th), and Keo Zaiger (42:17, 103rd) rounded out the team. We seem to have ended up in fourth on the season, passing the Golden Valley Harriers after this race.

The seniors fielded their first and only full team of the season. Don Paul led the team in a very strong 36:02, though he was second to recently seniored Aggie Tom Cushman. Jim Gorman (38:25, 9th) and Kevin Grady (40:17, 18th) rounded out the team.

Clarksburg 30K - 11/09/03

CLARKSBURG: STEINMAUS FIRST MASTER, SIXTH OVERALL!

For the umpteenth week in a row, Craig Steinmaus ran a superb race, this time at the ever-challenging Clarksburg 30K. Craig won the masters competition by almost four minutes! and, for the second week in a row, was the fastest Hoy's Excelsior runner overall. The masters team, in the meantime, is finally starting to live up to its potential, easily winning the race and coming within 2:10 of putting their B team ahead of rival Pacific Striders. More below:

Open Women Byline Patti Bershers

If it's a rainy weekend in November, it must be time for Clarksburg. Five women from the H-E open team made the trek to run 18.6 miles on the lovely levees of the Delta. Unlike prior years, the day did not involve hurricane force winds and torrential rains, and in these decent-to-good conditions Kathryn Krieger, Micha Lowe, Melissa Lode, Christine Wang and our very own Dr. Helen Kao set off. Kathryn hummed along around 6:15 pace, with a few 6's tossed in, until her body remembered around mile 12 that "Hey! I just ran a marathon 4 weeks ago!" With said body taking over at this point, the last 10K or so was pretty tough, but Kathryn still managed to run 2:07:05, good enough for 6th place. Next in was Micha, using the race to fine-tune for a fast-approaching CIM. Despite some fueling problems late in the race, Micha had a great workout, and scored some nice XX points by finishing second for the team with a 2:18:48. In next in her H-E debut was Micha's training partner Melissa Lode. In her first race for us, Melissa picked up her first XX points by scoring 3rd for the team, and while I don't have her time either [2:25:26], rumor has it she had a great day and is ready to have an excellent CIM. Christine Wang was our fourth runner, having a GREAT race as she prepares for CIM. Christine ran 2:27:51, holding her targeted CIM marathon pace for the entire 18.6 miles, and she wasn't even sore on Monday - she is going to crush her old PR at CIM. In 5th for us was the amazing Helen Kao--how does one train for a marathon, race cross-country and Clarksburg, and STILL survive her medical residency? Despite also having her fair share of fueling problems, Helen ran 2:36:15 as she prepares for the San Diego marathon on January 18th.

All that's left PA-wise between now and Christmas are PA Champs and Christmas Relays. But we do have lots of girls running CIM (Micha, Melissa Lode, Christine Wang, Jen Major, did I miss anyone?), so if you can, plan on going up there to cheer your teammates on! Never underestimate how much fun it is to watch your friends suffer while you stand on the sidelines enjoying your Peet's coffee. 

Masters Women Byline Susan Beck

I apologize in advance for this long entry. Those eager to get to The Week in Training may skip it. But some of the masters women, in a group "heal-the-pain" exercise, need to unburden themselves of the trauma that goes by the name of Clarksburg.

>From Kim: Hamstring twinge, mile 5. Stomach cramps, miles 11 through 15. Got passed by two masters runners I thought I had beat, mile 17. General dispiritedness and hatred of Clarksburg, miles 15 through 18.6. Too windy, too hot, when oh when are they going to repave the roads, entire race. All in all, a REALLY miserable day. [Kim finished in 2:25 ]

>From Susan: Feeling snappy for the first 11 miles or so, I thought this was going to be my day. Then things turned bad. At Mile 12 two masters women from arch rival West Valley scooted past me and I helplessly watched them vanish toward the horizon. (must ... try... to ... keep... up. uggh.) At Mile 13 I began to suspect that someone had replaced my insoles with cheese graters when I wasn't looking. My feet burned like never before. Mile 15 I was hit with a killer side stitch and had to stop. At Mile 16, Tamalpa senior citizen Bernie Hollander passed me, huffing and puffing like a man about to expire, but still moving faster than I was. After the race, I stood in the parking lot and heard the announcer warn of tornados. Even if a funnell cloud was barrelling toward me, my disabled body wouldn't be able to run. I would just have to hobble very very slowly toward safe cover. [Susan's time was 2:32]

>From Barbara: I came down with the flu - and I felt it coming on at mile 1. At mile 3 I wanted to DNF - and couldn't understand why I felt so fatigued. At mile 6, some guy passed me by and said "How's it goin"? I said I'm already tired. He said "Oh, no that's not good". At mile 12 I started walking. Some guy passed me and said "What - you're dying - you're my bench mark". We continued to pass each other up along the way. I was walking and running all the way to mile 18. I kept looking for a taxi to take me back. I heard the thunder at mile 17, and hoped that it wouldn't start pouring until after I finished. The miracle is that I finished the race and that I didn't DNF. I still ended up 6 minutes faster than my time in 2001, and I wasn't walking in 2001. [Barbara's time was 2:42:06]

>From Whitney: [Not suitable for publication] 

Open Men

It was a rough day for the open men. There were some bright spots however: Sunday marked the return of Darrin Rohr, who moved to Reno a year to a year and a half ago, right after he joined the team. Darrin looks to be in good shape, running 1:49:57 for 12th place. Jared Crave also ran a fine race, one place behind Darrin in 1:50:41. Matt Regan suffered severe blistering with new shoes at the end of a 100 mile week, stopping multiple times before straggling in in 1:57:53 (30th). The open men seem to have finished third. Unfortunately, the open men lost to the masters men for the first time since Charlie Thompson and Jim Tracy were burning up the masters circuit. Nevertheless, this was good enough to clinch second place for the year for the open men. 

Old'uns

As reported above, it was a great day for the masters men. Craig Steinmaus dominated the masters competition with his effort, and our 2-3, Hans Gouwens and Vitas Ezerskis, were 4th and 7th in 1:51:11 and 1:52:55, respectively. Leading our B team--which came within 2:10 of beating the Pacific Striders and giving us another two points on them for the season--was Tim O'Rourke in 1:54:24 (9th master), followed by Lloyd Stephenson (1:56:27, 12th) and Tyler Abbott (1:58:28, 15th). Ian Hersey (2:13:12), Keo Zaiger (2:21:27), and Greg King (2:38:44) rounded out the team. Yes, nine runners! The masters should be solidly in second when the standings come out.

Don Paul led the senior race through seven, but an injury stopped him in his tracks. Fortunately we still had three seniors finish, which allowed us to score and clinch first place on the season! Ian Reid (age 60) led the seniors in 2:17:48 (11th? senior, 4th super senior), followed by Kenny Warde (2:24:37, 18th) and Allan Stanbridge (2:26:59, 21st).

Presidio Trails 10K - 11/09/03

While some of us were being battered up in Clarksburg, Chris Phipps won the Presidio Trails 10K Sunday. Congratulations Chris!

Presidio 10 Miler - 11/02/03

Congratulations to Jared Crave on his 4th place finish in the Presidio 10 last weekend (57:29).

Tamalpa XC - 11/01/03

After scrambling to field full teams all Fall, the masters men finally put forth a competitive team at Saturday's John Lawson Tamalpa Challenge. Unfortunately the national champion Aggies showed up with the A team (albeit w/o Gonzales and Aispuro) and won easily, but we came in a strong second over teams that had been beating us all season.

On the women's side, Kathryn Krieger ran a fine post-Chicago 8th place, with Melissa MacPherson, Jenny Wong, and Ally Bigelow close behind.

On the open men's side, the race was a mess, with something like half the runners going off course and adding a couple minutes to the race. More below . . . 

Women Byline Patti Bershers

On a perfect day for racing, the H-E girls set out to preserve their second place standing in the XC grand prix at the Tamalpa 4.62 mile John Lawson Challenge in China Camp. The seven women who turned out got the job done, with what looks like a 2nd place team effort at Tamalpa, just what we needed. Kathryn led the way with a 28:42 workout that was good enough for 7th place, showing how quickly she's returned to form only 3 weeks post-marathon. The phenomenal trio of Melissa MacPherson, Jenny Wong, and Ally Bigelow were not far behind, in 15th (29:03), 17th (29:23) and 21st (29:37) places, respectively. Micha Lowe was using this race as a hard training effort as she prepares for CIM, and she had an excellent day with a 31:37 that brought her in at 44th place. Close behind was Chelsey Remington. I saw Chelsey right behind a pack of 3 or 4 women at the last turn; like the true harrier she is, between that last turn and the finish, she managed to kick down all of them for a super strong 32:10 effort, 48th place. We should all have Chelsey's finish! Next up was Susan Beck. Susan's been training hard at the track and racing all through the fall, and it's all coming together now with an excellent 35:45 clocking, 29th master. Thanks to all who raced! Next up in XC: our last race, PA Champs, two times over the grass, dirt and hay bales on the GGP course. We'll need to field a good team here to hang on to 2nd place, so please let me know if you can race ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) 

Open Men

The first unwritten rule in racing is "If you don't know the way, don't lead." At last Saturday's Tamalpa Challenge, the 4th year in a row on the same course, not only the leader, but possibly over half of the field didn't know the way and due to an absent course monitor at a key turn went off course. Of the 7 Hoy's runners, only 3 ran the correct route. Because so many went off course, the current ruling from the race referee is to nullify the results as if the race had not been run. For what it's worth, here is how the Hoy's runners finished. Chris Phipps was 14th in 25:27, followed by Dan Mancini 40th, 26:19, Paul Wellman 46th, 26:29 (ran long), Jesse McAlman 68th, 29:54, Brian Gilliss 75th, 30:10 (ran very long), 77th, Brian Schultz 77th, 30:21 (ran long) and Bill Whetstone 85th, 31:01 (ran long). Needless to say, having several of our runners going long certainly didn't help our team score, but the team scores will likely be thrown out anyway. 

Old'uns

Craig Steinmaus led most of the way before succombing to the Aggies' (more rested) Tim Minor and Kevin Ostenberg, finishing third in a club-leading 25:06 (beating the time of all open men). Hans Gouwens proved that once-a-week training works in his first cross effort of the season, finishing 5th in 25:36. And in his second masters race (and first masters only race), Tim Wallen finished 8th, 25:53. Tyler Abbott (27:21, 20th) and Lloyd Stephenson (27:28, 23rd) finished the scoring, with John Spriggs (29:58, 73rd), Keo Zaiger (30:51, 90th), Dave Schmidt (30:57, 93rd), and Michael Gama (31:51, 108th) rounding out the team.

Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon - 10/26/03

Wellman Wins Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon

Paul Wellman ran his 2nd half marathon in as many weeks. This time it was the Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon in Folsom, and Paul won it with a time of 1:13:57 holding off MIA club member Darrin Rohr who finished 2nd in 1:14:12.

Shoreline XC - 10/25/03

SHORELINE CROSS: STEINMAUS FIRST MASTER, WALLEN SECOND IN MUCH-DELAYED DEBUT

Craig Steinmaus appears to have jumped into the lead in the masters cross country grand prix with his second win of the year, running 23:46 to beat runner up Tim Wallen in Tim's long awaited and much postponed masters debut (23:58). More below . . . 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

On yet another unusually warm weekend on the PA cross country circuit the Hoy's Excelsior guys managed to just barely field a full team . This week's stop was the flat and fast 4.6 mile Shoreline Open. The team was led by Chris Phipps who finished in 20th in 23:42. He was followed by Jerad Crave, 39th, 24:33, Dan Shore 46th, 24:59, Cesar Guillen 59th, 25:56, Danny Lilot 63rd, 26:02, and and allergy-infected Parker Kelly 78th, 26:43. With our 3rd place finish here we have moved into a virtual tie with WVTC for 3rd place, and the Reebok Aggies are just 3 points back.

We've got just 2 races to go, this weekend's Tamalpa Challenge and the PA Championships, so let's get strong teams out there! 

Open Women Byline Chelsey Remington

The Shoreline Women's 5K was this past Saturday at 9:00 AM, and needless to say, a little bit of a sea breeze might have been nice. It was steamy hot down in the South Bay, even along the coast. The super hot temperatures didn't stop much of anyone, however. In fact, Allie Bigelow was on fire, running a 19:32 PR (6:30 pace) for 37th place. Jenny Wong was next to cross the line at 19:55 (42nd) with Micha Lowe very close behind at 20:05 (47th). I was a minute back finishing in 21:15 (70th), not one of my better days. 

Masters Men

After Craig and Tim ran 1-2, the masters fell off a bit. Tyler Abbott was third on the team in 26:12 (15th master), followed by Ian Hersey (27:30, 31st), Michael Gama (29:28, 54th), Keo Zaiger (29:39, 56th), and Greg King (30:43, 66th). Fortunately team competition looks to have been fairly weak, so it looks like we improved our GP position. Thanks all for coming out!

Humboldt Half Marathon - 10/19/03

HUMBOLDT: MEN SWEEP?!?!?!?!

For I believe the first time EVER (anyone remember another time?), the Hoy's Excelsior men seem to have swept the top three male team titles at the Humboldt Half Marathon: open, master, and senior. Post-race calculations are always tricky, and there are a couple unknowns in the top 25, but with optimal drop-downs and any luck it looks like we've won all three. It also looks like the masters women may have won, which could give us four half marathon team titles! Of course it doesn't hurt that this year's race featured the weakest competition in memory, but we'll take what we can get.

On the individual side, both Craig Steinmaus and Jim Gorman won their age groups, and Dan Shore ran a PR 1:09:59.3, for 6th overall. Congratulations all. 

Open Women Byline Susan Beck

The women's ranks were thinned by the Chicago and Columbus Marathons, but still we had a successful and fun trip up North, with several people running PRs. (But would somebody please take a bulldozer to that stupid traffic-clogging pumpkin patch on 101!)

Jenny Wong led the open team with a PR of 1:25:47, good enough for 8th place among women. Jen Major, in the midst of marathon training, followed in 1:29:32. Christine Wang, also training for CIM, ran a solid 1:40:09. She was followed closely by Jody Fordham, who ran a PR of 1:40:32. Pat Reilly, donning a Hoys uniform after a long absence (good to see you!), ran a big PR of 1:44:17, improving her previous half marathon best by 16 minutes! And new member Katharine Rogers got her feet wet for Hoys with a 1:50. Welcome Katharine.

And thanks to Kathryn Krieger for cheering us on from the sidelines. 

Open Men: Hoy's Dominates the Redwoods! Byline Daniel Shore

The Open Men's team continues its streak of road race scoring by managing to just field a full team at Sunday's Humboldt Half Marathon. Good thing too since the Open team seems to have FINALLY won its first race of the year (with some fancy scoring from Tyler) AND the Masters crew won as well. Special thanks to the five stalwarts who helped fatten the x-points prize purse with $275! And very special thanks to the Transports for taking a week off!

Leading the Open team was Dan Shore, finishing in his road-best 6th place finish in a PR of 1:09:59.38 (and just 2 seconds off his 10 mile PR!). Two places behind Dan was Paul Wellman, running 1:11:24 for 8th overall. Following Paul and scoring for the Open team (thanks Masters!) was Craig Steinmaus, winning his division in 1:11:47 (9th overall). Following Craig in 23rd place was Matt Regan, running 1:15:26. Rounding out the Open A Team was Tim O'Rourke, another Masters loan, running 1:17:07 for 27th overall. Parker Kelly led the B Team scoring with a 30th place finish of 1:18:06, despite having walked a half mile. Dan Rhodes took one for the team with a fatigue-induced 1:21:44 finish (43rd overall).

Thanks again to Tyler and the Masters team for dropping down Craig and Tim, thus apparently giving the Open Men a road win. Next up is Clarksburg 30K on November 9. We need three runners to field a full team so please plan on making the trek and keeping the streak alive. 

Masters Women (Take First?) Byline Susan Beck

We're holding our breaths, but it looks like the Masters Women took first place at Humboldt. Thanks to Kim Fanady, running 1:34:07, who was the sixth master. The vastly-improving Barbara Hancock (coached by Shelly) ran a 4-minute PR of 1:39:40, and was 4th in the 45-49 age group. Susan Beck's 1:42:04 wasn't a PR, but she was pleased with her tactical negative splits. 

Masters Men

Humboldt marked a bright spot in a somewhat lackluster year for the masters. We finally pulled our top runners together, and were able to beat the nearest competitor by almost three minutes per man. Because of this and with some help from the seniors, we were able to drop down a couple of our runners and probably take first open. Craig Steinmaus led us and all masters in the race in 1:11:47 (9th overall). Hans Where Have You Been? Gouwens finished next in 1:14:42 (6th master), with Vitas Ezerskis hot on his tail in 1:14:47 (7th). Tim O'Rourke marked his return to sanity in 1:17:07 (9th; word has it this was just part of a 4x13.1 workout), with Tyler Abbott and Lloyd Stephenson finishing close together in 1:20:04 and 1:20:33 (13th and 14th). Greg King (1:43:25) and Michael Gama (1:51:48) rounded out the team. 

Senior Women Byline Susan Beck

Our senior women's team was represented by Fernanda Franco-Ferrer, who ran a PR of of 1:57:19. 

Senior Men: Seniors Score Easy Win Byline The Rocket

The seniors team had no competition at the scenic Humboldt 1/2 marathon. Our first five finishers placed in the top eleven. Jim Gorman lead the way with a first place finish in 1:21:20. He remains in first place in the senior long division. Jim has won the short division and could win the long with one race to go. 

Jim Gorman-1:21:20 Tom Bernhard-1:23:27 Les Ong-1:26:08 Bob Darling: 1:27:14 Al Stanbridge:1:29:48 Steve "Death March" Ferraz: 1:42:17

Update:

Last week's speculation is official: we won all of our men's divisions (open-master-senior) for probably the first time ever and women's masters at Humboldt last week! Over $600 in team funds! Congratulations all.

In the road grand prix, according to my calculations: the open women have clinched second; the magic number for the open men to clinch second is 5; and the magic number for the senior men to win the grand prix is 11. Both masters teams are in tight battles for second, battles that will definitely be decided in the last two races, Clarksburg and the Christmas Relays, both double point.

US Half Marathon - 10/19/03

Mancini First American at US Half

Dan AOMM C.P. Mancini appears to have finished first American at the US Half Marathon this Sunday in the City. Dan ran 1:17:53 to finish second overall behind Takamichi Hayashi. Congratulations Dan!

Columbus Marathon - 10/19/03

Amy Pearson ran an 11-minute PR 3:34 at the Columbus (Ohio) Marathon Sunday. Amy's goal was a Boston qualifier, which she achieved with minutes to spare. Congratulations Amy! From Amy, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it : "I wanted to thank everyone for their support along the way during my training."

Chicago Marathon - 10/12/03

Byline Patti Bershers

The marathon is tough - even a well-organized one like Chicago, under good conditions (a bit on the warm side near the end, but otherwise very nice). On the men's side, Evans Rutto won the race with a 2:05.50 marathon debut that beat Khalid Khanouchi's previous debut record (tough month for Khalid, seeing his world record and debut record go down!). On the women's side, Svetlana Zakharova won in 2:23.07.

The H-E girls had a mixed day. Kathryn, Shelly, and Christine set out for trials qualifiers, but unfortunately, some bad luck got in their way. KK ran very strong through 21 before she suffered a dementor attack causing her lower back and hamstring to lock up; Shelly was running well until her IT band acted up at 16; and Christine had to deal with a painful hip flexor that did not react well to the camber of Chicago's roads (we don't know what they use out there, but we all agreed that midwestern roads are much less forgiving than California's). Patti had a great day despite going out a little faster than she should have, running 3:02.28 for a 6 minute PR and 100th place among the women. Jamie Chomas worked through some tough miles on her way to a 3:25.22 finish, very close to her target time. Whitney had an excellent day, running her 2nd fastest marathon ever with a 3:58.17. Team pal Katy Hollbacher got her Olympic Trials B standard qualifier with seconds to spare, running a steady 2:47.47 (chip; gun was 2:47.51).

Also, congratulations to Nicole Britvan on her PR 3:41:13. From Nicole: "I pr'd myself in Chicago - but missed qualifying for boston by 13 seconds...rats!"

On the men's side, Ryan Gallagher ran a strong PR (I think) 2:30:41, and Stephen Donahue, in his first marathon, ran 2:34.08. According to Stephen, "I slowed down on the last 10k but not a complete blowup. Just sort of bled some time, but pleased for my marathon debut."

Providian Relay - 10/11/03

Phipps/Rhodes Lead Winning Team Byline Chris Phipps

The Napa to Santa Cruz Relay, a 199 Mile California version of Oregon's Hood to Coast was won this weekend by "12 Angrier Men". This team consisting of mostly Tamalpans also included Hoy's Excelsior runners Dan Rhodes and Chris Phipps. The team started to build a lead early, but lost it and fell several minutes back when their 5th runner made a wrong turn and ran an extra couple of miles. The team fought back over the next 8 legs and took back the lead on leg 13. After that they continued to build on their lead and won by a comfortable 20 minute margin in 20:53:55.

Also running in the relay was Matt Regan competing on the not so competitive Providian corporate team. They were short a man, so Matt stepped up and ran 6 legs! >From Matt: "I ran legs 4&5, 16&17, 28&29....long frickin weekend! My team was pretty slow and their heads weren't really in the game either. After second pair of legs I get to Sausalito after hauling a$$ for 12 miles and the van isn't there....they went for burgers and didn't think I'd get there so quickly.

After my 3rd set of legs in the very steep Santa Cruz mountains, where I nearly got run over by a drug dealer up to check his stash, I get to the exchange and the next runner isn't there..."he's waiting in the van because he's cold!...do you want me to go get him?"

Ran 30 miles total at about 6:20 pace...good marathon training if nothing else."

Sierra XC - 10/11/03

Wellman 7th

Paul Wellman continued his fierce cross-country racing Saturday with a 20:46 seventh place finish at the Sierra Cross Country Meet at Sierra College in Rocklin. Cesar Guillen, who's been racing up a storm this cross season, ran 22:41 for 42d place.

Most team members, however, other than those venturing to Chicago, decided to use this weekend as a well-deserved rest weekend, and our only other runners (as far as I could tell) were two in the masters race: Charles Griffin, 23rd in 24:24, and returning member John Spriggs, 38th in 26:10. BTW, this was the first road or cross gp race at which our open men have not fielded a full team in years.

PRESIDIO XC CHALLENGE - 10/04/03

Congratulations to Paul Wellman on his stunning 3rd place finish in Saturday's Hoy's Excelsior Presidio Challenge. Paul was behind only grand prix leader Peter Clusener and Olympian Gabe Jennings, ahead of many of his x-c nemeses.

And congratulations to the club in general and RD Chris Phipps in particular on another great race! This, our 5th annual Presidio cross country race, had the largest turnout yet, and everything (almost anyway) seemed to go quite smoothly. The club had great publicity before the race, with the unexpected Runners' World mention, and after the race:

>From Phipps:

"The 5th Annual Hoy's Presidio Challenge was again a success for the team this year. Thanks to all of the team members, their family and friends who came out to help, the event went off without a hitch! We had a record turnout with 275 finishers (70 Open Men, 119 Masters Men and 86 women)."

More below . . . 

Women Byline Christine Wang

This past Saturday morning five lone Excelsior women ventured out into the cold to race our home course that really lives up to its name---'Challenging.' Melissa MacPherson led the Excelsior women with a blistering 24:00, 11th place. Jenny Wong was right behind her, second runner for the team with a 24:06 12th place finish (Jenny's having a great fall!). Ally, surging up all the hills, finished in 24:50, good for 20th place. Despite not feeling well, Jen Major finished with a strong 25:43 for 25th place. Christine Wang ran a 28:04, 50th place, while trying not to think how much her legs were going to hurt on her 18 mile CIM training run the next morning. Way to go ladies!!! It looks like we'll be third, with Impala and a strong Humboldt Track Club just in front of us today (and seriously in the hunt to bump us out of 2nd overall in the XC standings - where'd these girls come from?!?!).

Also, a big thank you goes out to the many Excelsior women who assisted with the race set-up, administration, and clean-up!! 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

The open men's race was highlighted by the presence of 2000 1500M Olympian Gabe Jennings, who blazed the last half mile to post a 15 second win over Peter Clusener from the Humboldt Track Club. Gabe's time of 18:40 though was only good enough for 2nd best all time, as he was 2 seconds off the course record held by former Stanford teammate Jason Balkman. The $100 first prize was the first prize money that Gabe has been able to claim since turning pro. Leading a tough chase pack that included several of the PA's best runners was our own Paul Wellman who ran a huge course PR of 19:13 to finish 3rd and pick up $25! Nearly a full 2 minutes later, the rest of the team started to come in led by race director Chris Phipps who was 24th in 21:02, followed by Cesar Guillen 26th, 21:14, Dan Mancini 32nd, 21:32, Brian Gilliss 34th, 21:36, Parker Kelley 37th 21:55, Abel Eisentraut 44th, 22:41, Jesse McAlman 45th, 22:44, and Adam Lucas 57th, 24:07.

On the team side, we placed third, well behind the adidas Transports and HTC, and just a few points ahead of Empire and the Wolfpack. With our 3rd place finish here, we are essentially tied with WVTC for 3rd overall on the season. Let's get out to the final 4 races of the season and make a move up the standings!

Old'uns

Unfortunately for the men's masters, this one will be known as "The Race that Might Have Been." The race was supposed to be Hans Gouwens's 2003 cross country debut and Tim Wallen's master debut. Tim turned 40 on Monday, and by Tuesday he was out with a hamstring injury. Hans was forced to continue his frantic race against the clock to shelter his family before the rains come.

Nevertheless, Craig Steinmaus had yet another sterling performance. OMS led the masters once again in 20:55, third in the (separate) masters race. Tyler Abbott was just outkicked for 14th place, finishing 15th in 22:23. Charles Griffin finished close behind in 23:01 (22d), with Ian Hersey (23:52, 41st), David Schmidt (25:35, 65th), and Keo Zaiger (27:09, 80th) rounding out the team. In the very hotly contested master's division, the team seems to have finished 5th or 6th. It's VERY competitive this year--it'd be great if we could put our best feet forward the last few races.

Heritage Oaks Bank 10K - 09/28/03

Paso: Seniors National Champs! Krieger, Fanady, Gorman Win Short GP!

Our senior team seems to have brought home the club's 4th national championship Sunday at the Heritage Oaks Bank 10K in Paso Robles. Don Paul led the team, running 35:20 to take third individual honors, with Jim Gorman 22 seconds behind him in 5th. Kim Fanady ran a club record 39:54, winning the short grand prix in the process. Kathryn Krieger and Jim Gorman also seem to have won their respective short grand prixs.

Special thanks to Kathryn who recruited her SLO-next door neighbor Stacey Herdlicka (sp?) just HOURS before the race to fill in for a recently-knee injured Monal Chokshi!

Open Men Byline Daniel Shore

Unlike previous years, the Heritage Oaks Bank 10K in Paso dawned cool and overcast -- perfect weather for fast times. Sadly, only a few of us took advantage of the conditions.

Trailing numerous international and national-class runners but leading the HE-men in 27th overall, Erico Ollila ran a solid 31:46 -- somewhere around 18th in the PA. Following closely on Eric's heels, Stephen Donahue ran a 10K PR of 31:48 for 28th overall. Good luck in Chicago Stephen! Dan Shore suffered another sprint finish loss to Kendrick Sealy (dang!) finishing in a modest 32:23 for 32nd overall. Brian Spangenberg, deep in the throes of marathon training, followed Dan in 33rd place (32:41). Finishing out the scoring team was Matt Regan, running 34:04 for 42nd place. Pete Vicencio suffered through intense foot pain to round out the team in 34:46 (46th overall) -- get better Pete!

Once again, Transports easily won the team competition. However, the HE men may have snuck into second place -- keep your fingers crossed. Next up on the road schedule is the Humboldt Half Marathon on Sunday, October 19. With a number of top local runners in Chicago the week before, we have a great chance of picking up a road win. Please come out if you can make it! 

Masters Women Byline Kim Fanady

The few, the proud, the extremely dedicated - a/k/a the Excelsior masters women - trekked down to Paso Robles for the National Masters 10K Championships and made their usual strong showing. The ever reliable Susan Beck turned in a nice 47:36 despite not having her best day. Barbara Hancock cranked out a terrific 45:17, a THREE minute PR! And Kim Fanady posted a one-minute PR of 39:54 to finish 10th overall, 5th in the PA, and wrap up a totally unexpected victory in the masters short Grand Prix. Team results aren't out yet but this 3 point race can only help solidify the team's position (2nd before Jamba and PR). Way to go, girls - we're old but we still rock! 

Masters Men

Old Main Steinmaus led the masters in a fine time of 32:37, good enough for ninth place in our national championship! New member Vitas Ezerskis followed in 34:09 (18th), with Lloyd Stephenson continuing his comeback in 35:11 (26th), Tyler Abbott running a master PR in 35:45 (34th), and Jim Misener (42:44, 104th) rounding out the team. We've scored Don Paul as a master, so it looks like we beat the Pacific Striders, by just 16 seconds (after our ONE SECOND loss last year). This is in spite of their beating us at positions 2, 3, 4, and 5--fortunately Craig put enough room on their 1st place runner that we still beat them. Great job Craig! 

Senior Men Byline The Rocket

Our senior runners won their second National USATF team title in the last nine months. The fast 10K course and overcast conditions dictated good efforts. Don Paul rebounded from last week's hamstring strain to win the Pacific Association title and place third nationally. He ran 35:20 and was only 6 seconds out of second place. He was closely followed by consistent Jim Gorman in 35:42./4th nationally. Tom Barnhard and Les Ong continued to get in better shape.

Don Paul-35:20/5:41 Jim Gorman-35:42/5:44 Tom Barnhard-36:45/5:54 Les Ong-37:55/6:06 Bob Darling-38:14/6:09 Al Stanbridge-40:39/6:32

Jamba Juice 5K - 09/21/03

Early in the morning in San Francisco at the tail end of Summer. Doesn't SOUND like a hot race. Nevertheless, the weather turned hot for the second weekend in a row, much to the joy of the surfers and the chagrin of the runners. I'm sure this next race won't be as hot. How far over 100 can it possibly get in Paso Robles in September?

I didn't realize it at the time, but I believe we had what may be a club record 46 members run the race--16 open men, 9 open women, 8 masters men, 9 senior men, and 4 masters women. By the numbers:

1st-Jim Gorman, senior men 3rd-Craig Steinmaus, master men 4th-Kathryn Krieger, open women (only Jamba Juice coupon winner) 5th-Kim Fanady, master women, and Tom Bernhard, senior men

Let's try to get a second placer next year.

The short grand prix winds up this Sunday at Paso Robles, the biggest race of the year (3-points). Atop the standings: Kathryn Krieger and Shelby Pierson still seem to be 1-2 among open women, though their places flip-flopped, with Kathryn now leading and very probably the GP winner; unless all our calculations are wrong, Kim Fanady has run her way into first place, and is likely to remain there after Paso; and Jim Gorman increased his first place lead for the senior men, practically clinching the title. 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

Yep, back in 2000 things were a lot different. A guy could cruise the Jamba Juice 5K in 16:30 in cool weather and win 52 Jamba Juice certificates. By 2001 it took 16:00 to win 26 certificates. In 2002 it was down to 15:31, so what would it take to win free Jamba in 2003? Would you believe 14:32!

Unfortunately, not one of our 16 open men was able to win the free Jamba. Dan Nelson came the closest with a 12th place finish in 15:06. The other scorers on the A team were Stephen Donahue 19th, 15:29, Eric Ollila 22nd, 15:34, Dan Shore 26th, 15:50 and Pete Vicencio 34th, 16:10.

We had plenty of men out there, enough for a B and a C team. Ending his PR streak, Matt Regan was 40th in 16:23 (just a second off his PR). Cliff Lentz, in his first race since the Headlands 50K was 41st, 16:25, and Tim Wallen in his last or next to last race in the open division was 43rd, 16:26. They were followed by Chris Phipps, 48th, 16:40, Cesar Guillen 56th, 16:49, Jesse McAlman 78th, 17:18, Andy Chan 88th, 17:26, Abel Eisentraut 95th, 17:32, Dan Rhodes 120th, 18:00, Brian Schultz 124th, 18:03, and Adam Lucas, 148th in 18:25.

It looks like we were 3rd or 4th as a team, possibly even 2nd if the Farm Team didn't have 5 guys. Next week it's down to Paso! 

Open Women Byline Micha Lowe

Kathryn "Chicago-here-I-come" Krieger (17:16), Christine Brighton (18:28) and Kim "Master-at-FAST!" Fanady (19:37) each finished 2nd in their respective age groups. Shelly "I'm-following-KK-to-Chicago" Pierson (18:45) Jenny Wong (19:04), and Micha Lowe rounded up the "A" team in the women's open.

Team "B" was led by Helen "work-all-night-race-the-next-day" Kao (21:06) followed by Patti "run22miles-thenpace3" Bershers, Nicole "I'm-doing-Chicago-too" Britvan, and Jody "I-need-a-break" Fordham. Good job ladies, and good luck to all training for Chicago!

WOMEN WIN JAMBA!

The open women won the team title at the Jamba Juice 5K Pacific Association 5K Championship. This is the women's first win in any grand prix race--roads or cross--ever, and, being a double points race, boasted one of the largest club paydays in the club's history, $500. Congratulations women!

Masters Women Byline Susan Beck

So it was hot. So the start was crowded and twisty and scattered with obstacles. Kim Fanady still ran a sizzling PR of 19:37 and was the fifth master's woman. With this strong finish Kim will likely take the overall lead in the PA Masters Women's Short-Course Grand Prix. By my rough reckoning, all she needs to do is run a solid race at Paso and she should emerge as the Grand Prix Champ. Go Kim. Minutes later (several, in fact), I finished in 22:50, followed not far behind by Barbara Hancock, running a PR of 23:34. New Member and East Coast transplant Deborah Ulian ran her first race for us, and is gaining her strength back after an injury layoff. (We sorely missed a very fit Jody Heyman, who tripped in the dark Thursday morning at Stow Lake and sprained some hip muscles.) 

Old'uns

Craig Steinmaus led the masters men in 16:02, 31st place overall and third master. The next Hoy's Excelsior master was--believe it or not--Vytautas "Vitas" Ezerskis, who finally succumbed to the unrelenting recruiting pressure and officially joined us just before the race. Vitas confessed that the persistent phone calls and never-ending approaches were affecting his training, and he gave in. Yeah! Vitas ran 16:43, 9th master. Lloyd Stephenson finished next in 16:56, 12th master and first 45-49--remember, Lloyd'll be 50 in about a year. Peter Lewandowski followed Lloyd in 17:13 (16th master), with Michael Prutz (17:25, 20th) rounding out the team. In his first non-scoring performance since perhaps Paso last year, Tyler Abbott finished next in 17:47, with Michael Gama (19:13) and Keo Zaiger (20:14) rounding out the team. 

Seniors Byline The Rocket (Excelsior Club Member for 30 years, since the beginning in 1973!)

Our senior team had a great turnout at the Jamba 5k race. Nine aging, yet fit seniors raced around Golden Gate Park on a toasty morning. The team prevailed in a victorious effort. We won the individual and team titles. This increased their overall lead in the Grand Prix standing. Jim Gorman ran a super race to finish first in a quick 17:25. He has been consistent all year. Don Paul suffered a hamstring strain, yet managed to finish the race. We hope for a speedy recovery. Charles Thompson made a modest comeback in 18:43. Not bad for averaging 14 miles a week and not racing for 6 months. Steve Ferraz continues his return to fitness by running 21:08. He has come a long way in a short period of time. Our next goal is to win the National Masters 10K title for seniors (50+) at this weeks Paso Robles race. Stay healthy and fit!

Jim Gorman-17:25/5:36 Tom Barnhard-18:10/5:50 Don Paul-18:31/5:57 Bob Darling-18:35/5:58 Sir Charles Thompson-18:43/6:01 Les Ong-18:46/6:02 Jim Tracy-19:37/6:18 Al Stanbridge-19:48/6:22 Steve Ferraz-21:08/6:48 (times were off 1-2 seconds as were some places-it was a large race)

Crystal Springs Cross Country - 09/13/03

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

Hot hot hot! A full 10 open men toed the line in the 90 degree heat to take on the dusty shadeless trails of the Crystal Springs Challenge. The team was led by Eric Ollila in 11th, 22:17, then we had a bit of a gap. (C'mon guys lets pick it up a bit and give Eric some company next time!) Next in for the men in yellow were Parker Kelly in 24th, 23:39, Cesar Guillen 27th, 23:47, Dan Shore 29th, 23:50, and Chris Phipps, 34th, 24:19 (first sub 6 minute pace race in nearly 4 months!) rounding out the scoring 5. Leading the B team was Dan Lilot 43rd, 25:11 followed by Abel Eisentraut, 53rd, 25:35, Adam Lucas 69th, 26:15, Jesse McAlman 71st, 26:18, and Brian Schultz 89th, 27:06. Needless to say, the times were a bit off due to the heat. I ran 2:30 faster last year, so that must be how much the heat slowed us down. On the team side, it looks like we were 4th behind Adidas, Humboldt and WVTC.

Cross takes a couple weeks off for the road races (Jamba 5K and Paso 10K), but then we have our home meet, the Presidio Challenge on October 4th. We've been pretty weak in Cross so far this year, so I want to see all of our open men at the Presidio race so we can show the rest of the PA that we really do have one of the best teams out there! 

Old'uns

Taking it easy in the blistering mouth-parching heat, Craig Steinmaus still led the masters in 23:48 (5th master, 28th overall). Lloyd Stephenson decided to run at the last minute and ran a fine 25:10 (10th master), showing steady post-injury improvement. Charles Griffin and Tyler Abbott finished next in 25:58 and 26:02 (18th and 20th), followed by Ian Hersey (26:33, 26th), 6th place senior Kim Lilot (26:42), Samuel Harvell (28:14, 41st), new/returning member David Schmidt (29:46, 56th), and Jim Misener (29:54, 58th). David collapsed from the heat at the finish line and was taken away in an ambulance, but was fine by early afternoon. 

Crystal Women's Report Byline Shelly Pierson

On a nice and WARM Saturday morning our ladies looked awesome among the competition at Crystal Springs CC Invite. Leading the Hoy's women was Melissa MacPherson in 19:03 (8th), Followed by the unstoppable Patti Bershers who made it look so EASY with her 19:08 (12th) finish (I believe this was a HUGE PR!). Next was Jen Major looking great on the comeback road in 19:34 (17th), Micha Lowe 20:23 (25th), Helena Kimball 21:05 (40th), Jody Fordham 23:09 (57th) and last but NOT least, the all powerful senior Fernanda Franco-Ferrara in 26:11 (69th). This is a two minute PR for Fernanda when comparing the tough Crystal Springs course to a flat 5K!!

Great Job Ladies!

Race For The Cure - 09/07/03

Congratulations to Kim Fanady on a first master/4th overall performance at Sunday's Race for the Cure! Her official time in the results seems to be 15 seconds off, but her watch time was a PR 19:37.

GOLDEN GATE PARK OPEN - 09/06/03

KRIEGER WINS CROSS "OPENER"

In a carbon copy of last year's race, Kathryn Krieger came from well back at the mid-way point to run a very strong three mile and overtake the field, eventually winning by 14 seconds. The women overall had their tightest battle to date with the Impalas. The teams were tied after four runners (each of our top four was next to the corresponding Impala), with the Impalas ending up ahead by what looks to be just one point.

On the men's side, Paul Wellman ran a strong 21:17 for twelfth place (what was Richter's second place time in '98 (?)?) in a very deep field. Craig Old Man Steinmaus finished was the next man on the team, running a lifetime PR 21:53 to finish 21st overall and second master, nine seconds behind a very fit Kevin Ostenberg. The open men noticeably did NOT repeat their 2002 "12 men between 21:30 and 22:30" performance. Results were late coming out, so team reports will follow . . . 

From Dan Mancini:

Craig and and his golden fleece (heretofore known as Young Man Steinmaus) established a new H-E Masters course record at GGP with his 21:53 on Saturday. Not only did it tie his best ever performance (any age), but it is the 1st time one of our Masters has bettered the 22:00 barrier (on the Post-1995 revised course). He bested Lloyd's previous mark of 22:06.

TEAM REPORTS

Women Byline Jen Major

The Women's team finished second to the Impalas by just ONE POINT (49-50) in Saturday's Golden Gate Park cross country race. Oops. But, everyone seemed very happy with their run! Kathryn Kreiger finished first overall and for the team with a speedy time of just 24:30. Jenny Wong led the next pack of Hoy's runners, finishing eleventh overall in 25:45. She was closely followed by Shelly Pierson, 25:50, and Melissa MacPherson, 25:51. Jen Major was next, 26:26 (I think it's my lucky number this year), followed by Allie Bigelow, Micha Lowe, Helen Kao, and Susan Beck. Everyone did a fantastic job, and thank you so much to all of the girls who ran, AND to our fabulous cheering sections. See you soon! 

Open Team Wrap-Up

Cross Country made its first stop in San Francisco on Saturday with a day perfect for racing ­ clear and cool. While the Open Men didn’t do any winning, it appears they did do some displacing. Thirteen men showed up to race while a handful of others turned up to limp around, cheer, or enroll their new babies in the H-E Development Program.

Among the racers, Paul Wellman led the charge, finishing a respectable 12th in the competitive field with a time of 21:17 for the 4-mile course. On the comeback, Pete Vicencio finished second on the team and 28th overall with a time of 22:15. DJ Tim Wallen followed in 22:34 (38th), with Chicago-bound Stephen Donahue finishing his morning long run with a 22:43 stride-out (40th) and Robin Hart rounding out the A team in 23:06 (49th).

Cesar Guillen led the B team with a 23:15 clocking, good for 54th overall. Following Cesar, Parker Kelly made a much-welcomed appearance finishing 61st in 23:33. Dan Lilot followed Parker in 63rd (23:38), with Abel Eisentraut (24:12, 75th) and new member Brian Gilliss (24:31, 83rd) rounding out the B team. Close on Brian’s heels was new member Bill Whetstone (24:41, 88th), followed by Adam Lucas (25:25, 117th) and Dave Moulton (26:12, 133rd)

As noted in the Week in Training, the circuit goes to Crystal Springs this weekend ­ a great race as long as you don’t go out too hard. After that, we move on to two multi-point road races in succession, Jamba Juice 5K and the ultra-fun and competitive Heritage Oaks 10K in Paso Robles. Racing season is in full swing so PLEASE come out if you can!

FYI, the latest Runner’s World magazine lists our very own Presidio Challenge as one of the “bestâ€� XC races in the country! Hmmmm… Anyhow, make sure you plan on attending our OWN cross-country race! 

Old'uns

As noted before, Craig Steinmaus ran a very strong 21:53 to beat all of our open men except Wellman and finish second among the masters. Peter Lewandowski finished next for the masters in 24:05 (72d, 15th master), with Tyler Abbott just behind him in 24:13 (76th, 17th master). Soon-to-be-senior Charles Griffin finished next in 24:47 (96th, 26th master), with Kim Lilot rounding out the scorers in 25:47 (123rd, 6th senior). Returning member Keo Zaiger (27:05, 158th overall), Michael Gama (27:19, 163rd), new member Dave Schmidt (28:06, 181st), and Jim Misener (28:43, 191st) rounded out the team.

EMPIRE CROSS COUNTRY - 08/30/03

Women Byline Micha Lowe

The women managed to pull together a full team for the second cross country race of the season. Under cool, overcast skies the ladies endured the hilly (oh, the hills) and somewhat rocky course with decent early season results.

Jenny Wong (27:43, 8th overall) racked up some 8.25 xx-points by scoring first on the team. Micha Lowe and Chelsey Remington followed a few minutes behind Jenny. Putting a sore foot behind her on the rocky course, Jody Fordham was the 4th woman to finish for us, and rounding out the scoring was Susan Beck, looking relaxed and happy and finishing strong in her first race since Pac Sun as she dropped down to help the open women.

Oh, as if Empire wasn't enough training for the weekend, Chelsey Remington chased a cable car up Russian Hill the following day to finish 5th overall woman (39:39, 5.67 miles). Hope those knees are still holding up, Chelsey! 

Open Men Byline Matt Regan

Eight Open Men made the trip up to Windsor on Saturday morning for the Phil Widener Empire Open and acquitted themselves very well despite a tough rocky and uneven course...just ask Tyler Abbott or Tim Wallen who both took hard spills...and some stiff competition from Humbolt and the host club Empire Runners.

Paul Wellman led the way in 6th Place (22:53) breaking up a pack of Empire guys, followed by Eric Ollila in 23:23 (10th) and Tim "soon to be a master" Wallen in 24:00 (13th_ and in a time that would have placed him 3rd in the earlier (and much cooler) masters race. Next in for the men in yellow was Cesar Guillen in 24:31 (18th), followed by the final scorer Matt Regan in 24:38 (19th)...thereby assuring himself that he will not finish at the bottom of the PA XC points table for a second consecutive year.

Next in was new member Jeff Watson in 25:08 (21st), followed by Abel Eisentraut in 25:59 (25th), Hood to Coast survivor Bill Whetstone in 26:41 (28th) and another new member Adam Lucas in 27:30 (31st)....all adding their names to the PA Cross Country points list.

Humboldt easily won the team title with 2 of the first 3 runners and it looks like we were narrowly pipped by a very strong Empire team for second place.

See you all this weekend in Golden Gate Park. 

Old'uns

But one week off his sixth place (open) triumph in the national 50K trail championship, Old Man Steinmaus opened up what's shaping up to be a great cross country season with the win in the masters race, in a quick time of 23:47. A week off of Hood to Coast, Tyler Abbott finished 10th in 25:27. Just having started on the comeback trail, Lloyd Stephenson finished in 25:41. After running the first half of the race in the top 10, Ernie Stanton's hamstrings froze up and he limped into a 27:31 (34th place) finish. Also on the comeback trail, Kim Lilot finished just behind Ernie in 27:33 (35th) to close out the scoring. Our final two were two runners new to masters cross country racing, Tom Bernhard in 27:58 (38th) and Samuel Harvell in 28:33 (50th). Don't worry, Tom, this is the rockiest course!

HEADLANDS 50K - 08/24/03

TEAM NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Craig Steinmaus, Cliff Lentz, and Dan Shore brought Hoy's Excelsior its first national championship in several (Bob?) years Saturday at the Headlands National 50K Trail Championship in Marin. OMS caught a bonking Cliff on the very last hill to lead the team, finishing 6th overall in 4:05:04 on the extremely hilly course (6000 ft or so of climbing). Cliff finished next in 4:06:49, with Dan Shore--in his first ultra--three places back in 10th, 4:16:57. The men in yellow beat all of the ultra-heavy local teams plus a top team from Boulder to win the national championship. Chris Phipps again experienced severe stomach problems during the race, but was still able to finish 32d of 176 in 4:54:20. Congratulations gentlemen!

Santa Cruz Cross Country - 08/23/03

Open Men Byline World Ollila

Welcome to the S.C., bitch!

Conditions were perfect for Saturday's cross country extavaganza in Santa Cruz, with cloudless skies, no wind, and warm temps. That and the newly wussified course produced some fast times.

Paul Wellman led the rag-tag bunch of misfits that was the H.E. men's team with a 6th place finish, covering the four-mile course in 20 minutes and change (20:59). Not far behind were Eric Ollila in 8th (20:68), Cesar Guillen in 24th (22:50), Parker "Pray I don't score" Kelly in 31st (23:49), Abel Einstraut in 33rd (24:04), Brian Schultz in 49th (25:03), Kim Lilot in 55th (25:34), and Adam Lucas in 65th (26:08). As a team, just assume we won until you hear otherwise. Yay, team!

Results came out late--women's report to follow . . . . 

Hood to Coast - 8/22/03

Extra Virgins Repeat!

The Santini Extra Virgins, a team of twelve over-30s with nine club members--Pete IWEHBBAIGWTTS Vicencio, Dan Rhodes, Matt Regan, Ernie Stanton, Andy Chan, Peter Hsia, Pete Nowicki, Bill Whetstone, and Tyler Abbott--won the submaster division Friday-Saturday at Hood to Coast, a 198-mile 36-leg relay from Mt. Hood to Seaside on the Oregon coast. The team finished in a relatively slow 19:33* (*a few minutes lost to a slow freight train) to end up seventh overall once again in the race of 1000 teams. The race was highlighted by the team's closest finish ever. With two legs to go, the EVs were five minutes behind the next team. Fortunately that team's next runner was not feeling any too well, and Tyler put 4:40 on him to bring Dan Rhodes within 20 seconds going into the last leg. Dan quickly dispatched the other team's anchor, passing him in the first mile and eventually beating him across the line by 22 seconds.

The sister coed open team, the Santini Popeyes and Olive Oils, after winning the last two years (though some categories were changed after the fact in last year's race), faced its first major logistical problems ever, losing some 13+ minutes when a van got lost, and ended up in third. The team included team members Chris Ashfield, Ryan Gallagher, van captain Jared The Buck Stops At Jen Crave, Jen Major, and last minute savior Chelsey Remington. The team finished in 20:18, 15th place overall. This year's race was marked by strong coed teams, and the Popeyes and Olive Oils had plenty of nearby competition, including two coed masters teams, one with x-c national champ David Olds running against Chris Ashfield (and Pete Vicencio), the other with Eddie Hellebuyck.

Congratulations to all runners! Charts to follow . . . .

Hook & Ladder 10K - 08/17/03 

24 Brunches!

Eric Ollila led our annual Hook & Ladder Brunchfest, running 32:37 to finish second to our own Chris Lundstrom. Chris ran 30:56 on the hilly course. Chikara Omine and Cesar Guillen finished 5th and 6th in 34:57 and 35:08, followed by senior winner Don Paul in 35:35 (7th), second master Tyler Abbott (36:18, 9th), a jogging 50K-ready Chris Phipps (37:35, 12th), The Rocket (39:12, 22d), and Mark Ford (40:40, 29th). Our men's team easily won the team prize (5 brunches). On the women's side, Jen Major finished third in 39:53, followed by Micha Lowe (41:34, 5th), Helen Kao (45:17, 10th), Jody Forham (43:43, 13th), and new member Julie Lloyd (45:55, 14th). The women also won the team title and 5 brunches. Plan on another post-Presidio trip to the Cliff House! 

Running of the Bulls - 08/17/03

Donahue Runs 24:51 with the Bulls

Stephen Donahue ran one of his best races to date, 24:51 to finish 3rd in the first annual Farm Team Running of the Bulls in Palo Alto. Congratulations Stephen!

Race Against Global Warming 8K - 08/17/03

Congratulations to Matt Regan on his 27:40 second place finish at the Race Against Global Warming 8K Sunday. This earned Matt a $250 Niketown gift certificate!

I apologize to anyone I missed in the last two races--haven't seen official results yet.

America's Finest City Half-Marathon - 08/17/03

Byline Patti Bershers

Patti Bershers, Amy Pearson and some friends from other teams ventured down to San Diego this past weekend for the America's Finest City Half-Marathon. It should really be titled "American's Hottest, Most Humid City on Race Day Half Marathon". Times were off to say the least, with this year's winning woman off last year's time by 4 minutes. Early on when it became apparent that sticking to a goal pace of 6:40 per mile just wasn't going to happen, Patti adjusted to a marathon-pace workout instead for the first 10 miles, and then took it easy on the 2 mile climb to the finish. That was good enough for 40th place among the women, with a 1:32:34 time. Amy took a similar approach, and had an excellent marathon pace workout for 143rd place, 1:46:41. San Diego's great, but perhaps not for racing. We're sticking to the beach for future trips!

Alameda Run for the Parks 10K - 08/03/03

Congratulations to Patti Bershers on a 28-second PR at the Alameda Run for the Parks 10K Sunday. Patti led several of our women who ventured to the East Bay. 

From Patti:

"At last, sub-40. 39:51, good enough for 6th place among the women, and a 28 second PR. Also out there despite feeling pretty much like crap after struggling with stomach flu all week was recent new team member Jamie Chomas (42:21, a post-collegiate PR, 9th). Jenny Wong was also out there, still not feeling very good, so she just took it real easy with a 41:30 (7th)."

On the men's side, the Cruz brothers, Raymundo and Agustin, ran 33:53 and 35:57 (6th and 15th). Abel Eisentraut in training mode ran an easy 37:59.

Tracy Bean Festival 5k - 08/02/03

Congratulations to Eric Ollila on a stunning construction-assisted effort at the Tracy Bean Festival 5k--14:12!

http://www.onyourmarkevents.com

According to Eric, "Although the course is certified, it had to be altered due to construction. The course we actually ran was only 2.95 miles, turning my 14:12 into a crappy 14:56 [Ed.-I should run so crappy.]."

Wharf to Wharf - 07/27/03

Congratulations to Dan Nelson on a strong 30:21 at Wharf to Wharf Sunday, good enough for 11th in one of the most competitive fields in Northern California each year. Parker Kelly (34:28, 90th) and Luis Sanchez (34:32, 93rd) also broke into the prestigious top 100.

SF Marathon/Half Marathon/Relay - 07/27/03

The good news is that the women repeated as winners of the SF Chronicle Marathon Relay Sunday. The team of Jen Major, Jenny Wong, Chelsey Remington, and Micha Lowe ran 3:07:56 (slowed down due to last minute
sicknesses), good enough for first women's team and 4th team overall. The other good news is that our second women's team--Christine Jegan graciously and fortuitously filling in for a last-minute injured Whitney Stephenson, new members Julie Lloyd and Michelle Fernandez, and Nicole Britvan--ran 3:21:18 for second place women's team.

The men, for the SIXTH straight year, were the top male team that could drive. Though beaten by a couple of minutes by a team of--ouch--16-17 year olds, the men held their heads high by somehow eliminating themselves from the results. The team of P
‡©‰??C?Î?egÕ marathoner, who graciously slowed down during the last 10K to allow our anchor to pass him. BTW, I apologize for any flakiness in my email--I've been having problems all day.

In the marathon, club friend Vitas Ezerskis ran a stellar on that course 2:35:56 at age 42 for second place, but a minute behind the winner; Chikara Omine ran 2:51:36 for 9th; and Chris Phipps trained a 2:54:59.998 for 11th.

In the Halves, Christine Brighton was 2d woman and 10th overall in the Second Half Marathon in 1:23:16; Greg Menegat ran 1:14:16 for 4th in the First Half; and Don Paul finished seventh overall in the Second Half in a strong 1:17:29.

O'ROURKE DOES IT AGAIN! - 07/19/03

Tim O'Rourke made yet another splash in the record books Saturday, setting his third American Record in under nine months. Tim ran one hundred twenty-five yes one hundred twenty-five laps around the College of San Mateo track to break the 45-49 year old record in the track 50K by some 5 1/2 minutes. Tim ran 3:18:53 (give or take a second) at an amazingly constant pace. His goal was 6:20 per 1600 m. At the marathon mark (2:47 something) he was within five seconds of this pace, and to that point I believe every single lap was within 2-3 seconds of this. The timers were setting the clocks by his splits. In the end he lost less than a minute to that pace, a remarkable effort.

Next up: 100 miles on the track! (I hope I'm kidding.) And say, Craig, aren't you going to be 45 before too long? Only 11.42 years to go, Phipps.

Fleet Feet Davis Mile - 07/13/03

The mile was highlighted by Jim Gorman's 50+ victory and by two people breaking their own club road mile records, both set one year ago: Kathryn Krieger (open women) in 4:59 and Kim Fanady (masters women) in 5:43. In the PA standings, Shelly Pierson maintained a strong hold on the yellow jersey among the open women, Jim Gorman increased his lead in the senior men's grand prix, and Kim Fanady brought herself up from 35 to 23 points behind the leader in the master women's grand prix, solidifying her hold on second in the process. In addition, Jim and Kim's performances put them atop the club master/senior men and master/senior women performances of the year standings, respectively. And finally, the Dans got several ticks closer to the Chrisses in the ATXPFND (All-Time X-Point First Name Derby). Where have you gone, Lundstrom & Ashfield?

Open Women Byline Christine Brighton

The Brave, the proud, the few us of us who ventured to Davis to Run the Fleet Feet Mile on Saturday enjoyed a sunny, warm day. Well, saying it was warm may be saying it mildly. Everyone had solid runs in an attempt to knock the Umpaloompas (i.e. the Impalas) off the top rung in a PA Race.

Winning the blue ribbon for bravery, Lee D'Alessandro entered the race at the last minute (with a bad hamstring and back problems) to give us a scoring five and surprised herself by running 6:03. Leading the way for Hoy's (or the soon to be "Place your name here track club") was Katherine Kriegmeister with a mile P.R. of 4:59 which placed her fourth in a very competitive race, with three Farm Teamers ahead of her. Coming in second in a time of 5:23 (17th overall) was Christine Brighton after a week of long marathon training. Shelly (I am moving to my new home this month) Pierson ran a strong 5:27 (21st). And Alexandra Bigelow ran 5:39 to win the women's B heat by five seconds. Just think what she could have done if she ran in the A race!

Next PA race is the Jamba Juice 5K on September 21st, where hopefully there will be Jamba Juices all around. 

Masters Women Byline Susan Beck

Kim Fanady and Whitney Stephenson had great PR races on Sunday, with Kim blazing to fourth place in 5:43, three seconds better than last year. Whitney ran a terrific 6:17, also faster than last year. Susan Beck ran very slowly. 

Open Men NOT-SO-FLEET FEET DAVIS MILE Byline Dan Shore

This year's annual heat feet mile moved from the State Capitol to the much cooler confines of Davis, CA. With temperatures a near-frigid 95 and just eight 90-degree turns, the day was set for blistering mile times. Yet surprisingly enough the Men's Open team didn't fare too well.

Dan Nelson once again led the team and helped boost "the Dans" by posting a somewhat disappointing (for him) 4:25 to take 10th overall. [*Note: all of the official times were rounded up to the nearest second.] Eric Ollila, having recently run Grandma's Marathon, blew by me at 600m to finish in 4:30 and 14th overall among Open Men (he really did break 4:30 though). Robin Hart showed some serious speed by running 4:35 to finish second in the B race and 18th overall. Yet again, I (Dan Shore) posted my annual 4:35 by running stunningly consistent positive splits (63, 2:10, ...oy!) and eventually dropping the hammer for 19th overall. Paul Wellman, another recent marathoner, rounded out the scoring team with a 4:41 27th-place finish (thanks for taking one for the team Paul!). Jesse McAlman was our sixth man, venturing away from his track home to finish 4:47 in 31st place. Thanks to everyone for showing up!

Up front, Jim Sorenson put 11 seconds on the field to run 4:07.??, just missing the course record of 4:06.??. Both Adidas and WVTC had strong teams, so I'm guessing we snuck in for third (although I really have no clue because there are no team affiliations in the results and one never knows who shows up for this race).

No more racing until the start of the XC season with Santa Cruz on August 23 (or Hood to Coast or Headlands 50K). Anyone wanna take the lead on organizing the Open Men for the cross-country season? The next road race is Jamba Juice 5K on September 14. 

Old'uns

Once again, let's start with the good news (once again, seniors). The seniors won easily. Jim Gorman won in 4:57 by a hair over the ageless Don Porteus. Don Paul finished fourth in 5:03, with Tom Bernhard continuing his comeback in 5:11 (6th), Kevin Grady 10th in 5:21, Bob Darling 18th in 5:33, Wayne Plymale 24th in 6:00, and Tom Bennett 30th in 6:45.

Now the other news (once again, masters). The bright side is that Jesus Garcia showed that his comeback from injury is proceeding well with a strong 4:57 (14th master). Second master on the team and 25th overall was Tyler Abbott in 5:10 (last year our FIFTH master was right at 5:00). After Tyler came Andy Sobozinsky (5:21, 35th), Michael Gama (5:27, 38th), Lloyd Stephenson continuing his Run Once Every Three Weeks While Injured training regimen (5:28, 39th--but he won the Cane division), and Greg King (5:31, 41st). I was reluctant to do the math, but our top 5 seniors beat our top 5 masters by 18 seconds. Ouch! Double Ouch! Fortunately there's a little known PA rule by which you can actually switch whole age division teams, so our seniors will all be scoring as masters and vice versa. Now there's over two months before the next road race--let's hope the masters can regroup by Jamba!

Deep thanks to everyone who responded to my plea last week and made the 3-4 hour drive for five minutes of running.

Double Dipsea - 06/28/03

LENTZ FASTEST AT DOUBLE DIPSEA

Cliff Lentz ran a very tough 1:43 in the heat Saturday at Double Dipsea. This was the fastest time of the day, just besting surprise entrant Richie Boulet's first known foray into the Dipsea world (could be fun next June!). Cliff matched his Dipsea third place finish in the handicapped race. This was three minutes off Cliff's Double PR, but the heat easily accounted for that differential. Unfortunately I haven't seen official results, but I believe Dan Rhodes was third fastest, and Craig Steinmaus was up there among 40-44 year olds. Chris Phipps was approximately 15th overall in around 1:54, Abel Eisentraut around 18th in 1:58, and Tyler Abbott around 20th in about 2:03:42.372 (less 4 minute handicap). I'll try to get full results next week.

Phipps also pointed me to a Marin IJ article on the Double Dipsea:

http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234%257E24414%257E1485071,00.html?search=filter

I still haven't seen full results, but the article included times for the top 25. Among the Excelsior-Hoys or Ex-Hoys set (credit to Lloyd I believe for new team name), Cliff Lentz was 3rd in 1:43:48, 0 handicap; Chikara Omine was 9th in 1:52:04, 0 hc; Dan Rhodes 12th, 1:53:55/0; Chris Phipps 14th, 1:54:54/0; Craig Steinmaus 16th/2d master, 1:59:10/4; Abel Eisentraut 20th, 1:58:31/0; and Tyler Abbott 21st/5th master, 2:03:42/4.

Finally, Jenny Wong shares her pictures from the Double:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=67182028103.81882614903&n=1993500577

Missed Results

Jenny Wong was fastest woman at Woodminster a couple weeks ago, finishing 11th in the handicapped race. Cliff Lentz was second fastest man, third overall. Along with Dipsea and Double Dipsea, this give Cliff the Handicapped Trail Race Triple Bronze Crown!

Stephen Donahue reminded me that Eric Ollila ran 2:37 on an unusually hot day at Grandma's Marathon last weekend.

Shriners 8K - 06/21/03

Club Record for Nelson; Fanady Breaks Own Club Record

Dan Nelson ran a club record 24:13, just seconds under the old mark of 24:17 set by Francisjohn Gailson, and Kim Fanady ran 32:33 to break her own masters women's record of 33:20, to highlight another fun morning in Sacramento at the Shriner's 8K Saturday. Thanks to Dan Mancini for the record update.

Women Byline Shelly Pierson

A light breeze and slightly overcast skies made it a great day for the Shriner's 8k and for the Hoy's-Excelsior women. Leading the pack for the open women was Shelly Pierson finishing 6th in 29:47 running 30 seconds faster than last year and closely followed by teammate Christine Brighton who was 7th woman in 29:49. Next was rookie member and HEEB (Hoy's Excelsior East Bay) Allie Bigelow who respectively out-kicked veteran and running legend Diana Fitzpatrick for 25th place in a time of 31:50..........boy, she can kick!! Next was Lee D'Alessandro 31st in 32:06, just seconds off her PR, Micha Lowe 34th in 32:13, Chelsey Remington 45th in 33:20 and Amy Pearson 61st in 35:20.

Our Master ladies also faired very well with Kim Fanady leading and finishing 37th woman overall and 4th in her age group (32:33), Whitney Stephenson 74th overall and 11th in her age group (37:47) and Barbara Hancock 75th overall and 7th in her age group (37:57).

SHRINER'S 8K - Open Men

 This weekend's Shriner's 8K race was not a highpoint of the Open Men's year. Falling very early in the morning at the end of a hard racing season, it proved difficult to attract most of our racers. Luckily, five open stalwarts showed up to eke out a full team. While we most likely didn't earn money, we did at least field a team. Hopefully, we can attract a few more members for the mile in Davis on July 13!!

Taking it out hard from the gun to lead the Open Men, Dan Nelson finished in 24:13 to take 5th place overall. Following Dan was Dan (Shore) missing a PR by just 4 seconds, finishing 25:08 for 11th overall. [NOTE: For those keeping track, the Dans made a huge dent in the Chris' x-point lead!] Pete Vincencio took third for the Open Men, finishing 26:21 (24th place) and showing that his return to top form is coming along nicely. Following Pete, Robin Hart ran a strong 26:42, good for 29th overall. Brian Schultz rounded out the Open Team with a 30:01, 99th place finish. Thanks to everyone for showing up! See you in Davis!

Old'uns

"Where goeth Lloyd, there go the masters." The age-old saying proved its wisdom Saturday, as an injured Lloyd Stephenson ran several minutes slower than his usual top Shriner's performance. The masters were led by Tim O'Rourke in 27:40 (41st overall, 14th master, 1st 45-49). Tyler Abbott finished second on the team, his top masters team finish of the year, in 28:32 (59th overall, 20th master), followed by Jesus Garcia continuing his comeback in 29:21 (76th overall, 33rd master). Lloyd, literally whose only workout over the past six weeks has been a 5000-10,000 ladder, 1x5000 1x10,000 with three weeks rest, ran 32:39, and Greg King rounded out the team in 35:07. Greg only confirmed he could make it at the track meet Friday night, and I only heard from Jesus that he could make at 10:00 on my drive home from the track meet Friday!

The seniors again dominated and should easily have won, with Don Paul finishing second in 27:32 to non-PA resident Doug Bell, Jim Gorman third in 28:05, Tom Bernhard 5th in 29:20, and Allan Stanbridge rounding out the team in 31:40 (16th senior).

US National Track & Field Championships - 06/26/03

KRIEGER RUNS NATIONALS

For the first time in decades, a club member toed the line in a national championship track race. Kathryn Krieger ran the women's 10,000 at USATF National Championships this past Thursday night, finishing 12th of 13 runners in her second-fastest time ever (34:22.68).

After weeks of buildup and excitement, KK started the race a shade on the quick side, running her first mile in 5:19.09. She then settled into her planned pace of 5:20-25 per mile for the next two miles, which would hopefully lead to her goal of sub-33:30.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Kathryn's night. She was almost immediately stuck leading a pack with two other collegiate runners drafting but never moving to the front. At approximately 3 miles, one of the collegians broke out of the pack and made a charge. KK was unable to respond. Feeling sluggish and stuck in no-woman's land, she slowed over the second half of the race with miles of 5:31.37, 5:42.57, and 5:38.89 to finish in 34:22, not her goal but her second-fastest 10K ever. Although disappointed in her time, KK ran as hard and fast as she could and took comfort in the fact that she didn't leave anything in the tank at the end. Her leg soreness the following morning also indicated that she had run as hard as possible.

While she didn't run as well as expected, Kathryn was thrilled to have participated in a national event, especially under the team name. Meeting and getting to run with several national-class runners was a high point and the experience will certainly serve her well in many larger events to come. Above all else, she was immensely grateful for the cheers and support of team members and others throughout the race. [By my count, we had 27 team members out there, plus assorted friends, fellow competitors, etc. -Ed.] By far, she had the loudest cheering section out there. Thanks to everyone for their e-mails, phone calls, and cheers!

Dipsea - 06/08/03

Byline Phippsea

Lentz 3rd, Hersh Fastest, 7 Black Shirts!

In the 93rd Annual Dipsea race this past Sunday, Hoy's Excelsior put together its best Dipsea team ever, but still came up just a bit short in the effort to unseat the dominant Tamalpa Runners, winners of the team trophy for the last 27 years in a row. The final score was 27-39 (XC scoring). In the process, the Hoy's team earned a team record 7 black shirt awards (awarded to top 35 finishers, previous team record was 3) and posted the 5 fastest times of the day and 8 of the 9 fastest times! The race was dominated by 61 year old Tamalpan Melody-Anne Schultz, who ran a time of 1:03:36. Subtracting her 21 minute handicap, she had an adjusted time of 42:36 to win the race by 5:33 over fellow Tamalpan Shirley Matson. Leading the way for Hoy's Excelsior was Cliff Lentz. Cliff, who already has every black shirt from 6-10, cracked the top 5 for the first time finishing 3rd with an actual time of 50:27 in his first year with a 2 minute handicap. Adam ($350 entry!) Hersh was next in for the team, winning the battle for fastest time with a blazing last 400M to finish 5th in 50:12 outlasting Chris Phipps who was 6th (2d fastest) in 50:16 (both with 1 min hc). Stephen Donahue passed more people than anyone and was the first scratch (no hc) runner finishing 10th with a time of 50:23 (3rd fastest). Stephen was the first top 10 finish for a scratch runner in at least 8 years. Our top four runners were within 15 seconds of each other in actual time! Hans (new papa) Gouwens completed the scoring running 53:50 (3 min hc) for 15th. Jim Sweeney earned his first black shirt running a PR 51:54 (scratch) to finish 24th, and Tim O'Rourke also finished in black running 56:15 (4 min hc) for 30th. Just out of the black shirts (but still earning their finishing place as next year's bib number), were Dan Rhodes (39th, 54:06, 1 hc), Pete Vicencio (40th, 54:21, 1 hc), Tyler Abbott (41st, 56:26, 3 hc), Matt Regan (Heinz 57th, 55:52, 1 hc), and Bernard Bassil (70th, 55:41, scratch). Also running for the team were Todd Greenhalgh (169th, 1:02:19, 2 hc), Manny Berston (172d, 1:02:21, 2 hc), David Moulton (205th, 1:02:20, 1 hc), Randy Guerrero (318th, 1:06:19, 2 hc), Marlin Gilbert (624th--runner's section, 1:08:19, 3 hc), Michael Gama (499th, 1:14:05, 3 min), and Jim Misener (505th,1:15:26, 3 hc).

Black shirt notes: Cliff and Chris extended their black shirt streaks to 5 years to join 5 others with current streaks of at least 5 years. Tamalpan Greg Nacco had his record 10 year streak snapped this year when he injured his back last week, but still made a valiant effort to finish 43rd. The longest current streak now belongs to Russ Kiernan (8th) and Bruce Mace (31st), who have both won shirts for the last 9 Dipseas.

PA Track & Field Championships - 06/07-06/08/03

[Rocket] Congratulations to Jesse McAlman on his 4:17.5/5th place finish in the 1500 & his 2:04.5/4th place finish in the 800 at the PAUSATF track championship at Sacramento City College!

Lake Chabot Half Marathon - 06/01/03

Congratulations to Jenny Wong on her win in the Lake Chabot Half Marathon!

Statuto 8K - 06/01/03

Congratulations to Matt Regan (27:20) and Andy Chan on their 1-2 finish at the Statuto 8K over the weekend. Malinda Walker was 4th woman.

Pacific Sun 10K - 05/26/03

After slumming around 5:50 for the first couple of miles, Kathryn Krieger notched it down to 5:35 or so and ran by the leading women, winning the race by 21 seconds! Can't wait for Nationals!

On the men's side, Dan Nelson turned the tables on the Transports who had edged him out at the 5Ks, finishing 3rd in 30:57. And Don Paul ran 35:29 for the senior win. Details below . . . 

Women Byline Kathryn Krieger

Despite warm temperatures and a good dose of allergens, the women of Hoy's-Excelsior (open division) ran their hearts out to what looks like a 3rd place team finish. Leading the group was Kathryn "as a matter of fact, I did fall just minutes into my warm-up" Krieger finishing first in 35:16. Next up was Shelly Pierson running a full 1:45 faster than last year's time. This year's time of 37:36 put Shelly in 9th place. Christine Brighton ran a strong 38:42 to crack the top 15 (yes, she was 15th). Micha Lowe, sporting the increasingly popular RLX running bra, ran to a 34th place finish in 40:58. Chelsey Remington came out in full stride, running an excellent 43:23 to round out the scoring 5 this week. Next up was Christine "comeback trail" Wang in 44:12. And Amy "no relation to Shelly" Pearson clocked a fine 44:49 in bringing the H-E girls home. Thanks to all who came out and supported the team. We'll see you next at Shriners! 

Master's Women Byline Susan Beck

The Hoys Masters Women should hold on to their second-place position after Monday's race. Kim Fanady had another great performance, finishing fourth PA masters woman in 41:07. She'll likely maintain her second-place position in the short grand prix standings. Jody Heyman ran a solid 43:39 (15th masters woman), and Susan Beck ran 46:21. New member Barbara Hancock (thanks to Shelley) ran a PR of 48:25, with her adorable teenage son on hand to watch. And Whitney Stevenson finished close behind in 48:33.

Susan Beck wrote this article with the help of several unnamed stringers.

Open Men: Dans lead the way Byline Chris Phipps

Dan Nelson (3rd ! in 30:57) and Dan Shore (10th in 31:35--another PR!) both had strong races at the Pacific Sun 10K to lead the Hoy's Excelsior team to our fastest 10K team time ever (well, at least in the last 8 years). Eric Ollila (aka World Class Party Bush) was just out of the top 10 finishing 11th in 31:38, with Stephen Donahue (17th, 32:34) and Chris Phipps (18th, 32:34) completing the scoring 5. Our team time of 2:39:18 was more than 5 minutes faster than our team time from last year, and beat our previous best of 2:40:12 from Heritage Oaks in 2002 by 54 seconds! We also scored a strong B team this week led by Dipsea ready Cliff Lentz (25th, 33:11--PR!). Cliff was followed by Greg Menegat (27th, 33:13), Brian (long distance driving) Spangenberg (30th, 33:20), Tim Wallen (32nd, 33:39), Pete Vicencio (34th, 33:55), Dan Rhodes (46th, 35:06), and Chris Ross (110th, 37:37). 

Old'uns

Hans Gouwens again led the masters men, running a strong 33:13, 5th master and 26th overall. After Hans the masters were quite for a minute. And another minute. And another minute. Tyler Abbott finished second for the team in 36:26 (25th master), followed by a coming back Jesus Garcia (36:58, 32d), a Lloyd Stephenson who's barely run 20 miles over the last month due to a groin/hip injury--thanks for coming out! (37:17, 37th), Michael Prutz (37:36, 46th), and, just out of the points, Todd Greenhalgh (38:03, 51st) and Ian Hersey (38:16, 52d). Michael Gama (39:20), Greg King (42:12), and Jim Misener (42:20) rounded out the team. Masters seem to have finished 3rd; the good news is we fielded a B team!

On the senior side we witnessed another performance of the Don & Jim Show, with Don Paul winning the race in 35:29 and Jim Gorman 2d in 35:53. Tom Bernhard and Jim Tracy continued their comebacks, running 36:58 (5th senior) and 37:25 (7th) respectively. Allan Stanbridge (40:06, 22d) rounded out the squad.

As always, I apologize to anyone I may have missed.

Bay To Breakers - 05/18/03

Bay to Breakers: No Clever Headline Necessary

"At the 1-mile mark, Koskei was in a crowd of Kenyans behind, well, Eric Ollila's behind. Ollila led the first mile wearing nothing but red-white-and-blue thong underwear, with 'Hail to the Cheeks' scrawled above it on his back. On his chest was 'Party Bush' and covering his face was a George W. Bush mask.

"'It was just for fun,' said Ollila after fading to a respectable 14th-place finish. Fast running, good fun and tongue-in-cheek(s) political commentary is what Breakers is all about as it approaches its centennial."

So sayeth Runners World Online in its May 19th lead story. For more information, try http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,1-0-0-ZNEWS,00.html and http://pages.sbcglobal.net/dknuth/video/pboy_lo.wmv (the latter one a 10 Mbyte file, so it may take a while to download).

Eric led all the Men in Yellow in 38:56. He was followed closely by two centipeders, Dan Shore and Jim Sweeney. The centipede finished in 39:05, well ahead of the first woman (39:22).

The first Man in Yellow actually wearing yellow was Chris Phipps. Phipps dueled for top San Franciscan, just breaking 40 minutes in 39:63. Chris was followed by rapidly returning Pete Vicencio (40:35), Hans Gouwens (40:40), and our OOAA Brian Spangenberg (40:45). There were many other club members out there, but these were all the times I heard. And all times are approximate--I haven't seen results yet (according to Examiner website, they're due out Thursday).

For those interested, an impressive series of splits from the centipede, courtesy Dan Shore:

1-2 miles 10:57 3-4 miles 11:11 5th mile 5:02 6th mile 4:55 7th mile 4:46 .46 2:12

More reporting later when results are released.

Livermore Fitness Day 5K - 5/18/03

Don Hogue won the Livermore Fitness Day 5K (and $50!) Don ran 16:52 for the win. 
Congratulations!

Zippy 5K - 05/11/03

Zippy: Nelson, Gorman, Men Roll

Dan Nelson led the Men in Yellow with his second consecutive fifth place PA 5K finish, running 14:56 (4:49 pace), just off the club road record. Dan led our top 5 in our fastest 5K team time ever (1:15:52, all under 5:00 pace, average time 15:10/pace 4:53) in a race in which Hoy's Boys comprised 5 of the top 14, 18 of the top 40! and 30 of the top 100. Jim Gorman won another senior race, running an amazing 17:15 as a 54-year old. On the women's side, Shelly Pierson finished 11th to stay near the top of the women's short GP, Kim Fanady had another great race, breaking 20 minutes and finishing 5th master, and our new senior team members made their first showing. This may have been our highest participation race ever, with no fewer than FORTY-NINE club members running, even with many declining due to volunteer duties. Finally, congratulations to the club on another great if chaotic race production, and special thanks to water distributor and two mile split person Don Paul. More below . . . 

Open Men: A Dang Fun Zippy Day! Byline Daniel Shore

Once again, Zippy Day was perfect -- cool and overcast for racing, sunny and warm for the post-race festivities, and a dang fun time for all.

A whopping 19 Open HE Men showed up to keep the club's money out of Transports' hands. Sadly, it was not to be. Adidas put enough of its top runners out front to once again take the team title, beating the HE A Team by just over one minute (1:14:49 to 1:15:52). Still, HE men appeared to have taken second and third in the team competition, securing our hold on second place for the year (and earning some x-points cash in the process!).

Leading the Open A Team was nearly new club member Dan Nelson, finishing 5th overall in a solid time of 14:56. Stephen Donahue was next for the A Team, running an impressive 15:06 to finish 10th. Eric "Suave" Ollila ran a fine 15:12 to finish 12th. Emerging from Eric's dust was Dan Shore, running 15:14 for 13th overall (a 10 sec. road PR!). And rounding out the A Team was Adam Hersh, clocking 15:24 in TRAINERS for 14th place (rumor is that Sally Struthers has launched an international drive to find Adam a pair of racing flats). If you've been paying attention, the A Team took 5, 10, 12, 13, and 14th overall -- not too bad.

Jim Sweeney lead the B Team, clocking 15:34 for 18th overall. Just behind Jim in 19th place was Mr. Zippy himself, Chris Phipps, running a fine 15:41 as speedwork for Dipsea. Dave Volk took third on the B Team, clocking 15:55 for 25th overall. On the comeback trail, Petely Vicencio ran 15:58 for 27th. In his first race for the club, new team member Robin Hart rounded out the B squad, squeaking in under 16:00 for 28th overall.

After the A and B teams, we still had almost enough members to score both C and D teams. Leading the yellow swarm was Cliff Lentz, clocking 16:14 for 31st. Following Cliff was Tim Wallen (16:21, 34th), Matt Regan (16:22, 35th), Dr. Dan Rhodes (16:34, 38th), Cesar Guillen (17:08, 50th), Parker Kelly (17:13, 52nd), Abel Eisentrout (17:18, 55th), Brian Schultz (17:56, 77th), and Eric Yan (18:12, 87th).

Great job men! And thanks to our race directors and volunteers for another great Zippy!

Open Women Byline Shelly Pierson

Once again the Hoy's women pull it together for a great race! Led by Shelly Pierson(11th) in 18:32 and followed very closely by a determined Christine Brighton (15th) in 18:46. Next was our very own Boston recover-ee, Micha Lowe (32nd) in 20:01, Chelsey (I can lift and load any table)Remington, and Dr. Helen Kao (50th) in 21:05 rounding off the top 5 women. Other performances, only one women short for a "B" team, were Lydia (off to Boston) Siegel (21:19), Amy Pearson (21:31), Christine Wang (21:56) and Jody Fordham (24:13).

Masters Women Byline Kim Fanady

The masters women turned out to zip at Zippy! Kim Fanady led the team in 19:55, fifth master and proud winner of a purple glitter bowling pin for third in her division. That should be just enough for Kim to maintain her tenuous hold on second place in the masters short grand prix. Susan Beck ran a terrific PR of 21:57 and just keeps getting better. Despite dropping down from 26.2 miles just a few weeks ago at Boston to the 5K, Whitney Stephenson posted an excellent 23:38 to round out the team. Once again, the masters women upheld the honor of Hoy's Excelsior by finishing third, which will keep us in second in the grand prix. Way to go, girls!

Senior Women (!!!) Byline Kim Fanady

A big welcome to our two new senior women members, the very first in recent Hoy's Excelsior history. Teri Gauvin and Fernanda Franco-Ferrara did us proud at Zippy, finishing at 27:54 and 27:52 respectively. One more and we can field a seniors team, so everybody call your mom!

Old'uns

Hans Gouwens led the masters with a very strong 16:02, good enough for 5th in the stacked master field. Even after several long days of race management, Lloyd Stephenson ran 16:36 for 10th master (1st 45-49). Tyler Abbott ran his best race in a while, running 17:33 for 21st master. Michael Prutz ran 17:56 for 26th master, new member Todd Greenhalgh ran 18:26 (39th), and Jim Misener rounded out the team in 20:33. The team finished third, though we may be able to improve that to second with drop downs.

Jim Gorman again led the seniors, with his second win of the year, running 17:15. Another Jim, Tracy, continued his comeback (and his breathing down my back) in 17:53 (4th senior). Jim was followed by another comebacker, Tom Bernhard, 5th senior in 18:04. Bob Darling (18:37, 9th), Allan Stanbridge (19:13, 13th), Dan Ramos (19:37, 16th), Les Ong (20:05), and Steve Ferraz (1st cop) rounded out the deep team, which appears to have won yet again.

Missed Results

Bob Darling pointed out a couple results I missed from past weekends . . .

Jesse McAlman-1500-4:15.8 & 800-2:05.1- Sacramento spring Festival track meet-May 3

Peter Hsia- Miwok 100K (62.1 mi) race-10th master-10:46:12

Cardinal Invitational - 05/02/03

Krieger 33:40.21, Nationals Qualifier! Krieger 33:40.21, Nationals Qualifier!

For the few of you out there who don't already know it, Kathryn Krieger ran a perfectly paced 33:40.21 at the Cardinal Invitational Friday 5/2/03 night, qualifying her for nationals. More details to come, but in the meantime congratulations Kathryn ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )!!!!! And thanks to the twenty-one--yes twenty-one--club members who braved the intermittent rains and late night (approx. 10:30 start) to cheer KK on!

KK QUALIFIES FOR NATIONAL CHAMPS! Byline Dan Shore

Since Kathryn works and I am a deadbeat, I'm writing a quick summary of her race from the coach's perspective. KK will write a quick note later this week when she has a bit more time.

First of all, it meant a GREAT deal to Kathryn to have everyone at the track on Friday. Getting the boost every time she passed the start/finish line made all the difference, and served as a good counter to me yelling at her some 100 meters later!

As some of you know (especially Pete V.), KK had run some great workouts and races leading up to the Invite. I knew she was in shape to get the A qualifier. My biggest concern was that she'd let her excitement get the better of her and jump out to a 5:10 first mile, making the remaining 5.2 a challenge. I planned to jump over the rail and tackle her if she got out faster than 5:20.

Farm Teamer Chris Lundy saved the day, running the first mile in a well-paced 5:23 with Kathryn right behind. When the pace began to slacken, Kathryn moved ahead of Chris and settled into 80-81 second quarters. Unfortunately, the rest of the field seemed to be running either 78 or 82 second quarters, leaving her in no-woman's land.

Still, Kathryn kept her focus, drawing a bead on the girls falling off the lead pack and comfortably clicking off 5:24 miles. Given the talent in the field, it was inevitable that she'd get lapped at some point. When eventual winner Adrian Fernandez passed, KK held her pace steady. In the end, only a handful women would lap her (but NOT Shayne Culpepper or Kim Fitchen!).

With seven laps to go KK began to feel like she was going to "hurl" -- great news! All week we had talked about not leaving anything on the track. Feeling impending death with seven laps to go would be a good sign that she was running to her limit. Seven laps is nothing, right? She took it one lap at a time, focusing on maintaining her pace and not passing out.

With 800 left, KK was back in her high school track days and knew she could finally put down the hammer. Final laps of 79 and 76.9 brought her across the line in 33:40.21 -- a National Championships A qualifier, PR, and, of course, club record! She finished 15th in a national-class field.

Her performance guarantees her a spot in the women's 10K at the National Championships in June (confirmed by USATF). Mark your calendars for Thursday, June 18 at 9:25 pm!! Depending on how her legs feel this week, she'll next run the 5K at this Friday's Cardinal Qualifier.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out on Friday night!

BIG SUR 5K - 04/27/03

BIG SUR, BIG SHOWING Paul 1st Pierson 2d Fanady/Gorman 3rd Nelson 4th Ong 5th Stephenson/Tracy 6th Bernhard 7th

Shelly Pierson led the women with her highest PA finish to date at the News Channel 46 (Big Sur) 5K Sunday. Shelly ran 18:22 on the hilly course. Dan Nelson made his club debut with a strong 4th place performance, surrounded by Adidas gray. Kim Fanady also had her highest PA finish, finishing 3rd master behind two Sara Freitas and Janet Smith of the Impalas. The senior men dominated their race, with seven count them seven runners in the top twelve! During the age group awards, it seemed like every other runner (present anyway) was H-E. Special acknowledgement to Matt Regan for pointing out that Dannette Rhodes actually beat him and deserved 3rd 30-34. Details below . . . 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

News Channel 46 5K 2003: Nelson & the B's

While most of the men's open team decided to take a weekend off from the PA road circuit, we still managed to get 7 bodies to toe the line for the most beautiful yet slowest 5K road race around. New team member (welcome to the club!) Dan Nelson led the team with a 4th place finish in 15:14 (Mancini better get ready to start updating the team all-time lists). Chris Phipps was 13th in 16:05. He was followed by Mr. Tan, Pete Vicencio, just back from a vacation in Hawaii finishing 17th in 16:39, just ahead of Dan Rhodes 18th, 16:42. Matt Regan completed the scoring team finishing in the top 25 and just missing the 17:00 barrier (25th, 17:01). Also scoring PA grand prix points on the team were Abel Eisentraut (33rd in 17:42) and Parker Kelly (38th, 17:54). 

Open Women Byline Shelly Pierson

With a 5 person scoring team (which was more than some other teams could claim) the Hoy's women pulled off yet another fun filled racing Sunday at the Big Sur 5K. Leading the women was Shelly Pierson, shaving close to 2 minutes off last year's time finishing 2nd in 18:22. Not too far behind, making her 2003 racing debut, was Christine Brighton, finishing in the top ten at 9th in a time of 18:54. Jenny Wong "Ole faithful" was 16th in 19:32, tired legs and all after being on her New Balance feet all day Saturday at the Big Sur marathon expo. Rounding off the women were Lee D'Alessandro 19th in 20:03, putting her track speed to work and Patti "I'd rather be in Hawaii" Bershers who was 24th with a time of 20:32. The team seems to have finished 3rd. 

Masters Women Masterful at Big Sur Byline Kim Fanady

The masters women put on a big show at the Big Sur 5K this weekend. After plodding up the opening hills, Kim Fanady summoned up a serious kick on the final--downhill, thank god!--half mile to lead the team in 20:24, third master (her highest PA placing yet). Susan Beck followed with a very fine 22:43, 15th master. After prepping with a Kezar speed workout at dawn in a driving rainstorm (totally dedicated, or totally nuts? you be the judge!) Susan's race was easy. Kelly Murphy put on her racing flats, shrugged off her usual role as long-suffering wife, and completed the team. Team results aren't final but we think we finished third: another step toward repeating our 2002 success in the road grand prix.

Big congratulations to Whitney Stephenson on her fine performance at Boston. Way to go girl! 

Old'uns

Usually I write in chronological order, masters then seniors, but we'll just forget the masters on this one. The seniors dominated. First, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth--seven of the top twelve. Wow. Don Paul led the group in a strong 17:34 to get the win on the slow course. Jim Gorman, starting to feel the strain of the heavy spring PA season, still ran a fine 17:52, good enough to beat men 12 years younger by, oh, 13 seconds or so. The next three came in quick, with Les Ong (18:09, 5th); Jim Tracy (18:16, 6th--damn it was good to see Tracy out there again); and Tom Bernhard (18:26, 7th). Following Tom came The Rocket (19:08, 9th), Allan Stanbridge (19:39, 12th), Kenny Warde straight off the plane from Boston (21:09, 20th), and Craig Edwards (22:30, 32d). Congratulations all. Oh yeah, the masters. 48-year young Lloyd Stephenson ran a fine race, though not quite up to his usual I Own This Course Big Sur standards. Lloyd ran 16:50 to finish 22d overall, 6th master. Lloyd was followed by Tyler Abbott (18:05, 17th master), Michael Gama (18:51, 26th), and Jim Misener (20:47, 42d master).

AT THE RACES - 04/27/03

Apparently a tiny-bit-of-expense paid trip to Carmel wasn't enough for some people . . . some great performances all around the Bay and beyond:

Run Against Pain 10K, Sacramento: Paul Wellman 2d, 32:38 LSI Logic 10K, San Jose: Monal Chokshi 3rd, 36:06 Eric Ollila 4th, 31:52 Dave Volk 5th, 32:20 Nicky's Rainbow Run 10K: Cesar Guillen 1st, 35:22 Nicky's Rainbow Run 5K: Andy Chan 2d, 17:06 Muir Woods 25K: Craig Steinmaus 1st

Note that Christian Hesch of San Luis Obispo won both of the above 10Ks (Sacramento Saturday, San Jose Sunday).

BOSTON MARATHON - 04/21/03

[Phipps] Boston Marathon

Hot off the internet, Ryan Gallagher was 47th overall, 40th man in 2:36:45 (5:59 pace). 1:16:58, 1:19:47 half splits.

In addition, congratulations to our Boston Marathon men's masters team of Marlin Gilbert, Todd Greenhalgh, and Kenny Warde on their fine finish (I'm afraid I don't have times handy). Also, congratulations to Micha Lowe (3:29:17 chip time) and Whitney Stephenson (4:15:05 chip time).

RUTH ANDERSON 50K - 4/19/03

O'ROURKE CAPTURES SECOND AMERICAN RECORD!!!!!!!!!! Byline Jim Misener

Today, I witnessed our very own Tim O'Rourke finish with a 3:19:21 at the Ruth Anderson (relentlessly undulating Lake Merced) 50K, winning by, oh, 30 minutes, but importantly, capturing the US 45 - 49 y.o. mens' 50K record by some 4 min, 10 sec.

Tim looked smooth and moved effortlessly through the run. His post-run shuffle, however, revealed his true age. Join me in kudos to Tim ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

[Tim's own story is reprinted below, with permission.]

Tim's Story

Thank you Jim [Misener--ref. story above]. Jim had the opportunity to view my last half mile, when I found a bit of a kick to make sure I was going to get under 3:20, and I guess that's where the "effortless" comes from, but it wasn't, of course. Marathon was 2:47:40 or so, final 8k in about 31:40 for the 3:19:21 finish. Jim's comment about pacing is accurate as applied to full 4.5 mile laps of Lake Merced: I kept each lap between 6:20 and 6:30 pace; individual mile splits varied somewhat beyond that range, but not much. For those interested, records are at: http://www.usatf.org/statistics/records/roadLDR/americanMasters.shtml For those interested in the longer story, read on. As Yosemite Sam (or somebody) once said: I seen my opportunities and I took 'em. The glimmer of the idea for the 50K attempt dates to last November when Alex [Tilson]'s 50K and my Clarksburg 30K "single age" mark got me looking at the record lists. The 45-49 50K mark of 3:23:29 (listed as pending validation) was the shortest 5-year age group record that I had a shot at (even if 31.07 miles was five miles further than I had ever run, let alone raced). I didn't think about it much during the winter and didn't put in many running miles between the Cal Marathon in December and the beginning of March. The USATF newsletter then arrived in the mail and there was a list of newly ratified records. The 45-49 50K mark was on the list and so was Ray Piva's 50K mark for a 70-plus age group set at the 2002 Ruth Anderson. The latter confirmed that the course met USATF record requirements and that the race organizers knew the drill for meeting the paperwork requirements. The Great Ski Race was on Sunday, March 2. The day after that I put my emphasis on running; I had seven weeks to prepare for Easter Saturday. I am working 40 hrs now so getting in big miles meant getting up really early. I started telling some people I was going to go for the record and the desire not to make an idiot of myself was a great motivation to get out of bed. I figured out some routes that combined running on the shoulder of plowed highways with running on snowmobile packed trails. With the combination of altitude, terrain, wearing a lot of clothes, my pace was almost always slow, 8:30 plus m/mile I'm sure (except when running downhill). I jumped my running mileage from 20-25 miles/week to over a 100 (highly recommended by all training manuals), but my body didn't object. I found that, as long as I ran slow enough, I could run three hours or more for days at a time without an accumulating sense of fatigue. My thinking was that I at least had to get to the point where running for three-plus hours seemed like a normal, usual thing to do (a first for me), even if I wasn't running anywhere near the pace that I would have to run in the race. Three weeks into the program I came down to run the Houlihan's 12K. I was pleased that I was able to run sub-5:30 pace; I did take it with a grain of salt given that the bridge closure and new course meant that it was much more of a net downhill this year. I looked at how the people I ran with did in a 10K a couple of weeks later and figured I was in high 33 10K shape (make that very high). Good, although not the sub-33 shape of last fall. I applied the long slow program for four more weeks. In addition to working the aforementioned 40 hours, I was also involved in selling my house in P.A. and buying one in Tahoe. Without these distractions, and in an environment more suited to fast running, I probably would have done some pacework but, as it was, I just tried to get in as much distance as I could. On race morning (at Chez Misener) I was up at 4:30 and made a point of eating and drinking a good amount of calories; something different for me on race morning but I was about to attempt something different. Then into the darkness to Lake Merced; 50K would be seven laps. I was pretty sure from looking at the previous year's results that I would be running by myself and that is the way it worked out. Within a few steps after the "go" signal, the chatter and footsteps of the other runners faded behind me. Given the positioning of the start line, the first measured mile on the course did not begin until about a half mile, so I had a mile and a half before I had any pace feedback. Finally, I got the check and it came up 6:19, just about right, although it had been downhill. In the next mile I came to the mid-lap aid station (one of two on the course, the other being near the start/finish). The attendants smiled pleasantly at me, one of them took my picture, but it dawned on me that they weren't about to make a move to hand me anything. The positioning of the tables at a sharp bend in the course made for an awkward detour, deceleration and re-acceleration as I grabbed for a couple of cups. This wasn't going to do, I thought. I tried to get back in a groove. The next mile split was ugly, a fat 6:36 wake-up call. I went for a bit more effort and the next split was a 6:10. Overall, three miles at 19:05 was right where I wanted to be, but I was already working with a long way to go. As I approached the start aid station I saw the race director holding out a cup. I grabbed it and asked him, as cordially as I could, to request that the other aid station do the same. I settled into the pace and, when I approached the other aid station, they were ready for me. Great. I came around to the start area again and there was somebody else (not the race director) standing at the aid table, holding cups. "Both" I said, as I really wanted two cups. I held out both my hands. Inexplicably, the aid worker started to put the cups back on the table. "Both" I said again and somebody else in the tent said "he wants both". The cups started to come back but it was too late for a smooth exchange. They bounced off my hands and dropped to the ground. I should have stopped; I wasn't thinking clearly and I didn't. I was committed to going a full lap, four and half miles (from about the 7 to 11.5 mark) without any replenishment. I tried not to panic. I had hydrated and fueled pretty well before the race. (My after-the-fact interpretation of what happened is that English was not the first language of the aid worker. She heard the hard "o" in "Both" and thought I was saying "No.") I was glad to get to the mid-lap station and from then on the race director handled things at the start station. I stayed on pace, with a working margin a bit under record pace. The course was not closed to the public and, turning into a pretty day, there were a lot of people to dodge and some cars parking in inconvenient spots. In the fourth lap it started to seem like a long way and the idea of running a full lap beyond the marathon mark (unknown territory for me) seemed daunting. In the fifth lap I started trying to grasp how much I had left to do. When I passed the finish marker at the end of the fifth lap (twenty two miles plus), my watch read 2:21 low. If I broke 62 minutes for the next nine miles, I told myself, I was going to have the record (again, 3:23:29). In the sixth lap my body started to send messages which translated to: "Hope you're not thinking of doing this for too much longer." I felt twinges in my calves, but no cramps. As I finished the lap, the race director shouted: "You're on pace for 3:23 even"; I had an anxious moment before he then said, "three minutes ahead of the record." I realized that he had meant to say "3:20 even" which confirmed my own calculations. Unless I blew a gasket, I was going to get the record. My confidence grew through the last lap, which was not as difficult as I had feared. With less than two miles to go I thought I might be on the margin for breaking 3:20, which I really wanted to do. I was able to lengthen my stride and accelerate a bit. The finish came into sight and I knew I was going to get that goal too. Done, 3:19:21 in the bank. As soon as I stopped, my calves stopped working and I couldn't walk very well. But overall I felt fine. Ultra matriarch and race namesake Ruth Anderson had been running the course in reverse and giving a cheer on every passing. She came up to me after the race and said, "that's a good time, and you looked good too, and that's important." Billy Crystal couldn't have said it better. I'm pleased to have pulled it off. Definitely a learning experience. Twenty-six is just another mile mark between twenty and thirty. We'll see about ultra future.

Best,

Tim

Woody Wilson Invitational - 04/19/03

Byline Dan Mancini

Several team members traveled to Davis on Saturday to compete in the Woody Wilson Invitational track meet. Craig Steinmaus, Chris Phipps and Jim Sweeney started things off in the surprisingly competitive UC Davis Alumni 2-mile. Jim exploded out of a tightly packed group of 6 in the final 200m to grab 4th place in 9:43.28. Craig followed closely behind in 7th in 9:45.55 (1st Master) with Chris rounding out the bunch in 8th in 9:50.15. Craig's performance currently puts him atop this year's H-E Masters/Senior list 4 months into the year. In other events, Jesse McAlman, doing double duty, posted a 4:15.98 1500m and a 2:03.92 800m, both season bests for him. Lee D'Alessandro summoned a withering kick over the final 200m to shatter her PR and club record in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 11:45.39. And Paul Wellman charged to a 5th place finish in the highly competitive 5000m in a time of 15:06.95, a time tantalizingly close to Dan Shore's club best mark for 2003. Paul was overheard after the race claiming he eased up to allow "old man Shore" to bask in the glory for a few more weeks.

HP Up and Running 10K - 04/13/03

KRIEGER WINS UP & RUNNING 10K

Kathryn Krieger continued her torrid running with a near-PR/club record 35:00 at the HP Up and Running 10K Sunday. Beating the women's field by almost a minute, Kathryn ran strong from start to finish, running within sixteen seconds of her PR on a day when almost everyone else was thirty seconds or more slow. Kathryn has now won three of the four PA races this year, though now her focus is turning to the track. Monal Chokshi also finished in the money, running 36:28 for fifth. In other performances of note, Dan Shore set a big sub-32 PR in 31:52, finishing just out of x-point bonus territory in 11th on this double point race. More below . . . 

Open Women Byline Amy Pearson (actually Randy and Jesse)

As the bellow of jazzercise subsided, and Sharkie skated from the stage, and the rainbow's apex crested the HP 10K banner, V.P. Webb remarked upon the charitable nature of the race, reminding the fervent Hoy's women of the true reason they were in Cupertino at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning: to kick some ----. Despite four punishing overpasses, and clearly misgauged 5th and 6th miles, the Hoy's women paced the deceptively grueling circuit at a gazelle-like clip. Powerhouse Kathryn "Cuervo" Krieger led the field, winning with a time of 35:00. Yet she, like all of the day's runners, finished the race on a decidedly wet note. Apparently within the fray of budgeting a $25 billion merger, HP neglected to allocate funds for a $29.95 squeegee to rid the victory lane of excess water. Also breaking the 40:00 minute mark were Monal Chokshi (36:28) and Shelly Pierson (37:40). Patti Bershers quickly rifled through the business park on her way to a time of 40:27, while Micha Lowe captured the 37th spot in 42:30. But the Hoy's women weren't through yet. While wild speculation coursed through the throng of bystanders about how an oppressive low-pressure system could jolt some of the later runners' strides, Lydia Siegel (44:22), Carmella Schaecher (45:11), Chelsey Remington (45:14), and Amy Pearson (45:39) cut through the dense arctic air and set their sights on victory lane. In a flash of furious feet, the four finished 51st, 60th, 62nd, and 66th respectively. In the end, the air settled, the rainbow faded to grey, mother nature wept tears of joy, and the team picked up their tastefully designed promo tee-shirts. Cast asunder by heat and stride, the Hoy's women headed north, leaving Cupertino in a torrent, and the South Bay's hungry slightly more satiated. The women seem to have finished second, just behind the Impalas, though there were several unknown runners in the field. Well done team.

Open Men Byline Daniel Shore

On a cold, windy, wet and miserable weekend, the weather broke just long enough to run a 10K in Cupertino. While still a bit windy, the race began in cool, overcast conditions -- good for fast times were it not for those dang overpasses!

The usual Transports crew was out, taking control of the team competition.

Hoping to be a fly in the adidas ointment, Dan Shore finished one second out of their top 5. With a 31:52 PR, Shore FINALLY got the sub-32 minute monkey off his back and finished first for the Open men and 11th overall. Following Dan was Stephen Donahue, clocking a solid 32:26 for 13th overall. Right behind (literally) Stephen was Eric Ollila, finishing in 32:27 for 14th overall. Running 32:39 (in training shoes, I think) was rookie member Adam Hersh, finishing 16th overall (get him some flats!!!). Rounding out the Open A Team was Jim Sweeney, correctly opting for the 10K and not 2-mile race, running 33:01 for 19th overall. Just 1:09 and 8 places separated the five Open A Team runners -- good job men!

A mere 6 seconds out of the A Team, Chris Phipps led a solid B Team in 33:07, 21st overall. Following Phipps was JJ Crave (33:53, 25th), the always solid Cliff Lentz (34:16, 30th), Dr. Dan Rhodes (34:24, 34th), DJ Tim Wallen (34:26, 34th), Don Hogue (35:20, 45th), and long-lost Parker Kelly on the comeback trail (38:20, 103rd). As always, Tyler apologizes for anyone I've missed.

It looks like the Open men finished second overall behind adidas, and the B Team took third place, not earning money but putting some distance between us and third place in the overall standings. Good job everyone!

In late developements, the Hoy's Excelsior Open Men have decided to trade Shore, Phipps, Donahue, Volk, and Ollila for Paula Radcliffe. 

Masters Women Byline Susan Beck

Well, at least one of us had a good day. Despite "working like a dog" for anupcoming trial, and only squeezing in one speed workout in the last month or so, Kim blazed an excellent 42:09, seventh masters woman. Jody was disappointed, but still ran a very decent 43:54. Susan, clocking 46:34, will file this race in the "learning experience" memory bank, and then mercifully try to forget it. 

Old'uns

Like many runners on the cold, windy, humid, heavy day, the masters men had a bit of an off day. The top three finished nearly together in fine form, the 4th-5th-6th masters. Craig Steinmaus led the pack in 33:51, followed closely by Lloyd Stephenson (33:57) and Hans Gouwens (34:07). Then there was a big ol' gap before Tyler Abbott's arrival, at the tail end of a string of runners including Jim Gorman, Don Paul, Monal Chokshi, and Greater Boston's Arnold Seto, in 36:45 (18th master). Final scoring master was Andy Sobozinsky in 38:05, a bit behind Shelby Pierson and a little ahead of Parkea Kellg. Ian Hersey and Jesus Garcia then finished together in 38:31 and 38:35 (45th & 46th), with 49-year old Charles Griffin (39:09, 52d) and Boston-bound Marlin Gilbert (41:09, 66th) rounding out the team. The team seems to have finished second behind the Aggies.

The seniors won yet again on the back of strong performances by Jim Gorman (36:09, 2d senior behind Dan Sauers), Don Paul (36:26, 3rd senior), Jim Where Have You Been? Tracy (37:59, 8th), back-injured Les Ong (38:07, 9th), Rocket Darling (38:36, 13th), and Allan Stanbridge (40:56, 19th).

JOHNNY MATHIS TRACK MEET - 04/05/03

Krieger 16:32.63 at Johnny Mathis!!!

Kathryn Krieger unleashed a fierce 5000 at the Johnny Mathis Track Meet Saturday night, running 16:32.63 and beating the field by over a minute. This was a personal record, a club record, a meet record, and a stadium record (beating the previous 19 year old meet and stadium record by almost 10 seconds!). Just American and World to go!

Shelly Pierson followed Kathryn with a submaster PR of 17:52.22. In other events, Lee D'Alessandro ran her best steeple of the year, 11:54.01. Dan Shore improved on his excellent 15:05.84 from last year, running 15:03.92, apparently a modern open team non-Chris record! Hans Gouwens run an excellent master PR of 15:49.75. Finally, after registering late, Jim Sweeney was forced to run the B heat, and ran a tough 15:21.77 all by himself.

Jesse McAlman ran strong in the 1500 (4:17:63) and 800 (2:05.50).

ACROSS THE BAY 12K

The Partially Along the Bay 12K was a screamer, one of the fastest races in the PA in a while, with PRs all around. Kathryn Krieger stunned the crowd with a big PR and CR of 42:47, running away from second place Maria Trujillo de Rios in the last couple of miles (from what I heard--wasn't close enough to see!) and besting her by 31 seconds. The men's race was highlighted by Paul Wellman hanging with the Adidas brand Chase Pack following eventual winner Kalid Abdalah (36:23!) and ending up 11th in 37:40, not far off the club record. 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

The 20th Annual Across the Bay 12K (fka Houlihan's) didn't cross the bay for the first time ever. The new all SF course had many twists and turns, and a screaming downhill second mile that led to several PR's. Too bad we can't score C teams, or D teams for that matter! In honor of the 20th anniversary, we had (almost) 20 open men competing in the race. Leading the way with a blazing time of 37:40 (5:03 pace) was Paul Wellman, who finished 11th. Ever improving Dave Volk was next for the team in 15th at 38:21 (5:08). Jim Sweeney who used to go out hard and fade, now goes out hard and keeps on going! Jim ran a PR 38:40 (5:11) good for 17th, and is now the favorite for the fastest time award for this year's Dipsea! Next was new team member and also hopefully Dipsea runner Adam Hersh who finished in 38:43 (5:11), good for 19th. Just wait until this guy starts wearing racing flats! Stephen Donahue (21st) held off Dan Shore (22nd), both in 38:53 (5:12) for the final bonus X-point awarded to the 5th man on the A team.

Dan Shore though led what was easily our best JV team ever. Following Dan was Chris (I better move up to ultras since I can't make the A team anymore) Phipps in 24th (39:20, 5:16), just 2 weeks after he sort of did a 50K (see story below). Marathon ace Brian Spangenberg followed in 30th, (39:35, 5:18). Brand new team member Greg Menegat, 32nd (39:38, 5:18) and Jerad Crave 33rd, (39:41, 5:19) completed the B team, which averaged 39:25, a time 6 seconds faster than the 2002 A team averaged and 2:31 faster than the 2002 B team averaged. Ryan Gallagher led the C team (OK, we're not allowed to score a C team, but if we were, Ryan would be the first man) in 39:56 (5:21) good for 35th. Before this race we never had our 5th man run sub 40, let alone our 11th man! Following Ryan, and still under the 42:30 Bay to Breakers seeded qualifier were Cliff Lentz (39th, 40:36, 5:26), Tim Wallen (44th, 41:02, 5:30), Dan Rhodes (earning PA points in 47th, 41:13, 5:31), Don Hogue (54th, 41:45, 5:35), and Pete Vicencio (coming back from foot surgery, 56th, 42:09, 5:39). We also had Abel Eisentraut in 85th, 44:04 (5:54) and Brian Schultz (on the comeback trail in 46:10). Tyler apologizes for anyone I missed.

It looks like we were 2nd as a team behind Transports Adidas. West Valley beat us to a man 1st through 4th, with race winner Khalid Abdalah leading the way in 36:23, but I think we had like 15 guys before their 5th man, and our team time should hold up against theirs.

2002 A team time - 3:17:36 (39:31 Ave) 2002 B team time - 3:29:38 (41:56 Ave)

2003 A team time - 3:12:17 (38:27 Ave) 2003 B team time - 3:17:07 (39:25 Ave) - Faster than 2002 A team!

11 open men under 40 minutes! 

Open Women

Kathryn Krieger led the team and all women in a stunning time of 42:47 (5:44 pace), beating second place Maria Trujillo de Rios by 31 seconds. This puts KK some 15 points in the lead of the long circuit! Shelly Pierson ticked off another good race with a 45:16 performance (8th, 6:04 pace), which should keep her in 4th in the long circuit. In spite of no fewer than three early Sunday Bay Bridge crossings, Jenny Wong continued her comeback with a strong 47:09 (25th). The day after running the steeple at the Panther Invite in Sacramento, Lee D'Alessandro ran a PR 49:14 (43rd). Micha Lowe closed out the scoring in 49:59 (52d, which may earn her a spot on the big board). Patti Bershers came in next in 50:22 (57th), followed by new member Nicole Britvan (55:42, 130th) and Jocelyn Friel (56:09, 147th). Congratulations all! 

Masters Women Byline Susan Beck

The masters women followed the same strategy that propelled them to second place in last year's grand prix -- they showed up. Everyone ran a PR on the speedy course: Kim ran 51:16 (9th master); Susan 54:51; Whitney 58:51. But at least some of us learned a valuable lesson on that course. When mile 2 is straight downhill, don't run it full out at top speed. You'll pay dearly later. 

Old'uns

Good race for the masters. Hans Gouwens continued to defy Father Time with a 40:17 performance reminiscent of the Hans of '99 (5th master, 37th overall). At least as loud in their defiance were 45-year old Tim O'Rourke (40:40, 6th master, 1st 45-49) and 48-year old Lloyd Stephenson (40:55, 8th master, 2d 45-49). The fourth scorer was new member Michael Prutz (44:19, 27th master). A man much more deferential to Father Time, Tyler Abbott, closed out the scoring a few seconds back in 44: 25 (29th master). Andy Sobozinsky (46:15, 48th master--hence picking up one of the last big board spots), Michael Gama (47:54), Jim Misener (50:10), and Greg King (53:40) rounded out the team. The masters seem to have finished second to an Aggie team led by Danny Gonzales (37:45!).

The seniors were hurting coming in. Don Paul had a rare missed day, and Les Ong, while running, had been suffering from severe back problems recently. Ageless Jim Gorman led the squad in 43:50 (5:52 pace), just half a minute behind senior winner Dan Sauers of WVJ&S. Les Ong toughed it out and still had a fine race, running 45:28 (9th senior). Continuing his recovery was The Rocket, third scorer in 46:31 (13th senior). Al Stanbridge finished the scoring in 47:59 (16th senior). Tom Bennett rounded out the team.

On a side note especially for the Dipsea fans out there, this race marked the return to competition of Sal Vasquez. The 63 year old ran 48:45, good enough for 2d place super senior. Finally, I apologize in advance to anyone I've missed--we had a lot of runners out there!

Congratulations to Lee D'Alessandro on her second place (12:04) finish in the steeple Saturday at the Panther Invite in Sacramento. She then came back the next day to place 4th on the team at the 12K while Dan did what?

NORCAL JOHN FRANK MEMORIAL 10 MILER - 03/08/03

Open Men A Long Way To Redding Byline Daniel Shore

Dang, Redding's a long drive at 5:30AM... and even longer after a hard, hilly 10-miler. Luckily, the Open Men fielded a full team and managed to take second place behind, who else, Transports.

The newly added NorCal 10 Miler proved to be a fairly difficult test. Following a bike path along the American River, the course included enough twists and turns and cross-country style hills to keep everyone suffering.

Not first Open man, Paul Wellman, though. Paul ran a brilliant race, finishing 6th overall in 52:24 -- 5:15 pace. Following Paul, was Dan Shore, just ducking under his goal of sub-55, coming in at 54:56 for 11th overall. Just behind Open wannabe Hans Gouwens was Jared Crave, third for the Open men in 55:37 (17th place). Former bowler and now mega-mileage man Ryan Gallagher finished just behind JJ in 56:12 (18th overall). Dan Rhodes scored 5th Open man in 57:34, 26th overall, and ensuring an Open second place finish. Also helping out the Open men was Matt Regan, overcoming serious mid-week illness to finish 59:15, 32nd place. Rounding out the Open team was new member Abel Eisentraut, finishing 55th in 1:01:51.

Many thanks to everyone who dragged their butt up to Redding. X-points are now worth something! See you at Across the Bay! 

Women Byline Amy Pearson

Some very dedicated ladies came out for the NorCal John Frank Memorial 10 mile race last Saturday. Sure the drive was long, but hey, who doesn't love Redding? In truth, the course was lovely, meandering (up and down) along the Sacramento river with snow-capped mountains above. Kathryn was clearly inspired. She covered the ten miles in 1:00:45, finishing second in the women's division. (Imagine if she'd worn her spankies.) Shelly wasn't far behind, posting an impressive time of 1:03:24. Jenny Wong and Jen Major rounded out a group of Hoy's ladies who received recognition in the post-race award ceremony, coming in at 1:04:10 and 1:07:39 respectively. Amy, after much consternation about scoring for the team, raced to a 1:13:23, a forty second P.R. And Helena showed well at a new (long racing) distance, rounding out the speedy group at 1:15:29. Maybe it was the inspiring scenery. Maybe it was a powerful desire to get the hell out of Redding. Whatever it was, the Hoy's ladies turned in another strong and dedicated performance at this competitive ten miler. Thanks to Susan Beck for offering to come up to Redding if we needed a 5th runner. 

Old'uns

Hans Gouwens returned to 1999 pre-40 levels with a blistering 55:17, winning the masters division by exactly one minute (and beating all but two of our open runners in the process). 48-year old Lloyd Stephenson continued to amaze with a strong 57:07 (5th master) on the difficult course. The bad news is we had only four masters go up--Tyler Abbott ran third in 1:00:58, 20th master--at least it was better than Cal 10, and only 1:24 behind the first master . . . woman--and Michael Gama rounded out the squad in 1:10:08.

The good news is that the seniors brought along extras and saved the masters once again. While Hans had a relatively easy victory among the masters, Jim Gorman fought the whole way for his 59:21 senior win--luckily his competition was our own Don Paul (59:28). Scoring Jim and Don as if they were 10 years younger, we even seem to have won the masters division! Les Ong followed for the seniors in 1:02:07 (4th senior). Bob Darling and Al Stanbrdige followed in 1:05:02 (7th senior) and 1:06:42 (10th senior) to round out the senior team.

Week Ending 03/09/03

MARCH 8 MADNESS

Hood to Coast weekend--also host to the UC Santa Cruz Cross Country meet and the Headlands 50K Championship--is close, but I can't remember ever having so many races on the same weekend, much less the same day, much less a Saturday. Saturday played host to the first new PA road grand prix race in a while, the scenic but tough NorCal John Frank Memorial 10 miler; a PA ultra grand prix race, the Way Too Cool 50K; a PA track grand prix race, the Bruce Drummond Invitational; Run for the Seals, a perennial club favorite; and, last but not least, the Gate River Run 15K National Championship.

The big pictures . . .

WAY up north in Redding, Hans Gouwens (55:17) and Jim Gorman (59:21) led the masters and seniors, with individual victories in their respective divisions. Either the seniors or the masters also won the team title--which one won depends on our drop-down decisions. Kathryn Krieger was disappointed with her 1:00:45 time on the hilly course, but it was still good enough for second place (and first non-Olympian!). Don Paul finished just behind Jim for second place in the senior division (59:28). And it looks like the open men eked out second place. (The open women may also have been second--we can't tell yet if the Aggies had a full team.)

Far south, though still well north (and east) of us, Craig Steinmaus was running his second 50K in recent memory, the Way Too Cool 50K. Craig was first PA, running 3:35:13, just 5 minutes off of Rich Hanna's (old) course record and just 4 minutes off of Carl Anderson's best. Unfortunately 2:13 marathoner Uli Steidl showed up and broke the course record by some 12 minutes. Still, Craig finished an incredibly strong second in a field that I think could be fairly described as national class.

update: [Phipps] H-E Second at Cool

The Team Results are up for Cool. Led by Old Man Steinmaus, we finished 2nd to Tamalpa. I don't know how much they beat us by, but it was probably quite a bit. I think we're in 4th overall.

Way To Go Ultra Team!

Way Too Cool 50K (Way Too Late Report) by Chris Phipps March 8

I apologize for the tardiness of this report. So I had the bright idea of moving up to ultras this year. I figured I could run around 7 minute pace for like forever and kick ass on the ultra circuit. I trained real well, put in plenty of runs of 23 to 27 miles, and thought I was ready to go. I tapered, and was set to race. Race morning I felt great, and took off at a comfortable pace (felt like 6:40 pace, later found out it was sub 6 pace). I was running with Craig and another guy and we were in 3rd-5th place together from mile 3 to 14. At mile 14 I tripped and fell back a bit. It was good for me, since the quick pace was beginning to wear on me. Craig and the other guy continued to hammer. I wasn't thirsty, but continued to drink as much as I could, since that's what you're supposed to do in an ultra. I also ate about 10 of those sticky gu packets. Anyway, around mile 22 my stomach felt awful and I puked up all the gu and energy drink I had taken in over the past 22 miles. After that I was light headed and dizzy and had to walk the next 4 miles to the next aid station as dozens and dozens of runners went by. This aid station was at the top of a hill that was steeper than anything I had ever seen (or at least it seemed that way being in the state I was in). I couldn't even walk up the hill, but had to stop 3 times. I was resting on the trail when I saw the first woman was coming. It looked like Liz Fagan, or maybe it was Mary. I couldn't tell if it was both of them, or I was just seeing double. Well, it was both of them, and a few other Tamalpans escorting them. As they went by I inched along at about 25 minute mile pace and I thought that this has got to be the low point in my running (walking) career. I swore I would never do another ultra, especially one longer than 50K! After that 25 minute mile that seemed like 45 minutes I was at the aid station. Man was it great! I had not taken any time at the previous aid stations, just filled my bottle and taken off, but for me the race was over and I just wanted to finish. I had some soup, then about 4 cokes and a few handfuls of Oreo's, then started walking along. About half a mile later teammate Peter Hsia and another few runners went by me, then about a half mile after that I suddenly felt much better and decided to start running. I was able to jog in the rest of the way at about 8 minute pace to finish in 4:21, just 41 minutes off my goal time of 3:40! Craig kicked ass and finished 2nd overall in 3:35 (the winner was some German 2:14 Marathon guy, Uli Steidl, so Craig didn't feel bad about being 2nd). Peter ran well and finished in 4:18 (a trail PR I believe) for 34th place. I ended up 40th, which was a surprise since it seemed like at least twice that many passed me! Well, I already forgot how crappy I felt walking up that hill and plan to run the Headlands 50K in August, then try a 50 Miler in October.

Further south, though again still well north, Lee D'Alessandro won the 3000M Steeplechase at the Bruce Drummond Invitational at CSU Sacramento. Jesse McAlman ran strong in the 1500, running right around 4:20 I believe.

Still further south, now just a little north of the City, Dave & Monal won his and hers Run for the Seals championships, along with his and hers vacations! Monal repeated her 2002 victory, and Dave notched another 2003 win. Tim Wallen finished third among men, and Susan Beck finished 11th among women (29:33). Brian Schultz and probably other club members ran as well, but unfortunately I haven't seen the official results.

But perhaps the best performances of the day were not turned in by medal winners. Paul Wellman ran a blistering 52:24 on that very hilly course up in Redding, which we all figure to be about a minute slow. He was a full 2 1/2 minutes ahead of our next runner, and had only Transports around him.

And, saving the best for last, Chris Lundstrom ran 46:12 to finish TWELFTH! in the Gate River Run National 15K Championship in Jacksonville, Florida. Twelfth in the nation! See below who Chris is running with these days (and better yet, who he beat!). Also note that, if you haven't heard it already, Deena Drossin took 57! seconds off the American Record.

1) Meb Keflezighi, CA 43:31 $10,000 2) Abdi Abdirahman, AZ 43:59 $4,000 3) Chad Johnson, OR 44:39 $3,000 4) Nick Rogers, OR 44:39 $2,000 5) Dave Davis, OR 44:45 $1,000 6) Clint Wells , CO 44:45 $900 7) Mike Donnelly, OR 44:50 $800 8) Ryan Shay, MI 45:22 $700 9) Chris Seaton, NC 45:25 $600 10) Eddy Hellebuyck, NM 45:45 $1,500* 11) Matt Thull, WI 46:08 12) Chris Lundstrom, MN 46:12 13) Keith Dowling, VA 46:16 14) David Morris, NM 46:29 15) Henry Dennis, OH 46:39 

More reports to come, at least on Redding.

CONGRATULATIONS ALL!

Week Ending 03/02/03

Hans Gouwens continued his strong running with a win at the St. Vincent's TCRS last weekend (2/23).

 Jenny Wong ran 18:36 to finish second in the LA Marathon 5K Sunday. New member Abel Eisentraus finished 24th in 17:33.

New club member (first race was Cal 10) Don Hogue finished a strong 8th at the Napa Marathon Sunday, running 2:42:40 in only his second marathon. More at http://www.napa-marathon.com/finishers-area/results-overall.asp

Wong-Eisentraut win Lake Merritt Couples Relay

In her first race since Paso and injury, Jenny Wong, coupled with Abel Eisentraut, won the Lake Merritt Couples Relay Sunday. Jenny led off with a 19:01 5K around the lake to give Abel a 15 second head start, which he then extended in the second 5K. Total time was just over 37 minutes. Congratulations, Jenny--great to see you running again! 

Jegan Makes Debut . . . Chan-Walker Win Matching Trophies in Brooklyn

Christine Jegan made her Junior College debut on Fri, Feb 14, running the 3000 meters for Diablo Valley College. She was 3rd in 11:40...1st place was a former CA High School State Champion, Trina Cox.

And in New York.... Malinda Walker and Andy Chan braved the cold (12 degrees F) to run in the Brooklyn Runner's Club Valentine's 5K. Malinda was 7th overall woman (24:02) and Andy was 5th overall male (18:52). So they had to figure a way to pack matching 2nd place age division trophies into their suitcases on the way home.

Ian Hersey ran 2:53:51 at the Austin Marathon (www.motorolamarathon.com) last weekend. In spite of stiff winds and late race hamstring cramping, he still almost ran his target 2:50. Congratulations Ian!

WINTER XC NATIONALS - 02/16/03

Going into Sunday's Cross-Country Winter Nationals, club members had won races three weeks in a row. Dan Mancini toed the start with the nation's top athletes and knew it would be a challenge to keep that streak alive, but he was ready. His story below . . . 

 The Bog In The Bayou Byline Dan Mancini

At the US Winter National XC Championship this weekend, a well-timed rain storm ensured that XC purists would not be disappointed, drenching the appropriately named Buffalo Bayou course in Houston just as racing was getting underway. The only survivors of a once full Hoys-Excelsior team, Chris Lundstrom (running for the national Adidas team) and Dan Mancini lined up against an elite field of runners in the Men's 12km race. The heavy rains & warm temperatures that made Saturday's course wet, slick & treacherous, gave way to surprisely cold 45 degree temps. & blustery conditions for Sunday's 12km race, creating terrain that gelled overnight into a gooey quadmire. By the time the Men's 12k got underway, the all-grass course had been so thoroughly trampled by the 8 previous races that it was a virtual mudbath every step of the way - a sticky bog combined with ankle deep puddles that made for treacherous downhills and slippery uphills. In my 20 years of racing XC, I've never experienced such horrendous conditions. 74 runners set off to grind their way around 6 laps of the challenging roller coaster 2k loop which had 3 short but steep hills. Chris posted his 3rd consecutive top-20 finish against the nation's best with a very fine 19th place (40:59) helping his adidas squad to a 2nd place team finish, while Dan, despite holding off the leaders longer than in previous years, for the 3rd consecutive year had a front row seat (i.e. after being lapped) of the exciting finish enroute to a 60th place finish (46:57). The very slow finish times - on average about 4 minutes slower than in previous years - give a glimpse into what conditions were like. But for those who like XC, it doesn't get any better.

CHINESE NEW YEAR RUN - 02/09/03

BERSHERS WINS CHINESE NEW YEAR RUN

Patti Bershers won her first race ever at the Chinese New Year 5K Sunday. Patti ran 19:48 for the win. One the comeback trail, Rebecca Suskind ran 20:40 for third place, with Amy Pearson 4th in 21:xx. On the men's side, Stan Yasuhara ran approx. 21:50.

In the 10 (with airline tickets on the line), Eric Olilla finished third in 32:39, behind Kalid Abdalah (30:41) and Kevin Pierpoint (32:18). Marlin Gilbert ran 41:17 for 18th place.

TOGETHER WITH LOVE 10K - 02/09/03

VOLK 1ST, CHOKSHI 2D AT "TOGETHER WITH LOVE 10K" Yet Couples Title Eludes Them

Not kidding. This from Dave (notching his second victory in three weeks):

Monal and I raced the "Together With Love 10k" in Monterey this last Sunday. The race featured a 10k and 5k option, of which the 10k is usually the most competitive. As we warmed up, we could only recognize Rachel Cook, who ended up doing the 5k as a speed workout before the 3M marathon in Austin that she's suppose to run this weekend. The weather was quite sunny but windy, which played a major part in the slow race times. I ended up running by myself for the entire race (2nd place finished over 2 minutes back) in a final time of 32:04, while Monal finished in 2nd for the women in a time of 37:08 (1st place went to Kari Bertrand, who has PRs of 4:35 for the mile, 15:49 for 5K, and was a favorite at this year's Las Vegas Marathon). While it was really nice for both of us to finish well in our divisions, what we were really gunning for was the 10k Couples title. Unfortunately, the race management failed to inform us that only couples that had registered prior to race day were eligble. So while we're not the official "fastest couple" in Monterey, we're crying foul and issue a direct challenge to the team of Michael & Julie Dove to defend their title in a head-to-head match up (of course, they would still retain the master's title).

PURISIMA CREEK REDWOODS 33K - 02/08/03

Phipps wins Purisima Creek Redwoods 33K!

Chris Phipps and Craig Steinmaus finished 1-2 in the Purisima Creek Redwoods 33K trail race on Saturday over the tough hills of Huddart Park and Purisima Creek (though Craig wasn't entered). Phipps's time of around 2:30 was a course record by a lot. Peter Hsia, running in the 50K race, finished 13th. The trio will be competing in the Way Too Cool 50K on March 8, and will be Hoy's Excelsior's first complete PA Ultra team since 2001 (and 2nd ever, I believe). Colin Solomon won the 14K.

DAVIS STAMPEDE HALF MARATHON - 02/02/03

Wellman Wins Davis Stampede

In very windy conditions, Paul Wellman led the Davis Stampede Half Marathon start to finish to win in a PR 1:11:46. Dan Rhodes finished fourth in 1:16:32, just barely holding off a strong Magdalena Lewy. Congratulations both of you!

Other Races

Dan Mancini reports that Chris Lundstrom ran 8:03 at a recent indoor 3000--wow.

Jim Gorman finished first place senior at the Mission 5K in San Juan Batista--Jim ran an impressive 16:46, though he modestly claims that the course is probably 10 seconds short. Congratulations Jim!

TOM CARUSO MEMORIAL 5K - 02/02/03

Gouwens Wins Caruso Memorial Run

Hans Gouwens coasted to a 34-second win in the Third Annual Tom Caruso Memorial Run 5K Sunday. Hans ran around 17:05 to beat teammate Matt Regan's 17:39. Chris Phipps ran 2x1.55 mi. with 1 minute rest to finish 5th, with Tyler Abbott finishing 7th in 19:02 and Jim Misener finishing shortly thereafter. Donnell Borash was also out there, but I missed her time. Tyler and Jim then doubled up with the following DSE race on exactly the same course, starting 1.5 hours after the first, with Tyler finishing fourth in 19:04 and Jim finishing 6th (?). Club members Andies Sobozinsky and Chan finished second and third, respectively.

HOME DEPOT SAN FRANCISCO HALF MARATHON - 01/26/03

Volk Wins SF Half!

Dave Volk notched the first road victory of his young career in Sunday's Home Depot San Francisco Half Marathon. By the mid-way point, Dave had a big lead and never looked back, finishing in 1:10:17 and setting a PR in the process. Many club runners have pursued this particular victory over the last few years, and our top 5 finishes could fill a small binder. Congratulations Dave!

Other club runners in the Half included Chris Remember Me? Ross, 1:19:37 (21st), Luis Sanchez (1:20:23, 26th and just 16 seconds away from the 45-49 win), Ian Hersey (1:20:55, 29th, 3rd 40-44), Chris Becker (1:21:18, 33rd), Michael Prutz (1:21:44, 40th), Peter Hsia (1:23:37, 65th), Manny Berston (1:24:31, 73rd), Ian Reid (1:28:30, 143rd), Bob Darling (1:29:41, 181st), Marlin Gilbert (1:32:00, 238th), and Jim Misener (1:32:35, 254th). Eimear Martin led the women in 1:33:33 (30th), followed by Kim Fanady (1:35:34, 42d), Amy Pearson (1:38:30, 67th), and Lydia Siegel (1:38:38, 69th). I apologize as always to anyone I may have missed.

In the 5K, Monal Chokshi had shin problems early on and had to pull back, still running 17:57 and finishing second. Still, she made an important Irish web page: http://www.irishrunner.com/270103.html [thanks Irishman I mean American Matt]. Jody Heyman ran a PR 19:22 (8th), and Jen Major on the comeback trail ran 19:35 (10th). Congratulations all!

CALIFORNIA 10 MILER - 01/12/03

Cal 10: Krieger Wins!!!

Kathryn Krieger notched her first Pacific Association road title Sunday at the Cal 10 in Stockton. Kathryn ran 58:32 over the 10 mile course to beat runner up and former Olympian Maria Trujillo de Rios by over a minute and a half. Congratulations Kathryn! For press coverage of Kathryn's win try http://www.recordnet.com/daily/sports/articles/011303-s-6.php For the rest of the race report ... 

Women Byline Patti Bershers

8 open women and 4 masters women crawled out of warm beds VERY early Sunday morning to drive to foggy Stockton and run 10 miles in the middle of nowhere (um, ok, the Central Valley). Leading the charge was Kathryn Krieger with a swift 58:32, FIRST PLACE FINISH! that was nearly two minutes faster than Kathryn's last outing at this race in 2001. Not far behind was fifth-place finisher Shelly Pierson in 61:43, looking very fit (and holding back per her coach's orders) despite running CIM only one month ago. Jen Major (yippee! she's back!) returned to racing after recovering from a stress-fractured foot with an excellent 67:40 performance, good for 33rd place. Lee D'Alessandro was fourth for the team and 39th overall with a 68:52 effort. Patti Bershers and Lisa Murphy pushed their CIM-fatigued legs (and Patti's extra 7 pounds of too much holiday fun) as far as they would go, with 69:26 and 70:10 efforts (41st and 47th place). Not far behind were Christine Jegan (73:16, 61st place), and Amy Pearson (74:13, 68th place).

On the master's side, Kim Fanady ignored any aftereffects of CIM with a fast 68:06 run, for 35th place overall and 11th master (and she would have been fourth open on the team!). Jody Heyman surprised herself but nobody else with an excellent 10-mile debut performance of 69:38 (we all knew she had it in her), good for 44th overall and 14th master, and one of the last sub-70 shirts. Marathon-recovering Susan Beck had an excellent day in 74:51 for 72nd place overall and 26th master, and Whitney Stephenson (yet another person recovering from CIM) ran a strong 81:01 to close out the master's team in 89th place overall and 34th master.

It looks like the open women will end up third behind the Aggies and Impalas, and the master's women will end up third behind the Impalas and Tamalpa.

Next up: Norcal 10 in club friend Michelle Hannaford's backyard on March 8th. See you all there! 

Open Men Byline Chris Phipps

The New and Improved 2003 PA Road Grand Prix got under way this weekend with the 31st running of the California 10 Mile. Conditions were cool, and foggy with a light wind that aided the first 5 miles and slowed the 2nd 5. The race was won by the Farm Team's Chris Graff in 49:19. Chris (I wish he could score for us) Lundstrom, spending some time back in the bay area finished 4th in 50:07. For the first time since at least 2000, maybe longer, 4of our top 5 on our open team were under 30. Eric Ollila led the way with an impressive 12th place finish in 52:35. Not to be out done, (actually he was), Dave Volk finished 14th in 52:41. Paul Wellman (53:41) outlasted first submaster Chris Phipps (53:52) who finished 20th & 21st respectively, and Jim Sweeney earned his first sub 55 shirt with a 54:47 clocking to finish 26th and complete the A team. Cliff Lentz (42nd, 56:17), Dan Mancini (51st, top 50 PA, will earn at least 1 grand prix point, 56:45, insists this was a tempo run), new team member Don Hogue (56th, 57:25), Dan Rhodes (77th, 58:50), and Last T-Shirt Winner Chris Becker (87th, 59:59) made sure we were able to score 2 teams (as long as you all have you PA cards!!). It looks like we were 3rd as a team behind the dominant Farm Team, and dominant (when the Farm Team doesn't show up) Transports adidas. It looks like our B team was 4th or 5th overall. We definitely won more shirts than any other team! Congratulations to all! 

Old'Uns

The masters men scored well up front. Hans Gouwens, fresh off his cross-country GP championship, led the 40+ers in 55:36 (4th master), followed closely by Craig Steinmaus (5th). Lloyd Stephenson followed in a strong 57:13 (11th), with Ian Hersey 4th in 1:01:05 (35th). Tyler Abbott, recovering from a twisted ankle the week before, filled out the team in 1:03 ouch 58. The team seems to have finished 3rd.

The seniors appear to have taken up 2003 where 2002 left off, with another win. Jim Gorman led the seniors in 58:43 (2d senior). Les Ong was 4th senior in 1:01:08, Bob Darling next in 1:04:08 (11th) and Ian Reid next in 1:04:51.  Kevin Grady, hobbled by a calf injury the last two miles, limped in (literally) in 1:08:44 (I only passed him about mile 8).  Congratulations seniors!