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EXCELSIOR Running Club Results - 2005  Christmas Relays - 12/11/05 CHRISTMAS RELAYS: MASTERS/SENIORS WIN GP, OPEN TEAMS THIRD!
Being the last race in the road grand prix, and double points at that, the Christmas Relays has the potential to juggle the PA standings quite a bit. However, this year all of our teams were well settled in their spots (masters and seniors have both won, and both open teams finished third), with I believe only the masters even needing to run the race (and needing to finish only 7th or 8th at that).
Nevertheless, we put some strong teams out at Sunday's relays. Our open and masters men finished 4th and 5th overall (3rd/2d in their divisions), within 18 seconds of each other (1:40:44 and 1:41:02). Congratulations open men!
One thing I personally love about the Christmas Relays is that, especially if you're not running first, no one REALLY knows your time except you. This unfortunately brings up the unpleasant spectre of Phantom Time, arising when the sum of the four times doesn't QUITE equal the overall time. Details below. . . . Women Byline Helen Kao
We had a full-house at this year's relays with Eight Women out running the 4.5 mile loop around Lake Merced. Open Women Team A with Kim Fanady, Jen Major, Lee d'Alessandro, and Jenny Wong placed 4th of 22 open/5th PA in 1:54:24 to secure the New Balance Excelsior Women's overall 3rd place PA Road finish for 2005. They were blazing at an average 6:25 pace. Open Women Team B with Jamie Chomas, Julie Huy, Micha Lowe, and Molly Sear had fun with the relays, placing 11th, 2:10:38, average 7:19 pace. THANKS TO ALL THE RUNNERS!
Ed.: Going from memory, Kim ran 29:07, Jen 28:06, Lee 29:42, and Jenny 27:32, totalling 1:54:27, for an unprecedented NEGATIVE THREE seconds of Phantom Time. The women definitely earn the honesty I mean accuracy award . . . . Open Men
Parker Kelly led the team in 25:23, followed by Brian Gillis (24:38), Dan Rhodes (25:13), and Chikara Omine (25:32), with NEGATIVE TWO Phantom Time seconds to reach the official time of 1:40:44. As mentioned above, the team finished 4th overall/3rd open, and easily held on to its 3rd place in the final GP standings. Good going guys! Old'uns
The masters men, suffering from burnout after the long Fall season, couldn't scrape together a full team and once again had to rely on the generosity of the seniors, but still managed to finish second in a tight race. After senior Lloyd Stephenson led off with a fine 25:22, the team was in 4th, with only Tamalpa out of reach after Bill Bushnell's sterling 23:48 opener. Cliff Lentz followed in 24:32, passing his Pacific Strider to put us in 3rd by ten seconds, just another ten seconds behind 2d place WVTC. Tyler Abbott ran 26:09, in so doing passing WVTC but being passed back by Strider Alan Dehlinger. Tim Wallen anchored us in 24:43, passing Strider Tim Keenan to give us second place. Phantom Time was limited to a not unreasonable 16 seconds.
The seniors led with Rocket Darling in 29:45, followed by Jim Gorman (26:16), Tom Bernhard (26:47), and Don Paul (25:43), with a whopping 1:11 of Phantom Time. Miss an exchange? Without ace Stephenson, the seniors took second behind a WVJ&S team rejuvenated by the aging of Brian Davis. California International Marathon - 12/04/05
Though CIM took a year off from the Grand Prix schedule (it's on again next year), several of our members used it as their Fall marathon with a couple nice PRs to show for it.
Adam Lucas led our finishers with a fine 3:01:42 (1:32:45-1:28:58!) marathon debut. Nancy Vuong was our first woman, running a big (18 minute!) PR in 3:15. Bean Wrenn finished next in 3:28, followed closely by Helen Kao (3:33) and Kenny Warde (3:35). Shelly Pierson had lower back problems and limped in a couple minutes later. Las Vegas Marathon - 12/04/05 Congratulations to Juli Morse Stump on her 3:15 at the new Las Vegas Marathon Sunday as well. O'ROURKE TOPS OWN AMERICAN RECORD!
I guess winning the last two GP races and the long GP itself weren't enough for ol' Mr. Metronome. While the rest of us were recovering from Thanksgiving festivities, Tim O'Rourke quietly snuck off to Dallas and bested his own American 45-49 50K track record, which he set in 2003 but which was unfortunately never ratified. Congratulations From Tim . . . Thank you George (and others); just back from travels east. I represented that I was done racing until March and that's strictly speaking true since this goes in the category of a solo time trial. It had become apparent that my 50K age group record track effort from 2003 was never going to be ratified (unlike the 3:19:21 50K road effort from the same year, which was ratified). So I wanted to rectify that. The Ultracentric 24/48 hour track event in Dallas has a history of getting records ratified and that's where I headed for my day after Thanksgiving. The existing (ratified) track record that I needed to beat was 3:24:08 by the great Rae Clark (among other accomplishments, holder of the American open 100 mile record at 12:12). My unratified track time from 2003 was 3:18:52 and, as long as I was doing it again, I really wanted to beat that as well.
Having been through the drill, I knew the arithmetic: 95 second 400s for 125 laps (6:22 mile pace) would yield a 3:17:55, and that is generally what I was shooting for. I had ideal temperature (mid 50's, dry overcast), great volunteer support and almost a clear track since most people were signed up for the 24 hour event and I started with the two 48 hour entrants. The one flaw was a stiff southeast breeze quartering across the north-south track. I ran mostly 94's for the first half of the attempt putting me 40 seconds to the good of 95 pace at 25K (1:38:18). Then I gave those 40 seconds back when I had to make a pit stop that took just that long. At 30K I was 1:58:43 (1:58:45 would be exactly 95 a lap). In the last 20K I grudgingly gave away seconds here and there but actually started feeling better with 5 miles to go and made up time with a 6:07 last 1600 for the 3:17:58 finish. Marathon split was right about 2:47.
I have a good feeling that this one will be ratified and I'm encouraged that I have a reasonable chance a couple of years hence of getting the 50+ road record of 3:19:33, a mark that has stood since 1983. And I am now really, really looking forward to skiing until March 2006. Thanks again and best to all,
Tim Run to the Farside - 11/27/05 Distracted by disappointing snow levels, Stephen Donahue led our contingent at Far Side in 33:53, good enough for 4th overall in the 10K. Other club members running the 10 were Brian Schultz (39:12, 49th), Alexander Shwe (41:55, 95th)--great job Alexander! Kim Fanady (43:09, 3rd 40-49), Tensixsea (43:12), Dance Shoe (43:12), Chelsey Remington (46:15, 27th), Brenda Deperalta (54:26, 170th), Nancy Wang (56:20), Jeff Shewey (1:00:33), and Ten Sixtty Greene (1:00:45).
In the 5K, Tim Wallen led our group in 16:20 (8th overall, 2d 40-49), followed by Yurik Riegel (18:21, 25th), first club woman Jen Major in a fine 18:26 (6th woman overall), Lee D'Alessandro (19:37, 9th), Dan Ramos (20:06, 3rd 50-59), Rocket (20:15, 5th 50-59), Jamie Chomas (20:24, 17th), Craig Edwards (21:53, 5th 60-69), Kasia Tarantino (22:16, 32d), Shoey Pierson (22:44), 1060 "Bean" Shoe (22:45), Tom Mann (29:34), and Gary and daughter Tennifer MacSixty (30:24/30:25).
Thanks to the many club members who came out to cheer, and special thanks to the 1060s out there. Davis Turkey Trot 5K - 11/20/05 Congratulations to Jim Gorman (56.9 years old) for a 17:21 at the Davis Turkey Trot 5K (certified, flat, but with some turns) for first 55-59, second 40+ finisher, and 17th overall. Age rated at 88.02%. Great job Jim! Fitness Magazine 4 Miler - 11/20/05 Congratulations to Kim Fanady on a 26:18 1st master/4th woman finish at the Fitness Magazine 4 miler at Crissy Field. Stanford 10K - 11/20/05 Congratulations to Bean Wrenn on a 4th place finish at the Stanford 10K. USATF XC Club Nationals - 11/19/05 "The Feast In The East" Byline Dan Mancini
Five members of the NB Excelsior Masters men XC team traveled east to Rochester, NY on Saturday to compete in USATF Club Nationals. Without their #1 ace, the team entered the race with a more modest goal of a top-5 team finish. The team competition was particularly fierce this year, and the field in general, the toughest in memory with some 250 entrants. Without a clear frontrunner, the team ran tactically as a bunch for much of the race. In the end, only 30 seconds separated the five of them. Cliff Lentz led the team with a very strong 31st place finish (35:04) in the very deep field. Tim Wallen, running with Cliff most of the race, was next in 38th (35:23), followed by the fast finishing Mike Slavin in 45th (35:31) who picked off some 15 runners in the final kilometers. Iain Mickle in 48th and Dan Mancini in 49th (both timed in 35:38) closed out the fine team effort, and the group finished eighth (of 16 teams). Greg King (43:57) rounded out the team. Clarksburg 30K - 11/13/05 CLARKSBURG: O'ROURKE, STEPHENSON, MASTERS WIN!
Tim O'Rourke won again the race that he's become synonymous with, having won it last year and set the M44 single-age American Record three years ago. This was Tim's third long win of 2005, and led him to an easy win in the long GP. On the senior side, Lloyd Stephenson won his 7th road gp race of the year--his 4 out of 5 easily won him the senior long grand prix. On the team side, the masters won a close battle with Pacific Striders, and the seniors lost (irrespective of drop downs) for the first time this year (if memory serves me correctly), by just 1:07. Shelly Pierson led a fine women's effort, and, thanks to a strategic pre-race signing, the open men posted a full team fulfillment ratio over three fold that of Humboldt, WELL over half a full team! Details . . . Women Byline Helen Kao/Nancy Vuong
What a phenomenal day! Our 3 teammates who raced Clarksburg each hit personal goals. For SHELLY PIERSON, the race was a chance to build up for Cal International. She went out smart and slow, then easily picked up the pace and one-by-one picked off other runners left and right, placing 6th age group 2:15.27. As her friend and start-of-the-race-partner, Tom, said at the finish "Shelly left me in the dust WAY BACK there." MOLLY SEAR who is bypassing a marathon this fall in anticipation of Boston next spring made this her big race for the fall. She was right on target, aiming for 7:40 pace and hitting 7:42 on a hot day to finish 2:23.19 (12th age group and a WHOPPING 14+min PR). NANCY VUONG wow'd even herself with her strategy for a fast-start-fast-finish long run, but easily held an also-fast-in-the-middle pace to come in strong at 2:17.09, 8th age group. Molly and Nancy noted the new uniforms were great--no chafing and the waistband of the shorts were a thousand times more comfortable then the aqua shorts! Open Men
New member Agustin Cruz ran 2:04:23 to finish 36th and lead the open men, followed by Eric Knackmuhs in a 2:30 training run. Old'uns
As mentioned above, Tim O'Rourke led all masters and our team in 1:48:57, 7th overall, to take the race, the grand prix, and apparently 5th in the open gp. Vitas Ezerskis followed close behind in 1:49:32 to finish 3rd master, 10th overall, runner-up to Tim in the long GP, and 7th in the open gp. Tyler Abbott completed the scorers in a rough 2:02:45, 14th master, 31st overall, and apparently 11th in the long gp, which, thanks to the Dan Shore rule (whereby older runners are generally dropped from the standings when considering comps), would give him comps next year, so we might as well schedule the surgery right now [It could be noted that, (a) Tyler is responsible (Can you say conflict of interest?) at the PA level for both the Dan Shore rule and the division of masters between short and long, and (b) only six masters ran all five races in the long gp, but we will not do so here. -Ed.] Returning member John Spriggs (2:17:45, 25th 40-49) and Niall Vignoles (2:31:46, 33rd 40-49) rounded out the team.
For the seniors, after Lloyd's 1:59:58 26th overall race and gp win (he also finished 10th in the masters gp) came Les Ong in 2:16:13 (8th 50-59), Kenny Warde (2:27:04, 14th 50-59), and Dan Ramos (2:41:45, 22d 50-59). Congratulations all!
Finally, special thanks go to Marc Boutillette for showing up just in case, and to Helen Kao and Marc for great support along the course. New York Marathon - 11/06/05 Helen Kao forwards the following from the New York City Marathon . . . No details yet from our brave trio who ventured east to run the New York City Marathon this past Sunday. But word has it that the race (which didn't start until 10AM) was a HOT one, reaching temperatures over 70 degrees! BRENDA GEE ran perfectly even splits (2:04 at the half) to finish 4:10 with a chip time of 4:00 flat. NANCY WANG persevered through the mid-day heat, finishing in 4:49. And MICHA LOWE raced to an 89th place finish in 3:22. Terrific running!
[Wayne Plymale also ran a tough race in the heat--he finished in around 4:40. -Ed.] NYC redux
Patti Bershers pointed out a couple omissions from last week's New York City Marathon report. In the heat, Mike Shwe ran 3:11:43, followed by Matty Greene in 3:14:28.
Also, Jeff Dewey ran 3:17:09 in the Marshall University Marathon (West Virginia) over the weekend. Congratulations! PA XC Championships - 11/06/05 PA CHAMPS: NELSON, MASTERS REPEAT!
Among hushed utterances of the D word, Dan Nelson led the masters to their second consecutive PA Championship. Nelson, winning the race by almost two--not a typo--minutes, helped the club dominate the team competition, with four runners in the top 10 and the final scorer in 12th. This sealed the masters' perfect season--seven for seven in the races they attended, easily winning the grand prix as well. Among seniors, Lloyd Stephenson finished second to win the grand prix, following in the footsteps of three?-time senior winner Kim Lilot. The open teams also ran well, amid torrid competition. Details . . . Women Byline Lee D'Alessandro
This year's PA X-C Championships and Western Regional Championships lived up to its reputation as one fast race. In the top-heavy women's open division, JENNY WONG raced to a near PR in 25:15 (33rd) and JEN MAJOR in 26:29 (54th). BEAN WRENN in the middle of her marathon racing season, ran 26:57(73rd), followed by LEE D'ALESSANDRO 27:27 (86th). HELEN KAO PR'd with a sub-28 min in 27:56 (97th) with JAMIE CHOMAS finishing well in 28:00 (99th). Rounding out our full team was MOLLY SEAR, who graciously filled in at the last minute, in 30:57 (141st) in a gutsy 2nd X-C race ever! Thanks to NANCY VUONG for her enthusiastic cheering and a special thanks to support from new mom ALLIE BIGELOW bringing newborn ZACH to watch his 1st x-c race! Great finish to the x-c season ladies! Open/Masters Men: Reports to come Tamalpa XC Challenge - 10/29/05 Lloyd Stephenson won yet again at Saturday's John Lawson Tamalpa Challenge, and the masters posted their sixth victory of the year to remain undefeated in 2005 cross country races. Details below . . . Women: All Women PR @ Tamalpa! Byline Lee D'Alessandro
It was a beautiful day at China Camp for the new, more scenic Tamalpa X-C course. We managed to field a full team with some runners making big sacrifices for the cause! Finishing in 19th with a time of 29:10 was Lee D'Alessandro. Nancy Voung, doing her best to hold back per marathon training, finished in 30:24 for 30th. Molly Sear in her 1st x-c race ever clocked a 32:03 (41st) and enjoyed every second of it! Not far behind in 45th was Kasia Tarantino with a 32:45 and just one week before the NYC marathon, Brenda (Gee) Deperalta finished in 36:24 for 49th. Great job ladies! Men: From 7 out of 10 to 7th out of 10 Byline Chris Phipps
Tamalpa used to be one of the bread and butter races for our club where not too many years back we could get 7 of the top 10 individual spots. Too bad the rest of the PA found out about it. The 2005 edition of the Tamalpa challenge was run on a slightly different, but even more challenging course. No fewer than 10 open teams showed up to compete. Final team scoring is not yet in, but it looks like our team was 7th. Chris Phipps led the team in 23rd place at 23:27, followed by Chikara Omine (29th, 23:46), Brian Gilliss (38th, 24:24), Danny Lilot (46th, 24:51), George Torgun (62nd, 25:58), Yurik Riegel (78th, 27:30) and Brian Schultz (80th, 27:44).
And if you think the competition was tough at Tamalpa, just wait until the PA Champs this Sunday. This race is in our own back yard, so let’s show up strong and try to improve on our 7th place finish from this week! Old'uns Byline Dan Mancini
At the John Lawson Tamalpa XC Challenge, the NB Excelsior Masters Men maintained their perfect string of team victories with another strong performance in the final "regular season" XC race on the Grand Prix circuit. Leading the team for the 3rd time this season, Iain "Ironhorse" Mickle notched a 6th place finish in 24:04 in the deepest Masters field so far this year. Following in quick succession were the closely bunched pack of Dan Mancini in 8th (24:21), Mike Slavin in 9th (24:22) and Hans Gouvens in 11th (24:29), while Lloyd Stephenson - enroute to another Senior victory - rounded out the team scoring in 17th (25:23). The team is readying itself to defend its PA Champs title on Sunday. Shoreline XC - 10/22/05 At the Shoreline Cross Country Meet Saturday, Dan Nelson easily won his second of two cross country races this season as he tunes up for the championships, and the masters seem to have garnered their fifth victory. Details . . . Women Byline Jen Major
Five members of our New Balance women's team raced at Shoreline Park this past weekend. The course was very fast, but challenging, and despite the name, there was no beautiful shoreline in sight- just a lot of dirt and gravel. While the scenery was lacking, our racing was not! We lined up with LOTS of college runners, but many of them only looked fast and intimidating. We ran very well, and nearly everyone was happy with her performance on Saturday. Jen Major finished in 25th place, 19:08; Bean Wrenn was next, 36th, 19:35; Lee D'Alessandro was close behind, 42nd, 19:46; Jamie Chomas, was right behind her in 49th, 20:07; and Helen Kao, who had 17 more miles to run, was 54th in 20:19. Great job everyone! Thanks for running this weekend! Shoreline Again: Open/Masters Men Report Byline Dan Mancini
In the mixed Open & Masters race at the Shoreline Open XC race, John Weru led the men's Open team with a superb 14th place finish in the highly competitive field in 22:33. Next in were the duo of Brian Gilliss and George Torgun in 64th (25:00) and 65th (25:03) respectively, followed by Dan "on the comeback trail" Lilot in 73rd (25:38), with Brian Schultz rounding out the team in 122nd (28:36)
The men's Masters team scored another victory behind the dominant performance of Dan Nelson. Running in the top-10 in the early going of the most competitive XC race on the circuit, Dan scored an easy Masters victory, finishing an impressive 16th overall and bettering by one spot his 2004 performance. Not only was Dan the top over-40 competitor, he was also the top over-30 finisher. Next in was Iain Mickle in another fine race - 4th Master (37th overall) in 24:01, followed by Cliff Lentz - 9th Master (56th overall) in 24:34, Dan Mancini (running at tempo effort) - 16th Master (74th overall) in 25:40, Lloyd Stephenson - 3rd Senior (79th overall) in 25:47, Tyler Abbott - 19th Master (87th) in 26:19, Ian Hersey - 37th Master (113th) in 27:51, Kim Lilot - 15th Senior (123rd) in 28:38, Greg King - 48th Master (130th) in 29:35 and Jim Misener - 69th Master (155th) in 33:05. Humboldt Half Marathon - 10/16/05 Humboldt: O'Rourke, Stephenson, Don Paul, Masters, Seniors Win! Lentz, Wong Third
The men just barely scraped together full teams for all divisions. Among the runners who went, however, Tim TMTTFA O'Rourke won masters (and 45-49), Lloyd Stephenson won seniors, Don Paul won 55-59 (2d senior), and both the master and senior men's teams won. Other top finishers included Jenny Wong in 3rd, and Cliff Lentz and Vitas Ezerskis as 3rd and 4th masters. The women's team also seems to have done very well, possibly even scraping out a win (won't know for sure until results are posted), and the open men's team was named Dan. Women Byline Nancy Vuong
Humboldt is the PA Half Marathon Championships. Congrats to Jenny who championed her age group. WVTC put out a strong team at HH but our team standing at this race is defnitely top notch.
JENNY WONG (1st age group, 3rd women overall) 1:23.13 - Was feeling tired but happy with the finish and place. Glad it wasn't as long as Clarksburg!
NANCY WANG (12th age group) 2:01.05 - The half marathon ended up being a 14 mile race as she arrived at parking (at the end of the long line of cars on the road) just as they heard the announcer yell "1 minute to start." So she dropped everthing and sprinted from the car to the start just in time to catch the starting gun.
NANCY VUONG (3rd age group) 1:30.27 - What a gorgeous course! It's gotta be my favorite so far. I went out faster than I had planned but felt good so continued to run strong and even stronger the second half. The out and back course felt like it was downhill both ways - if that's possible. Anyway, I'm very pleased with today and would definitely run it again. [also a HUGE PR]
KASIA TARANTINO (8th age group) 1:46.42 - Super psyched to run a 9 minute PR and break 1:50 by a long shot. An awesome performance considering she was fighting a cold, laryngitis, hamstring straing, and Achilles pain. Only her 2nd half marathon but she felt strong and good the whole way. But lesson learned--never wear an iPod for a half-marathon or suffer the chafing consequences!
MOLLY SEAR (5th age group) 1:37.37 - Another PR! She's unsure if she's happy about her PR or running with the beautiful giants. She is happy to score for NBEx in her debut race. Yeah!
MICHA LOWE (4th age group) 1:33.47 - Woke up feeling tired in the morning. Felt really good for the first half but couldn't hold the pace in the 2nd half. But still managed to run 5 miles after the race for her 20 mile marathon training run (last long run before NYC in 3 weeks!)
HELEN KAO (4th age group) 1:33.32 - One of the best weekends I've had in a while. Was nervous coming into Humboldt that my shin would be a problem. But perhaps because I was so happy after my brother's wedding yesterday, I just kept going with how I felt. Started tiring at the end but felt I gave the race my all and am very happy with yet another PR. Open Men Byline Dan Rhodes
I ran 1:15:30. Old'uns
The battle for the masters win was tight. Tim O'Rourke, Cliff Lentz, and Vitas Ezerskis all ran together the first ten miles, along with WVTC's Eric Albrecht, two other masters, and our open team. In the end O'Rourke pulled out his third masters victory of the past year, with Albrecht, Lentz, and Ezerskis just a few seconds back. Times were around 1:14:20. Rounding out the team were Andy Apfelbaum in a PR 1:20:10 and Tyler Abbott in 1:21:44.
For the seniors, we had the winner, the top 50-54, the top 55-59, the top team, and enough runners to fill out our open team! Lloyd Stephenson led the way in 1:19, with Don Paul finishing not far behind in 1:20. Tom Bernhard and Jim Gorman followed in 1:23 and 1:25 (I believe). I'm afraid I don't have the rest of the times yet, but Les Ong, Dan Ramos, Allan Stanbridge, and Kenny Warde filled out the team. Congratulations to all, and special thanks to the seniors for saving the open team (this week average age 51). I hope to be able to get out a more detailed report after results are posted. Addendum: Humboldt Loose Ends: Women, Masters, Seniors Win!
With Humboldt results delayed, last week's race report was incomplete. We were confident that the masters and seniors had won, but the women also won--their first win in two years! Congratulations!
I was also unable to report the senior's times last week. Lloyd Stephenson led the way in 1:18:58 (1st), followed by Don Paul (1:20:44, 1st 55-59), Tom Bernhard (1:23:16, 4th/3rd 50-54), Jim Gorman (1:25:14, 2d 55-59), Les Ong (1:27:21, 3rd 55-59), Ian Reid (1:31:03, 4th 60-64), Dan Ramos (1:34:22, 6th 55-59), Allan Stanbridge (1:34:41, 7th 55-59), and Kenny Savior Warde (1:38:32, 8th 55-59). Congratulations all! Dick Collins Firetrails 50 Miler - 10/15/05 Congratulations to Chikara Omine on his 2d place, 7:04:00 finish at Dick Collins Firetrails 50 Miler! Chicago Marathon - 10/09/05 Stephen Donahue ran a gritty (1:13:35 half) 2:39:47 136th place at the Chicago Marathon Sunday, while on the women's side Bean Wrenn continued her strong racing with a (PR?) 3:10:42 128th place finish. Congratulations! Folsom XC Challenge - 10/08/05 Folsom Byline Dan Mancini
The NB Ex Masters men continued their strong racing on Saturday at the Folsom XC Challenge. Though not fielding a full team, the 3 men who did show up all placed in the top-7 on the undulating 4-mile course. Leading the way for the team in another strong performance was Iain Mickle in 3rd (21:55), followed by Hans Gouwens in 6th (22:29) and Dan Mancini in 7th (22:33). Presidio Challenge - 10/01/05 PRESIDIO: TRIPLE WIN!
At our own Presidio Cross Saturday, the open men pulled out their first PA win in almost gulp two years, and first cross win in over four, the masters men continued their winning ways after a one week hiatus, and after almost six months, Dan Nelson returned to the racing scene to pick up any easy win (well it looked easy anyway). Details . . . . Open Men: Open Team Wins First XC Race Since 2001! Byline Chris Phipps
The New Balance Excelsior Open Men’s team won their first Cross Country race since the now defunct Aggie Invite back in 2001--and first PA win of any kind in two years--and it was their first win on their home course since 2000! Chikara Omine led the charge with a great finish to place 7th in 20:21. He was joined in the top 10 by Chris Phipps in 9th (20:35). George Torgun ran a strong race to finish with his highest place of the season, 13th (21:09). Brian Gillis (19th, 21:29) and Dan Rhodes (24th, 21:48) completed the scoring 5, followed by displacers Adam Lucas (39th, 23:36) and Brian Schultz (45th, 24:56). The win puts the team in a 2nd place tie with WVTC for the season. Women
Thank you to the five women who came out to race one of the most vertically-challenged courses on the XC circuit. Thanks also to our crew of volunteers: Kim Fanady, Helen Kao, Jenny Wong, Bean Wrenn, and Christine Wang Morris (great to see you Christine!). In alphabetical order: - JAMIE CHOMAS ran another amazing post-baby run at 27:32 (you and Jocelyn have cut a hard path for our newbie mom's to follow in terms of post-pregnancy return to racing!) - LEE D'ALESSANDRO ran just one week after the Race for Cure 5K, finishing hard in 26:48 - JULIE HUY had a tough and tiring race but gutted it out to the finish despite not feeling tops, 32:22 (great show of perseverence) - KASIA TARANTINO, in only her 2nd XC race EVER, kept her pace smart and steady on the challenging course, 28:50 - JENNY WONG finished 9th with 24:06 despite driving to and from Chico the day before and having to drive to Reno right after the race for work (stellar run Jenny!) Masters Byline Dan Mancini
On Saturday at the Presidio Challenge XC race, the NB-Ex Masters men capitalized on the home field advantage by taking 6 of the top-10 spots. Leading the way as he did last year, Dan Nelson forged a big early lead in his 2005 XC debut, and cruised home in 20:30 for a comfortable win. Cliff Lentz was best of the rest with an impressive 2nd place finish in 21:06, relying on his strong finishing kick to hold off Aggie nemesis Jose Aispuro. Meanwhile, on the strength of exclusively cycling training, Hans "I haven't run a step since the Jamba 5k" Gouwens miraculously finished 5th in 21:32, much to the chagrin of 7th placer Dan Mancini (21:36). Iain "I got lost in the maze of the Presidio during my warmup and nearly missed the start" Mickle finished 8th in 21:54, clearly traumatized by the whole fiasco (he ran 20 secs. faster in practice last week). The fast-improving Andy Apfelbaum rounded out the top-10, posting a superb 22:03 - more than a minute faster than last year. Ian Hersey in 47th (24:52) rounded out the team effort. Heritage Oaks Bank 10K - 09/25/05 PASO: DON PAUL, SENIORS NATIONAL CHAMPS!
Don Paul took the men's 55-59 national title in the Heritage Oaks Bank Masters' National 10K Championship Sunday, and the seniors repeated (third time? fourth time?) as national champs. The seniors also saved the open men and masters men, neither of whom fielded a full team without senior drop-downs. Among other teams, the good news is that everyone else has a hard time fielding teams at Paso too. Details below . . . . Women Byline Kim Fanady
The NBEx women put on a great showing at the Heritage Oaks Bank 10K yesterday. After weeks of entreaties by their team captain, everyone jumped on the bandwagon in the last week, enabling us to field a full team of 6 and hopefully keep that 3rd place in the Grand Prix. On a beautiful, clear, cool morning in pretty Paso Robles, everyone ran well over the fastest, flattest course on the Grand Prix circuit. Leading the charge was Kim Fanady in 40:23, 14th woman overall and 8th PA woman in the National Masters 10K Championships. In the open 50 Buck 10K, Helen Kao was next in a PR 42:06 (who says you need sleep to run well?), followed by Micha Lowe at 43:17. Julie Huy rolled in at 49:15, with Brenda Gee completing the team at 49:54. And they all won money! Nancy Wang also did us proud in the Masters, staging a dramatic duel for the finish over the last hundred yards which had the spectators yelling and cheering. Way to go, team! Open Men @ Paso Byline Dan Rhodes
Everyone wins in the Paso Robles 10K. Not only does the team pick up the cost of race entry + $20 for travel this year there were race officials handing out a $10 or $50 dollar bill to each runner to cross the line. So with nothing to lose but some sleep . 4 Open Excelsior Men went to Paso for an all expenses paid trip. First in for the men was Stephen Donahue finishing 14th in 32:31, looking good for Chicago. Next in was Chikara Omine who after suffering with the Flu all week and then staying up all night to catch up on school work still drove down that morning and finished 17th in 34:46. Followed by Dan Rhodes running 35:10 for 18th. Michael Shwe rounded out the team with a 37:41 good for 27th. Good job to all. Old'uns
Vitas Ezerskis led the way for the masters in 33:59, 15th place in the masters race. Tim O’Rourke finished next in 34:21 (4th 45-49), followed by Andy Apfelbaum (35:45 PR) and, much later, Tyler Abbott (37:38 ouch). Like the open team, the masters will be filled out by a senior—thanks guys!
The seniors were the only one of our teams to come out strong. Don Paul won the 55-59 national championship (by 1.5 minutes!) in 36:30. Lloyd Stephenson led our seniors in 35:51, winning the PA championship and finishing 4th nationally. Tom Bernhard finished strong in 37:01, 7th 50-54 nationally, followed by Les Ong (38:51, 4th 55-59), Al Stanbridge (40:59, 7th 55-59), Dan Ramos (42:00, 8th 55-59), and Kenny Savior Warde (43:26, 11th 55-59). Great job seniors, and thanks for saving the rest of us! Race for the Cure 5K - 09/25/05 Wong Wins Race for the Cure!
Our very own JENNY WONG won first place among all women in 18:48 at the SF Race for the Cure, winning by just one second! Whoo--talk about fight for the finish. She was 14th overall. Great run Jenny!
LEE D'ALESSANDRO, coming off a bad sinusitis, also ran Race for the Cure, placing 5th women (1st age group) in 20:00 flat. Trailblazer 10K - 09/25/05 Wrenn Third at Trailblazer 10K
Chicago training is going well. I ran my last long run yesterday but had to combine it with a 10k race. I was supposed to do a 10k tune-up on Sat and run 17 miles yesterday but I couldn't find a Sat race. So I ran 5.5, raced the 10k and then ran another 5.5 afterwards. The 10k went well - it was the Trailblazer 10k in Mountain View. I think I got 3rd woman and finished in 40:00 flat [Congrats Bean!!]. Now it is taper time! Yahoo! Jamba Juice 5K - 09/18/05 JAMBA: MASTERS, SENIORS WIN AGAIN!
The masters remained undefeated for the Fall season, the seniors won yet another road race, Lloyd Stephenson continued his winning ways, and both the open men and open woman put forth strong A & B teams at Sunday's Jamba Juice 5K. The club had a great showing, with over 40 runners coming out and A and B teams in all four of the divisions in which we compete. Details . . . . Open Men: New Balance Excelsior Open Men Take 2nd at Bananaman 5K Byline Chris Phipps
Unless Spider Man and Batman are running for WVTC or Fleet Feet, our open men finished 2nd at the Jamba Juice Bananaman 5K for our biggest payout of 2005. We always get a great turnout for the SF races and this one was no exception. John Weru led the open team in 11th with a quick 15:18 despite a nagging leg injury. Stephen Donahue’s 15th in 15:46 showed that he’s been training. Mega-mileage Chikara Omine was 23rd 16:01, followed by Chris “alcohol has no effect on me†Phipps in 38th, 16:24 and Dan X-point leader Rhodes in 42nd at 16:28. The team had plenty of depth this week with Brian Gillis (67th, 17:05) and Eric Knackamus (68th, 17:06) finishing together followed by Pete Vicencio (81st, 17:31), Dan bachelor party Shore (82nd, 17:34), Brian Schultz (154th, 18:54) and David Moulton (172nd, 19:15). Women @ Jamba Byline Jamie Chomas
We had a great day out chasing Banana Men with PRs all over the place!! Eleven women raced under sunny blue skies on a flat fast course, and we were able to score two teams. Leading for us was JEN MAJOR with a 17th place finish in a PR 18:23; NB queen JENNY WONG came in next in 23rd place with an 18:30. PATTI BERSHERS hit 19:00 on the nose for a 38th place finish, a little bummed that the officials didn't agree with her 18:58 watch time--you broke 19 as far as we are concerned! KIM FANADY was next in with a 19:29 for a 46th place finish, and a course PR! HELEN KAO came blazing in with a PR as well: a 50th place finish in 19:44. Awesome running!!
MICHA LOWE (20:34, 74th)--running Jamba in the middle of a 20-miler marathon training run-- led a pack of three NB ladies: JAMIE CHOMAS(20:35, 75th) and new teammate MOLLY SEAR (20:50, 77th) came in just behind her. Molly ran a PR also! Molly, we are looking forward to having you score for us when you are eligible next race! With a 22:43 and a 119th place finish, KASIA TARANTINO had a great run. BRENDA GEE came in 23:58 in 146th, and NANCY WANG raced in at 24:32 in 158th place. Unfortunately Lee D'Alessandro and Nancy Vuong have been fighting off colds and could not join us but they were out on the sidelines cheering loudly!
Thanks for getting out and running hard! It was a great day! Old'uns
In a stacked masters field, Iain Mickle led us with a fine 16:11 (4th), with Vitas Ezerskis, always a consistent top finisher, close on his heels in one of his best recent 5Ks (16:13, 5th). Tim Wallen (16:27, 10th), Cliff Lentz (16:39, 12th), and Tim O'Rourke (16:43, 14th) closed out the scoring. In a position he's not used to, Hans Gouwens (16:51, 18th) led the B team, followed by Andy Apfelbaum (17:03, 21st), a big gap, Tyler Abbott (18:14), Peter Hsia (18:37), new member Jeff Dewey (18:41)--welcome Jeff! and Samuel Harvell (18:52). I passed Tim Geraghty walking in the third mile, and he limped in at 18:57--hope you're ok Tim. As mentioned above, we seem to have won handily--but hats off to the open men, who slaughtered us.
The seniors also won, and won both sub-age divisions. Lloyd Stephenson won the overall senior title in 17:10, followed by second senior/first 55-59 Don Paul in 17:36. Tom Bernhard (17:57, 4th) and Jim Gorman (18:03, 5th) completed our 1-2-4-5 near sweep. The B team of Jim Tracy (18:32, 8th), Les Ong (18:35, 10th), Kim Lilot (19:15, 17th), and Dan Ramos (20:21, 26th) also seems to have done well. In his much-anticipated comeback out of retirement, The Rocket finished next in 20:46, followed by Gary MacPherson (20:51) and Tom Mann (27:58). I apologize for anyone I've missed. Franklin Templeton 5k - 09/11/05 Congratulations to new member Molly Sear on a fine race. From Molly . . . Thanks to Helen and Jenny, I now have a uniform! I test drove it on Sunday (9/11) at the Franklin Templeton 5k in San Mateo. While it was not a PR race, I did the uniform proud by coming in 3rd for all women, 2nd in my age group. Yes, truly a small, hometown race! %20Happy.png ":)") And if you want a unique 5k experience, try this one next year. Mile 2 is a lap around Bay Meadows Race Track, a nice, fluffy, 4 inches of sand to sink into! And great prizes to boot - I missed getting an iPod or digital camera by mere seconds! Put it on your list for next year and get your holiday shopping done. Golden Gate Park Cross Country - 09/10/05 MASTERS, SENIORS DOMINATE!
The masters dominated at Saturday's GGP cross country meet. Cliff Lentz, Iain Mickle, and Tim Wallen ran most of the race together (Tim leading most of the way), eventually finishing 2-3-5 (with Hans Gouwens and Dan Mancini finishing the team scoring in 9th and 11th, Mike Slavin just behind Dan--welcome back Mike!). Lloyd Stephenson notched his third cross country win of the year for the seniors, and the senior team put out a rare cross country team and seem to have won handily. Among other groups, the open men had a very strong turnout (16 runners!), and over half the top five was under 30, with one of the 30+ers new recruit Bret Kimple. And the women also had a strong showing, with three in the top 25 in the stacked field and nine runners overall. Unfortunately results weren't posted as of press time, so I only have the women's report . . . the others will follow. Women Byline Jenny Wong
The women made a big showing for the big Golden Gate cross country opener on 9/10. It was a picture perfect sunny day (one of only a handful that we get in SF in the summer) and we all enjoyed hanging out under our big New Balance tent (even if it was lopsided because Jenny broke one of the leg brackets). Jenny Wong finished in 11th in 25:39 (started out too fast, couldn’t recover because she’d been doing too much hard running, yoga and rock climbing earlier on in the week), Jen Major, happy to be running in the warm sun and coming off her fast 7th place finish at last week’s Empire Open, finished 17th in 26:07, Bean Wrenn (who was our last minute ringer) and showing no signs of fatigue from marathon training, finished 24th in 26:13. Patti, who also raced last week with Jen and definitely felt the effects of doing 9 strawberry hill repeats earlier in the week, finished 52nd in 27:51. Next was new Vizsla puppy mom, Nancy Vuong, in her debut race as a New Balance Excelsior team member (we are SO happy that Helen stole her from the Iguanas) finishing 54th in 27:54. Lee D’ Alesandro, who just got back from a world wind trip up Mt. Kilimanjaro, finished in a strong 28:02. Not showing the effects of a crazy work week and marathon training, Helen Kao finished 60th in 28:35. New super-mom, Jamie Chomas finished 72nd in 29:17 and new recruit Kasia Tarantino, who had never run cross country before and got so into race mode that she didn’t even notice any of the mile markers finished 94th in 31:40. Open Men: NB Excelsior depth is the difference Byline Chris Phipps
On the roads, after a team's top 5 are in, there isn't much the rest of the team can do to help the team's placing, but in XC it's a different story. Not only can your 6th and 7th runners displace another team's 5th man, but if you score a B team, then members on that team are also displacing. After a careful analysis of the results, it looks like we finished 3rd (our best finish this season), by the narrowest of margins ahead of Brooks Fleet Feet thanks to having 10 of our runners in before their 5th. Leading the way for the team was new recruit Bret Kimple in 19th followed by Chris Phipps in 26th (22:33), Chikara Omine (30th, 22:46), George Torgun (35th, 23:11), Ben Chaffee (39th, 23:28), Brian Richter (41st, 23:34), Dan Rhodes (45th, 23:55), Cesar Guillen (48th, 23:58), Brian Gillis (49th, 23:58), Dan Shore (56th, 24:19), Parker Kelly (58th, 24:21), Danny Lilot (63rd, 24:37), Robin Hart (67th, 24:52), Peter Vicencio (Welcome back Pete! Ã 69th, 25:18), Brian Schultz (82nd, 26:38), and Yurik Riegel (83rd, 27:02). Whew, 16 of us, that was great, must have been the free pizza! Let' try to top that at Presidio on October 1! Old'uns Byline Dan Mancini
If there was any question as to who is the best PA Masters XC team this season, the NB Excelsior men gave an unequivocal answer on Saturday. Like frat boys squeezing into a phonebooth, the team piled 6 men into the top-12 enroute to a dominating performance heretofore unseen in the GGP XC Opener. Leading the way were the 2-3-5 placings of the tightly packed leading group of Cliff Lentz (22:27), Iain Mickle (22:28) and Tim Wallen (22:35). The leading triumvirate was followed by Hans Gouwens in 9th (23:07), Dan Mancini in 11th (23:25, and paying the price for a 3-week vacation), and Mike Slavin in 12th (23:27). Next in was Andy Apfelbaum in 21st (24:02 and a big PR), Tyler "I've run exactly the same time for the last 4 years" Abbott in 29th (24:30), David Schmidt in 87th (27:25), Greg King in 91st (27:43) and Jim Misener in 135th (31:39).
The Senior men's team also put forth a strong showing on Saturday, led by the winning performance of Lloyd Stephenson in a fine 23:52 (19th overall), followed by rare XC appearances by Don Paul in 3rd - 24:34 (30th overall) and Les Ong in 17th - 26:15 (66th overall), with Kim Lilot in 26th - 27:22 (86th overall) rounding out the scoring. Empire Open Cross Country - 09/03/05 MICKLE/STEPHENSON WIN, MASTERS 1-2-3-5!
Empire bin bedy bedy good to us. Empire for the masters men is becoming what Tamalpa was for the open men in the late '90s. We've now won the race four years in a row (Gouwens-Steinmaus-Wallen-Mickle), and this year for the first time put forth a full A team and controlled the top positions. Iain Mickle led us off with a stellar sub-24 23:54 performance for what I believe was his first cross win. Cliff Lentz, running in his first masters-only race, came second in 24:13, with Hans Gouwens just a few seconds back in 24:18. Last year's winner Tim Wallen finished two places back in 24:44. About a minute later, Lloyd Stephenson won the senior race in 25:49 (10th overall), followed by Tyler Abbott (26:20 though he swears it was 26:13, which only matters if you look at last year...,14th) and David Schmidt (29:10, 39th). At this point last year the masters men had yet to score; now we have two wins and look to be the grand prix favorites.
With a couple people dropping out at the last minute, the open men decided to take a bye (and no one ended up running). The women took a bye as well, but two showed up for the race . . . . Women Byline Patti Bershers
With lots of team members having family, work, and travel commitments over the holiday weekend, the New Balance women's presence at Empire was short of a full team. However, Jen and Patti did their best to make some sort of good impression. Neither of us had raced since Dipsea, and Jen was just finished with a very busy first week of work at a new job, so we really had no idea what would happen. We went out hard, and suffered with everyone else over the tough climbs and steep descents of this challenging course. We both were pleased with our results - Jen in 7th place with a quick 27:52, and Patti in 12th place with a new course PR of 28:23. After a four mile cooldown, we got to watch our master's men scoring team finish 1-2-3-5-10. Sheesh, our old guys are fast. Looking forward to seeing you all, and our fast old guys, at Golden Gate Park this Saturday. Women go off at 9 AM. Lake Merritt Joggers & Striders 4th Sunday Run - 08/28/05 Wayne Plymale won the 15K in Sunday's LMJS's 4th Sunday Run. Congratulations Wayne! UC SANTA CRUZ CROSS - 08/27/05
Women Byline Bean Wrenn
We had a complete team Saturday at the Santa Cruz XC race. Bean, Helen & Julie had committed early to the race. Kim Fanady and Brenda Gee Deperalta were kind enough to make a last minute decision to attend the race to support the team and make it complete! A few of us were picturing a foggy morning run but the sun came out early and it was a beautiful morning out there. The course started out with a gradual uphill climb to almost the 2 mile mark and then it was down hill from there! Leading the way was BEAN WRENN(26:11) finishing 7th overall [Bean would have been 5th if she hadn't been tricked by the chalk mark at the start that was 100m short of the actual chalk finish line]. Next across the line in 37th place (28:26) was HELEN KAO who was coming off of a tiring 12 days in a row of rounds at work. KIM FANADY was our 3rd team member coming in at 45th place (29:04). Kim is getting ready for the Paso Robles 10k coming up in Sept. JULIE HUY (32:33) and BRENDA GEE DEPARALTA (32:56) rounded out the team with 62nd and 65th place. This was Brenda's first XC race--Awesome job Brenda! Thanks everyone for making the effort to drive down to Santa Cruz. It was a great morning! Men Byline Greg King
Despite the annual pilfering resulting from "that relay thing up north" (aka, Hood to Coast), the NB Excelsior men were able to hobble a team together to manage a 5th place in open team scoring (prelim, pending final results) on a warm day in the hills of Santa Cruz. Much help came from new club member John Weru [Welcome!!], who finished his debut in 9th overall (21:17). Hans Gouwens followed with an impressive 17th place (4th Master) in 22:39. Cesar Guillen (36th, 2:59), George Torgun (45th, 24:31) and Danny Did You Renew Your PA Membership? Lilot (53rd, 24:47) finished the team's top 5 scoring, followed by Ian Hersey (72nd, 25:48) and Brian Schultz (37th, 26:47) and, eventually, Greg King. HEADLANDS 50K NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - 08/27/05
Chikara Omine finished a stellar 4th (first PA) at Saturday's Headlands 50K National Championship. Chikara ran (a club record?) 4:03:40, and only a late fall kept him from 3rd. Cliff Lentz followed Chikara in 7th place (4:13:47), with Bill Whetstone filling in the last spot at the last minute and finishing 25th (5:00:40). We seem to have finished second to a strong team from Colorado, and seem to have won the PA team competition. Congratulations all! Hood to Coast - 08/26/05 - 08/27/05 The submaster (30+) Santini Extra Virgins, formed from a core of NBE members, won their division for the 9th year in a row in Friday-Saturday's Hood to Coast 196.8 mile relay from Mt. Hood to Seaside on the Oregon coast. The Extra Virgins ran a slightly disappointing 19:13:01 to finish 10th overall in a tight battle from 8th to 11th and just 41 seconds behind last year's time. In the mixed open division, sister team Santini Popeyes and Olive Oils ran their second best time, 19:47, to win that division for the second time and the first time since 2001. They finished 14th overall. Competing from NBE were Chris Phipps, Dan Rhodes, Tyler Abbott, Robin Hart, Eric Knachmuhs, and ex-pre-NBEers Dave Volk and Ryan Gallagher. Enough details to satiate even Boom Boom avalable at http://internet.ggu.edu/~tabbott/htc . . . . Congratulations all! Garin Park Cross Country - 08/20/05
Cross country started Saturday with a bang, with Lloyd Stephenson and Don Paul running 1-2 among the seniors. The masters also had a great showing, with Tim Wallen, Cliff Lentz, Iain Mickle, and Hans Gouwens running 2-4-5-6. Details below: Open Men Byline Chris Phipps
Cross Country season got under way a week earlier than usual this year with a new race in Hayward's very hilly Garin Park. Running over a minute faster on the same 5K course he last ran as a 17 year old high school senior 18 years ago, Chris Phipps led the team with a 17:27, good for 16th. He was followed by emerging ultra running star Chikara Omine in 21st (17:35). The scoring team was completed by the mini pack of Cesar Guillen (38th, 18:11), Ben Chaffee (39th, 18:12), and Brian Richter (40th, 18:19). Making his return to racing after a long injury layoff, Dan Shore finished 62nd. On the team side, it looks like we were 4th out of 7 teams.
For the first time since the mid 1990s we finished out of the money in fifth last year. It would be nice to be back in the top 3 or 4 this season, so get out to those races!
Women Byline Bean Wrenn
Julie (Huy) and I ran the race this morning. It was nice meeting her! Some of the other teams had a good showing of runners. The beginning of the course was rough - a very muddy field with lots of ruts. After that - hills, hills!! I managed an 11th place finish and Julie was 47th [had a rough drive to the race]. My legs were a little flat from all my marathon training but I felt pretty good overall and was happy with my run. It was a nice race! We missed everyone being there! Looking foward to seeing you next week at Santa Cruz! Old'uns
As mentioned above, Tim Wallen opened his 2005 cross country season with an excellent second place finish. Tim ran 17:30, just a few seconds behind the Aggies' Jose Aispuro. Cliff Lentz ran just 9 seconds behind Tim (4th master), with Iain Mickle (17:41, 5th) and Hans Gouwens (17:44, 6th) close on his heels. Tyler Abbott (19:06, 21st) and David Schmidt (21:45, 50th) rounded out the team. The team seems to have garnered an easy win, a good start towards taking the grand prix this year. Senior standouts Lloyd Stephenson and Don Paul were the only two who came out, but they led all seniors, with Lloyd running a fine 18:40 and Don not far behind in 19:21. ____________________ And, on the other side of the globe, a report from Dan Mancini:
On Saturday, Dan Mancini raced in his first international cross country event against some of Finlands finest. Competing in the 1st Annual Masters Grand Prix just outside of Helsinki, Dan fought off jet lag to finish 3rd overall and 2nd Master (bested only by former Finnish XC standout Esa Karvainen) over a European-style multi-loop rolling circuit. Skyline 50K - 08/07/05 Omine Wins Skyline 50K
Yes, it was a couple weeks ago, but better late than never. And unless my math is off, Chikara won this 50K just one week after his PR at the SF Marathon. Great job Chikara! Alameda Run for the Parks 10K - 08/07/05 Wong Second @ Alameda Run for the Parks!
Jenny Wong tuned up for Fall with an excellent 38:34 at Sunday's Run for the Parks 10K in Alameda, earning her a strong second place finish. Mike Shwe finished first among our men in 37:55 (21st). Mike was followed by Ernie Rivas (42:24, 4th 55-59), Dan Ramos (42:54, 5th 55-59), Gary MacPherson (43:54, 7th 55-59), and Nancy Wang (50:39, 2d 50-54) . Congratulations all! San Francisco Marathon - 07/31/05
Chikara Omine and Vitas Ezerskis finished 5th and 7th respectively in Sunday's San Francisco Marathon. Chikara ran an almost 10 minute PR 2:38:01 for 1st 20-24, and Vitas ran 2:42:56 for 1st master.
In the Half Marathon, I haven't been able to find results. I know Don Paul ran 1:22 for 1st senior. Among the women, I know Melissa and Andrea Grunst were top finishers, and Kim Fanady finished high among masters. Congratulations all, and I apologize for anyone I missed. PAUSATF Masters Track Championship - 07/16/05 Bob Darling and Jim Gorman both reported to me that Tom Bernhard won the 50+ 5000 at the PAUSATF Masters Track championship on July 16 in Los Gatos. Tom ran 18:12 for the win--congratulations Tom! Fleet Feet Davis Mile - 07/10/05
The seniors continued to dominate the circuit. While the senior overall win escaped the team due to a fine performace from Arthur Beckert, the club took the next four spots to run away with the team title, Jim Gorman finishing 1st 55-59 in the process. For the masters Tim O'Rourke continued his 45-49 dominance with yet another victory, finishing 5th master just ahead of 6th place Vitas Ezerskis. On the women's side new member Juli Morse Stump led the team in 5:23, with Kim Fanady setting a new masters club record in 5:40 and finishing 3rd. The open men chose a good race to drop. Women Byline Lee d'Alessandro
An enthusiastic group of ladies braved the threatened high temperatures of Davis this weekend for the annual mile. Leading us out in the senior heat was Nancy Wang in a time of 7:04! The fastest clocking of the day came from the open A heat with Juli Morse Stump in a blazing 5:23. Our 2nd best time came from the masters division with Kim Fanaday's 5:40 in, you guessed it, another club record!
From the B heat Lee D'Alessandro, in her 2005 debut, and Helen Kao raced to 5:47 and 5:57 times, respectively. Rounding out the team were Brenda Gee (Deparalta) in 6:43 and Julie Huy in 7:00. Great job ladies! Open Men Byline by Dan Rhodes
Why would four New Balance Excelsior men make the trip to Davis for what is possibly the oddest race on the circuit? Though most of us ran this distance in our prep and collegiate years nearly none have trained for it since. One would also wonder why mid-July is a good time of year to run in Davis (especially after 10:30 AM in the upper 80 degree range) when most PA runners are taking a break before preparing for the long fall racing season. The answer as far as I can figure is simply that runners are gluttons for punishment and here are 4 examples. Leading the way was Dan Rhodes (4:45, 23rd) next in Robin Hart (4:53, 27th), followed by a long time team friend and newest team member Mike Shwe (5:19, 37th), with Yurik Riegel just behind (5:23, 38th) having a good last couple races after a long absence due to injuries. Next up miles, miles, miles. We have a long break until the start of XC at Santa Cruz 8/27 and Hood to Coast so get some rest then start getting ready for the fall. Old'uns
Ageless Tim O'Rourke led the way for the masters in 4:47.8, 5th master and just ahead of Vitas Ezerskis in 6th (4:48.2). Dan Mancini finished 12th in 4:53.9, followed not closely at all by Tyler Abbott in 5 ouch 22.5. The masters now leave their fate in the hand of the seniors.
As mentioned above, the undefeatable? Jimmy G. and the Old'uns led the way with places 2-5. Jim Gorman finished second senior and first 55-59 in 5:03.2, followed by Lloyd Stephenson (5:04.8), Don Paul (5:06.8), and Tom Bernhard (5:13.2). Dan Ramos marked his return to club racing with a fine 5:47.0, with Tom Bennett rounding out the team (and providing a much needed 14th scorer!) in 6:49.6. 18th Annual Hernia Hill Half - 07/03/05 Phipps Wins! Byline Chris Phipps
Avery, CA - This is a very tough race that climbs gradually over rolling hills for the first 5 miles from about 3,500 feet to 4,500 feet, then drops 1,000 feet in the final 1.5 miles before the turn around to come back up "Hernia Hill". To make it worse, it was about 80 degrees with most of the race in the sun. My parents were watching the race and after we started, the race director said to one of the timers "I love it when these flatlander club runners come up here and get their asses kicked." (Up in the foothills they refer to Bay Area people as "flatlanders", usually in a derogatory way.) Anyway I ended up winning the race in 1:26:31, I think 2nd place was over 5 minutes back. Shriner's 8K - 06/25/05 Stephenson Wins, Seniors 1-2-4-5, Fanady Sets Club Record, Ezerskis 3rd
The seniors dominated at Saturday's Shriners 8K, with Lloyd Stephenson leading Jim Gorman, Tom Bernhard, and Don Paul to a 1-2-4-5 finish for the team. Vitas Ezerskis continued his strong spring with a 26:54 3rd place masters finish, in so doing leading all club finishers. On the women's side, a master, Kim Fanady, also led the club, setting a 31:52 club masters record along the way (breaking her own record by some seven seconds). Women: Flat 'N Happy! Byline Kim Fanady
Five intrepid NBEx women ventured to the far reaches of Sacramento for the Shriners 8K this weekend. The carpool departed at 5:45 (argh!), stocked with bagels, fruit, lots of water (thanks Helen!), and eager runners. Thanks to Micha's stellar driving, we arrived in plenty of time for everyone to perform her prerace ritual and be ready to run fast! When the gun went off, the NBEx'ers ran like the wind. Everyone had a top ten day!
Kim Fanady led the team in 31:52, a PR and a new club record, good enough for 5th masters and 19th woman overall; Helen Kao zipped in next at 34:08, 8th in her age group; Micha Lowe followed right behind at 34:16, 5th in her age group, overcoming a sprained ankle just a few days before; freed of her jogging stroller, Sara Jane Osborne powered to a 35:02, 6th in her age group; and rapidly improving Kasia Tarantino completed the team with a fine 36:52, 10th in her age group.
Everyone liked the fast, flat course (none of those pesky freeway overpasses) and the course monitors in their Shriners' fezzes. Micha coined the perfect description of Shriners: flat 'n happy!
Great job, everyone! Next up: one of the most fun races on the Grand Prix schedule, the Fleet Feet Mile. You just run like hell and then it's over! Open Men Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men's team made the early morning trip to Sacramento Saturday for the Shriners 8K and were rewarded with pleasantly cool weather and a flat shady double loop course. Dan Rhodes led the way finishing 30th in 27:30 and was closely followed by both Matt Regan 33rd 27:34 and Ben Chaffee 37th 27:39. Next in for the men was Brian Schultz in 30:39. For those who are counting that is only 4 open men so once again the Masters/Senior men have charitably lent us a runner to be named later (likely Tyler Abbott as he is campaigning to retake his place on the top 10 all time X-point list). Old'uns
Vitas Ezerskis led the masters (and the club) in 26:54 (3rd), followed by Tim Geraghty (28:26, 7th 45-49), Andy Appelbaum (29:09, 12th 40-44), Tyler Abbott (29:52, 15th 40-44), and a way-off season Tim O'Rourke (33:01). Even with their weakest team of the year, the masters look to have taken second.
As mentioned above, the seniors went 1-2-4-5, with Lloyd Stephenson winning in 27:45, followed by Jim Gorman (28:20), Tom Bernhard (29:06), and Don Paul (29:11). Allan Stanbridge (32:22) and Tom Mann (44:35) rounded out the team, providing the much needed extra runners for the younger teams. Double Dipsea - 06/25/05
Haven't seen official results yet, but I've heard that Cliff Lentz ran a fine if uneven 1:48 at Saturday's Double Dipsea to post the second fastest time (4th? in the handicapped race). Chikara Omine ran perhaps the next fastest time, 1:52, for a 7th? place finish. Dick Houston Memorial Woodminster XC Race - 06/19/05 Wong Wins! Morse-Stump Wins Triple Crown, Wrenn/Phipps Second!
Jenny Wong capped off an excellent spring of racing with a strong 1:06:08 effort at Sunday's Dick Houston Memorial Woodminster Cross Country Race. This earned Jenny fastest woman and 7th place overall honors in the handicapped race. Close behind Jenny was Chris Phipps, whose 58:17 (4 minute handicap) earned him 4th fastest time and 8th handicapped time. Juli Morse-Stump and Bean Wrenn were third and fourth fastest women in 1:08:33 and 1:10:41, both, like Jenny, with 12 minute handicaps. Parker Kelly finished next in 1:05:50 (4 minutes, 38th handicapped place), followed by Gary MacPherson (1:19:00, 12 minutes, 82d) and Tyler Abbott (1:13:54, 4 minutes, 100th).
Woodminster is the final race in the East Bay Triple Crown, and Juli Morse-Stump easily kept her first place position to win, followed by Bean Wrenn in second place. On the men's side, Chris Phipps finished second to David Monk.
Congratulations all! Skyline Ridge Trail 50K - 06/18/05 Chikara Omine won the Skyline Ridge Trail 50K in a course record time of 3:55:05 (a winning margin of 31 minutes!). Great job Chikara! Dipsea - 06/12/05 EIGHT BLACK SHIRTS!
Chris Phipps, Cliff Lentz, Stephen Donahue, Lloyd Stephenson, and Jenny Wong led the New Balance Excelsior honor roll at Sunday's 100th Anniversary Dipsea. Chris Phipps turned in the fastest time in the race, finishing 8th overall in the handicapped race (51:04, though "official time," currently being challenged, is 51:24). This gave Chris his 3rd fastest time award, and gave the club a five year hold in that category. Cliff led all club finishers in 5th place overall in the handicapped race, running twenty-eight seconds behind Phipps (but with two handicap minutes to Phipps's one) for his FIFTH second place scratch time finish, a Dipsea record, and in so doing preventing a Tamalpa sweep, though Tamalpa dominated the race and easily won, 16-59. BTW, Cliff accomplished the rare feat of a Dipsea Quotient above 100 (100.08--congratulations!). Cliff was followed just thirteen seconds (and two handicap minutes) later by Stephen Donahue, who finished 14th place in 51:45 (scratch), which I believe is his second third place scratch time finish. Stephen was the only scratch runner to shirt, an impressive accomplishment which gave him the dubious distincting of passing more runners than anyone else in the race. Lloyd Stephenson had the top finish of all Dipsea virgins, finishing just after Stephen in 58:11 (6 minutes, 15th). Adam Hersh finished the team scoring just behind Lloyd in 53:19 (1 minute, 17th).
The going got dense after Adam, with Iain Mickle just nine seconds (55:28, 3 minutes) but four places behind Adam. Dan Rhodes earned his first black shirt after so close yet 39th place finishes the last couple of years, finishing in 30th place in 54:49 (1 minute). Right behind Dan, Jenny Wong became our first woman to ever earn a black shirt, in 31st place (1:02:01, 8 minutes)! Eight Black Shirts--a club record!
A couple other people inherited Dan Rhodes's bad luck from the past couple years. Tim O'Rourke finished in 37th, just THREE SECONDS! out of the last black shirt position (59:04, 4 minutes, but he should get a 5th next year). Patti Bershers finished next on the team, keeping her top 100 spot in 1:05:50. Then Tyler Abbott finished just one untied shoelace out of the top 100 in 109th (1:02:44, 3 minutes). Tyler was followed closely by new member Mike Shwe in 135th (1:03:09, 2 minutes). After Mike came David Moulton (300th, 1:06:40, 1 minute), Randy Guerrero (442nd, 1:12:21, 3 minutes), and Marlin Gilbert (623rd, 1:24:11, 3 minutes).
We also placed two runners near the top of the runners section, with Ben Chaffee (4th, 55:20, scratch) and Jen Major (6th, 1:03:58, 8 minutes) enjoying impressive maiden voyages. Brent Kline finished shortly thereafter in 31st (1:02:54, scratch). Michael Gama (1:26:50, 4 minutes) also ran in the runners section.
Congratulations all on a tough, hot day, and I apologize to anyone I omitted! Lake Chabot Half Marathon - 06/05/05 Morse-Stump, Phipps Second; Wrenn Third!
June is Trail Month, and we turn our attention at this time every year from the roads to the trails. At the Lake Chabot Half Marathon Sunday, new members Juli Morse-Stump and Bean Wrenn finished second and third in 1:37:26 and 1:38:33, respectively. Since the Tilden and Chabot winners did not run both races, I believe this puts them in first and second place going into the final race of the East Bay Triple Crown (Woodminster in two weeks).
On the men's side, Chris Phipps continued to show the strength he built over the winter for Boston, finishing in a relaxed 1:24:27, good enough for second place and cumulatively just a little over a minute behind the triple crown leader going into Woodminster. Gary MacPherson ran with a strained quad and still finished 3rd 55-59 in 1:55:32. Last ouch and ouch least ouch, Tyler ouch Abbott ouch just ouch missed ouch top ouch 10 ouch in ouch his ouch single ouch age ouch 44 ouch group ouch in ouch 1:54:45 ouch ouch.
In the 5K, Allie Bigelow finished second! 30-39, running 24:23. Take it easy Allie! Marin Memorial Day 10K - 05/30/05 Masters/Seniors Win! A great day for the team, with the masters and seniors winning, the open men finishing second in a big field, and the women fielding one of the best teams in recent memory (when was the last time we had our LAST woman scorer at 39 flat, and our B TEAM all under 42?). Details . . . Among individuals, we had lots of seconds, with Tim Wallen, Tim O'Rourke, and Lloyd Stephenson holding down the second place spots from 40-54. Our one age group victory was Jim Gorman, 1st 55-59. Open Men Byline Chris Phipps The skies were clear, the weather was warm, and the bathroom lines were long at the Marin Memorial Day 10K. Noticeably missing from the faces formerly known as Pacific Sun were the timing chips, Sub-40 water bottles and port-o-pottys, but not the competition. The New Balance Excelsior open men fielded a strong team, and with a little help from our masters look to have placed 2nd to the ever dominant Transports in a tight team battle with Fleet Feet Sacramento, WVTC and host Tamalpa. Chris Phipps led the open team finishing 16th overall in 33:16. He was followed by Chikara Omine (21st, 33:35), Josh Dapice (29th, 33:49), Dan Rhodes (33rd, 34:20), new member Mike Shwe (107th, 38:31)--welcome Mike! Matty Greene (142nd, 39:26), and Brian Schultz (158th, 39:59). Women's Team Byline Patti Bershers The women had their best turnout in quite awhile yesterday, with 14 members on the starting line for yesterday's Marin Memorial 10K (and two more in the accompanying 2.5 miler!). I believe that is more than the open and masters men combined! [CLOSE--17 open/masters men v. 16 women. -Ed.] Meanwhile, our lucky group of 16 enjoyed beautiful Marin weather and each other's company over the flat and fast 10K course around the College of Marin. In our best performance this year (and probably since 2003), our scoring five were all in 25th place or better, and all well under 40 minutes! JEN MAJOR led the way with a crisp 38:19, as she finishes her Dipsea prep and continues to regain her speed, making last year's stress fracture a distant and fading memory. Close behind were our fantastic twins, ANDREA and MELISSA GRUNST, coming in at 38:30 after one of them struggled through a breathing problem out on the bike path. New member and first Idaho finisher was JULI MORSE-STUMP, running a fine 38:54. JENNY WONG shook off the effects of 975 miles of driving over the course of the weekend to record a solid 39:04 finish. Up next was SHELLY PIERSON, in 40:11. As many of you know, Shelly has taken a break from racing for the past several months to simply enjoy her family and a life full of running for fun rather than training hard. Her contribution to new member BEAN WRENN and old member PATTI BERSHERS was felt as Shelly pulled both in, Bean in 40:17 and Patti, continuing to feel and run better with a 40:30 Dipsea tune-up (good for second Idaho runner of the day, behind Juli!). NANCY VUONG ran a PR 41:32 despite the feeling at mile two that it wasn't going to be her day (now, how great is that - powering through a bad feeling to record a PR?!?!). KIM FANADY ran a strong 41:56, continuing to defy the notion that one is supposed to slow down after 40. New member KIM SCHILLING showed quick recovery from her prior weekend's half-ironman triathlon with a solid 43:50 effort. The Sara(h)'s were up next - new member SARAH WHITE in 44:46, and SARA JANE OSBORNE in 47:21. Close behind the Sara(h)s was new member KASIA TARANTINO, doing a nice job in 47:37. Well done, everyone! Running with all of these great women is the most fun I've had at a race in a long time - it was fantastic to have such a large group out there, and hopefully we can keep this momentum going! See you at Dipsea! Old'uns Tim Wallen continued his recovery with a sterling 33:27, in second place just twelve seconds off the masters win. Vitas Ezerskis finished third in a strong 33:39. Tim O'Rourke's 45-49 string finally ended, losing by a mere two seconds to recent 45-year old Carmelo Rios. Cliff Lentz (34:23, 9th) and Brad Zamczyk (35:00, 13th) rounded out the scoring team. Tim Geraghty led the B team in 36:16, followed by Andy Apfelbaum (36:24), Tyler Abbott in his first outing post-stress fracture (39:46), Peter Hsia (40:53), and Niall Vignoles (45:50). The seniors were led by Lloyd Stephenson in 34:48, finishing second just seven seconds behind the winner, Jim Gorman (36:10, 1st 55-59), Don Paul (36:43, 5th) and Tom Bernhard (37:28, 7th). Jim Tracy led the B team in 39:41 (6th 55-59), followed by Allan Stanbridge (42:27) and Wayne Plymale (44:47). As always I apologize for anyone I inevitably missed . . . . Finally, in the 2.5 miler, returning member Dan Ramos ran 15:16 to place 5th 55-59. New women's team member Brenda Gee won the 35-39 age group in 18:17, while other new member Nancy Wang ran 18:46 to finish 3rd 50-54. Welcome to the club, Nancy and Brenda, and welcome back Dan! Muffy's 5K - 05/19/05 [Rhodes] Cherries in the Park A few teammates hoping to do a little cherry-picking ran the 80% dirt trail and likely a bit short Muffy's 5K in GGP Thursday 5/19C Chikara Omine finished 2nd overall in 16:09, Dan Rhodes was 3rd in 16:19, and Jim Miesner ran 22:22. Bay to Breakers - 05/15/05 Congratulations to Chris Lundstrom on his 37:32 11th place finish, and to Chris Lundy on her 42:52 4th (?) place finish. Our top runner in this year's Bay to Breakers was Stephen Donahue, running in the first place centipede (39:17) and competing in one of the tightest centipede battles I've witnessed, in the end edging out the Adidas Transports centipede by 34 seconds, but running much of the race within a few seconds of each other. Chikara Omine finished next (41:01), likely good enough to earn himself a trip to Osaka next February. Congratulations Chikara! Josh Dapice followed in 42:03. After Josh, and I apologize too anyone I missed--I read through all finishers under an hour but undoubtedly mised someone--came Andy Apfelbaum (44:39), John Hale (44:42), Cesar Guillen (45:28), John Spriggs (48:51), Wayne Plymale (49:26), David Moulton (50:38), Eric Yan (51:15), Allan Stanbridge (51:23), and Michael Gama (55:07). On the women's side, the Grunst twins Melissa and Andrea finished high among women in 48:28, just ahead of the very competitive first place Aggie's women's centipede. Also Kenny Warde ran a 55:40 and Jim Misener reports that young William, running the entire race with dad at his side, ran 2:12. Congratulations William! Tilden Tough Ten - 05/15/05 Wong Wins, Phipps Second!
Byline Chris Phipps While thousands of runnes and walkers were making the trek from the Bay to Ocean Beach, a few club members chose the much smaller, and definitely tougher Tilden Tough Ten.
Jenny Wong continued her torrid racing of late, winning the women's race in 67 minutes and change, which is the 2nd fastest time in the last eight years (Magdalena Lewy-Boulet has the course record of 64:37). In 5th place was newest women's team member Bean Wrenn--welcome Bean!
On the men's side Chris Phipps took 2nd; his time of 59:17 earned him the only other sub 60 shirt of the day. Matt Regan was 4th in 62:xx and Parker Kelly was 8th in 64:xx. Gary MacPherson also ran (time and place not yet available). Zippy 5K Run - 05/08/05
On the racing front, The Men That Time Forgot amazed us all once again. Jim Gorman won his second senior race in a row, again by a narrow margin over Tamalpa's Don Porteous (with Lloyd Stephenson, hampered by herculean race day duties, third), and Tim O'Rourke finished third among the masters and undefeated 45-49. Among other teams, the open men put forth their best showing of the year with Stephen Donahue leading the charge in 15:26 and Chikara Omine running a road PR; and among the women, Jen Major continued her return with a very strong 18:35, and both Nancy Vuong and Helen Kao set big PRs. Details below. . . . Finally, Impala Cheryl Shwe forwarded us a link to many many Zippy participants at http://zinsli.com/pictures/05-0508_zippy Women Byline Helen Kao WOMEN RUN FOR GROCERIES! After a wet 5K, the New Balance Excelsior women managed to pick up enough cases (yes, cases!) of Stonyfield Yogurts and bouquets of Gerber Daisies, not to mention all the other goodies, to fill their fridges for weeks. Thanks to Jocelyn, Lee, and Jamie (and baby Cassady!) for coming out to help registration and to the Men's Team for cheering the women on after their own 5K. Alphabetically: ALLIE filled out our team with another obstetrician-approved (I think) 24:10 run as she herself begins to show her own filling out belly! "slow, but fun. . . a nice 'final' race". HELEN didn't believe the timing board when she PR'd by 42 seconds to her first sub-20 19:54, much thanks to Nancy's stellar pacing. JEN ran a "painful" but astounding 18:35 to break 6:00 mile pace. GO Jen! KIM noted the race at 20:08 was "a little setback on the comeback trail. . . my slowest 5K (except for hilly Big Sur) in 4 yrs. Ugh!". We know you'll be back Kim! NANCY broke 20 minutes with 19:47 and had "a great race! A new PR! all worth it, especially the free cases of yogurt!" PATTI kept Nancy on her toes with a speedy kick in the home stretch to finish 19:45. "While not my fastest day, I am finally feeling a lot better. I was happy to finish strong. Note to Nancy: you are going to beat me soon, this I believe is inevitable, but I'm gonna make you work for it! Congrats on your PR and first time under 20 minutes!" Open Men Byline Chris Phipps Stephen Donahue led the strongest open men's team we have fielded this year with a sub 5 pace 15:26, good for 13th. Then it was Chikara Omine in a road PR of 15:50 and Adam Hersh, in 23rd at 16:03 who unfortunately can not score for our club since he didn’t renew his PA card. (go to http://www.pausatf.org to sign up. Be sure to sign up for club 113--New Balance Excelsior). Chris Phipps (29th, 16:12) and Dan Rhodes (36th, 16:27) were next in for the club followed by Ben Chaffee (50th, 17:02), Robin Hart (63rd, 17:18), Yurik Riegel (100th, 18:30), Adam Lucas (107th, 18:42), and Brian Schultz (123rd, 19:21). (Yurik and Adam, you both also need to renew your PA cards.) Also, Helen Kao said that new men's master team member Niall Vignoles, who ran 20:51 in one of his first comeback 5Ks. Welcome Niall! Old'uns Among masters, Tim O'Rourke once again led the charge in 3rd place 16:11 (1st 45-49, keeping the streak alive), just edged out by a resurgent Jose Aispuro. Nursing a groin injury, Tim Wallen finished next in 16:33 (6th), followed by Vitas Ezerskis (16:41, 11th) and Brad 10 seconds faster per mile per week Zamczyk (16:45, 13th), with Tim Geraghty (17:23) closing out the team. Following Tim were Andy Apfelbaum (17:35) and Jim Misener (21:58). Jim Gorman led our huge senior contingent, winning the senior title in 17:20, with Lloyd Stephenson just behind in 17:29 (3rd). Tom Bernhard finished next in 18:12 (6th), followed by Jim Tracy (19:05), Kim Lilot (19:29), Al Stanbridge (20:09), Wayne Plymale (20:48), Gary MacPherson (21:42), new member Steven Ferraz (22:26)--welcome Steven!, and Tom Bennett (24:09).
Wildflower Triatholon - 04/29/05
Helen Kao reports that she ran her first triathlon in two years at Wildflower last weekend. She notes that with a 22d place age group finish but a 4th fastest 10K time, her training has been pretty specific the last couple of years. Congratulations Helen! Big Sur 5K - 04/24/05
BIG SUR: GORMAN WINS 55-59 AND SENIOR TITLE; O'ROURKE REPEAT 45-49 WINNER Jim Gorman edged out fellow 55-59er Don Porteous of Tamalpa to win both the Senior (50+) and 55-59 titles at Sunday's Big Sur. The Man That Time Forgot O'Rourke led ALL club members in 16:28 (16th overall), winning 45-49 and finishing second master behind newly master minted club friend Bill Bushnell. On the women's side, we weren't able to field a full team. However, new members Andrea & Melissa Grunst went down anyway, running strong 18:47s on the slow course, good enough for 9th and 10th places and an xx-point clean up. Other new members Nancy Vuong and Kasia Tarantino also ran strong, finishing in 20:17 (28th) and 22:39 (50th, to pick up final PA points!) respectively. Open Men Four New Balance Excelsior men skipped a few hours of sleep Sunday AM to make the early trip down to race the Big Sur 5K. We had good cool weather with a slight head wind for the 1st mile and an on time start which was a 1st in recent memory (much to Tyler's distress). Leading the way for the men was Dan Rhodes taking 17th place in 16:38 (course PR) and winning the 30-34 age group. Close behind was Matt Regan running strong and holding off the masters chase pack until the last 20 meters finishing in 22nd with 16:45 (also a course PR) and winning the 35-39 age group. Next in for the men was Josh Dapice in 32nd place running a PR of 17:19 on a course that is generally considered to be 15-20 seconds slow. In next after a long 2 year absence from racing and was Brian Richter (welcome back!) finishing 37th in 17:34 running great in his return. Good job guys. Women Byline Helen Kao While we didn't score a full team at Big Sur 5K, four of our newest teammembers scored BIG at the race. Everyone placed within Top TEN of their division. Way to go! ANDREA and MELISSA GRUNST continued their running streak with 18:47, coming in 1-2 while exploring more of California with their first visit to the Big Sur wilderness region. Newest member but long time team-friend, NANCY VUONG (Welcome NANCY!) ran a charged 20:15 for 9th. She writes, "It wasn't the flattest 5K but definitely very scenic and beautiful. For a second there I thought I was doing a cross-country race." [Hey Nancy, a little appetizer to X-country season this fall. ] New member KASIA TARANTINO woke up at 4AM (!!!) Sunday morning and still raced an impressive 22:39, placing 6th. Old'uns As mentioned above, Tim O'Rourke led the masters and our entire contingent in a quick 16:28, 1st 45-49, second master, and 16th overall. Vitas Ezerskis finished half a minute back in 17:00, 6th master, with up and coming Brad Zamczyk just behind him in 17:09 (9th). Andy Apfelbaum ran a strong 17:48 for 18th place, with Jim Misener (22:37) filling out the team. Hopalong Abbott showed up at the last minute to provide a tepid body, missing the start and gimping his way to an unofficial 23:25 (official 25:35). On the bright side, Mr. Abbott did become the first person to do San Francisco-Big Sur 5K-San Francisco door to door under five hours. In spite of quick times up front, even with optimal drop downs we have our first second place finish of the year, just losing out to the Aggies. Among the seniors, after Jim Gorman's senior division win, Tom Bernhard followed in 18:41 (4th). Perennial Spring 5K racer Jim Tracy followed in 19:51 (6th 55-59), with Allan Stanbridge (20:39, 5th 55-59) and freshly returned from Boston, Kenny Warde (22:06, 8th 55-59). Congratulations all! HP 10K - 04/17/05 Gold for Nelson, O'Rourke, Gorman! Dan Nelson continued his string of masters victories with an allergy-slowed 32:14, good enough for 12th place overall. Tim TMTTF O'Rourke continued his 45-49 victory string in 33:40, 25th overall and 3rd master. Jim Gorman ran 36:09 to take the 55-59 crown, and only the Aggies' Tom Cushman kept us from sweeping all divisions 40-59, as he beat out second place Lloyd Stephenson in 50-54. Also of note, Stephen Donahue marked his return to road racing with a fine 32:21. In team competition, the masters and seniors seem to have won handily, while a rejuvenated women's team had its best outing in a while, thanks to newest members the Grunst twins and top efforts from Jenny Wong and Jen Major. More below . . . . Women Byline Helen Kao At the HP 10K, the New Balance Excelsior women swept the course with speed and style, fielding not only one but TWO competitive teams in this double-points PA race. Everyone had a word (or two) to say about Sunday’s race. On the way we inducted more than a few new members to our stellar group of women. In alphabetical order: - PATTI B, who has been battling fatigue, still finished a strong 40:51 calling the race a test of “Perseverence†- ALLIE B proved she could indeed control her hyper-ness with an obstetrician approved 55:35 which she labelled “Slow†- KIM F ran a top-10 masters 41:32 “Course PR!!!†- New member ANDREA G, blazing through at 37:50 (11th!), called the race experience “Fast†- New member MELISSA G, also finishing in 37:50 (12th!), commented that the race was “Flatter (than Emerald Nuts), more like Minnesota†- HELEN K, revelling at all the awesome NBEx women around her, ran a PR 43:12 - MICHA L, who kept HK on her toes by keeping in front with a 42:57, called the race “Sweaty†- JEN M, who made the race look easy with a 38:41 (20th!), couldn’t decide on one word to describe the race so settled for two “Great Fun†- New member SARA JANE O made an even stronger showing than at her debut 12K with 44:59, calling the 10K “Better†- CHELSEY R swept in at 43:49, echoing Sara Jane with “Definitely better†- JENNY W sans Bender ran 38:13 (14th!) while multitasking with the distribution of New Balance baseball caps In other new member news: - Newest member Kasia Tarantino, who will be joining us officially at Big Sur (Welcome Kasia!), called the race “Awesome†with a solid 49:19. - Allie corrected me to say that Baby Bigelow has actually “run†a PR 39 min 10K prior to this 55 min 10K - Sara Jane’s 2 year old daughter Lilia triked-and-trotted her way to her first duathlon with mom and dad in tow! Open Men Byline Dan Rhodes The open men started off the PA short race series with a grand tour of Cupertino's overpasses AKA the HP 10K. Leading the way was Stephen Donahue running a smart and evenly paced race finishing 13th is 32:21 and 11th in the tough 25-29 group. Next in after a few long minutes was Dan Rhodes running a less evenly paced 34:30 good for 37th overall and 5th is the 30-34 group, closely followed by Josh Dapice running well and finishing 43rd in 34:39, 17th is the 25-29 group. Matt Regan running his 2nd consecutive PA race which will drastically reduce his chances of repeating as Bowler of the year in 2005 finished 47th in 34:59 and 8th in the 35-39 group. Next is was the ever reliable Brian Shultz who had the honor of being our coveted and often elusive 5th man crossing the line in 39:38 good for 15th in the 35-39 group. Good job to all . Next up is the beautiful Big Sur 5K this weekend. Old'uns As mentioned above, Dan Nelson and Tim O'Rourke finished 1-3 masters to lead the team to its fourth straight victory. Tim was followed by Vitas Ezerskis in 34:15, with Tim Wallen close behind in 34:47. Ex-Bowler Brad Zamczyk made his case for the A team with a strong 35:16 return to racing to close out scoring. Andy Apfelbaum (PR 36:10), Tim Geraghty (36:28), Ian Hersey (38:42), and Alan King (39:23) rounded out the team. For the seniors, Lloyd Stephenson led the way in 35:43 (2d), followed by Jim Gorman (36:09, 3rd), Don Paul (37:20, 6th), Tom Bernhard (37:38, 7th), Wayne Plymale (40:39), Ian Reid (40:57, 4th 60+), Allan Stanbridge (41:54), and Tom Mann (59:16). Congratulations all! Boston Marathon - 04/18/05 Parker Kelly led our Boston contingent in 2:51:34 (net), followed by Matty Greene (3:04:26), Chris Phipps (3:08:34), and Kenny Warde (3:41:26). Club friend Chris Lundstrom finished 20th! overall in 2:23:50. Congratulations all! Santa Cruz Half Marathon - 04/17/05 Chaffee Wins Santa Cruz Half Dan Rhodes reports that Ben Chaffee won Sunday's Santa Cruz Half Marathon in 1:19:03. Congratulations Ben! Carlsbad 5K - 04/09/05 Gorman First @ Carlsbad! Jim Gorman continued his assault on the 55-59 age group with a one-second victory in the Carlsbad 5K Sunday. Jim ran 17:33 (age-rated 87.07!) to edge out Colorado's Dave Dooley (17:34). Congratulations Jim! Johnny Mathis Invitational - 04/02/05 At Saturday's Johnny Mathis meet at SF State, Chikara Omine won the 10,000 in 32:5x. Chris Phipps continued his string of strong races, running 15:44 in the 5, and Jen Major continued her comeback with a fine 18:45. Great job all. Emerald Nuts Across the Bay 12K - 03/20/05 O'Rourke, Stephenson Win Across the Bay! Tim O'Rourke won his second PA race ever, and Lloyd Stephenson won his second in a row at Sunday's Emerald Nuts Across the Bay 12K Sunday. On the team front, the masters and seniors both appear to have won, the masters remaining undefeated this year, and the open men and women both fielded strong teams, with both falling just one runner short of a B team. Women Byline Jen Major On Sunday, March 20, the New Balance Excelsior Women had NINE! women turn up for the Across the Bay 12K. Thank you to everyone who ran! Jenny Wong led our team in a very quick time of 47:54! Excellent work, Jenny. She was followed by Shelly Pierson (49:16). Our next finishers were Jen Major (51:29), Kim Fanady (53:41), Micha Lowe (54:11), Jocelyn Friel (54:54), Chelsey Remington (55:55), Helen Kao (56:09), and new member Sara Jane Osborne (59:38). Despite the windy conditions and nearly everyone's hard day running, I think we all did a fabulous job, and it was so great to have so many women out running! Great work! Open Men Open men field a team with 4 to spare and pick up 3rd place (and $75) at Emerald Nuts! Byline Chris Phipps Somehow Dave Rhody always manages to get clear skies for this race despite weather forecasts to the contrary (now if he could just do something about the wind on the bridge). The wind may have slowed the times a bit, but the New Balance Excelsior open men still ran strong fielding their largest team of the year. Chris Phipps, running this 12K race for the 12th consecutive year, finished in 12th place (40:21). He was followed by Dan Rhodes in 31st (42:58), Parker Kelly in 34th (43:14), Joshua Dapice in 42nd (43:46), and rounding out the scoring 5 was 2004 Bowler of the year Matt Regan. Matt came stumbling in after suffering a severe side stitch in the last 400M and lost several places in the process, but still held on for 48th (and a few PA points) in 44:29. Also making a return to PA racing after taking 2004 off was “official race vehicle†Cesar Guillen who was 53rd in 45:15. He was followed by post marathon Don Hogue in 64th (46:08), Matthew Greene in 70th (46:18) and Brian Schultz in 126th (49:47). Old'uns As mentioned above, the masters seem to have won. Tim HDGOHJGB--be the first to decipher for a free prize! O'Rourke won his second PA race ever (the first being last year's Clarksburg) in the amazingly consistent (compare his times the last four years--but throw out the '03 downhill slalom) 41:48. Tim was followed closely by Vitas Ezerskis in 42:09, third, Tim Wallen (43:20, 10th), and, making his masters debut, Cliff Lentz (43:49, 13th). Tyler Abbott finished the scoring in 46:07 (21st), followed by David Schmidt (50:56, 19th 45-49). Seniors had a dominating performance, with all scorers scoring in the top 3 in their respective age groups: as previously mentioned, Lloyd Stephenson took the senior title in 45:11, followed by Tom Bernhard (47:03, 3rd 50-54), Jim Gorman (47:28, 2d 55-59), Ian Reid (50:57, 2d 60-64), Allan Stanbridge 52:54 (7th 55-59), Kenny Warde (54:31, 10th 55-59), and Wayne Plymale (55:57, 20th 55-59). I apologize for anyone I missed. USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships - 03/12/05 Gorman 3rd at Nationals! Following up his incredible 2004 performances at his then new age division of 55-59, Jim Gorman finished third in both of his races at indoor track nationals over the weekend. Jim ran 10:16.02 in the 3000 M, age rated 86.27. In the Mile he ran 5:04.96, 87.97 age rated. From Jim: "I felt the altitude even though it was only 2800 feet. I don't think anyone ran what they thought they could." [I should feel such altitude at 56. -Ed.] Marin Trails 20K - 03/12/05 Marin Trails Sweep! Chris Phipps ran 1:09:55, Adam Hersh 1:09:58, and Josh Dapice 1:14:35 to sweep the top three spots at Saturday's Marin Trails 20K. Tyler Wrong Way Abbott was first master/ninth overall after losing 2-3 minutes in 1:21. St. Patrick's Day 4 Miler - 03/12/05 Congratulations to Adam Lucas (24:44) and Pete Nowicki (25:06) on their 1-2 finish at Sunday's St. Patrick's Day 4 Miler on Crissy Field. Tyler Abbott finished 9th again in 26:05, toa in tow. John Frank Memorial 10-Mile - 03/05/05 Nelson, O'Rourke, Stephenson, Seniors Win! Dan Nelson ran 53:02 in record-setting heat up at the NorCal John Frank Memorial 10-Mile race Saturday in Redding to win the masters division by just under a minute and finish fourth overall. Tim O'Rourke finished exactly four minutes back to take the 45-49 win by three minutes, and Lloyd Stephenson ran 1:02:37 to win the senior title. On the team front, the seniors appear to have won, but more below . . . Open Men Byline Chris Phipps Just 4 ouch open men made the trip up to beautiful Redding, CA for the 35th annual NorCal John Frank Memorial 10 miler. The weather was a bit warm at around 70 degrees for the 10AM start. Chris Phipps led the team running his best race in a while completing the tough and hilly course in 55:31, to finish 13th. He was followed by his Half Moon Bay High teammate Dan Rhodes who finished 18th in 58:15. Dan was followed by our newest team members Matthew (Matty) Greene in 46th (64:39) and Marc Boutillette in 77th (70:05). Old'uns As already mentioned, Dan Nelson, Tim O'Rourke, and Lloyd Stephenson all won their age divisions. The masters team started out strong; Vitas Ezerskis finished just behind O'Rourke in 57:11, giving the masters three of the top four places (and the top three team scoring places). After Vitas there was a gap . . . and Tyler Abbott came in in 1:03:13, followed by Greg King in 1:12:38. The masters seem to have finished second behind the Pacific Striders. On the senior side, Lloyd's win was followed by Tom Bernhard's 6th place 1:06:02, Ian Reid's 1:08:59 (4th 60+), and once again savior Kenny Warde's 1:14:14. This appears to be easily good enough to give the seniors the win.
Congratulations all! Napa Marathon - 03/06/05 Lundstrom Wins Napa! Club friend and SF State cross country coach Chris Lundstrom won his weight in wine Sunday at the Napa Marathon. Chris ran 2:23:43 even with his traditional late-race stop to win the race and become the RRCA National Champion! More information may be found at: http://www.napa-marathon.com/pr.asp Congratulations Chris! Caruso Memorial 5K - 02/27/05 Men Sweep Caruso 5K Chris Phipps ran an uncontested 16:12, followed by Dan Rhodes in 16:51, Matt Regan in 17:10, and first master Andy Apfelbaum in 17:42, as the NBE men swept the top spots at Sunday's 5th Annual Tom Caruso Memorial 5K. Tyler Abbott finished eleventh male, third master (first OGWJ) in a JPR and JCR 19:32, just behind toa. Marc Boutillette finished 14th in 19:46. On the women's side, Patti Bershers finished second in a PR or PR-equaling 19:02. Congratulations all. Chinese New Year 10K - 02/13/05 Phipps Wins Silver @ Chinese New Year 10K Chris Phipps ran a comfortable 33:3x to finish second in Sunday's Chinese New Year Run 10K. Chris reports that Tom Bennett also ran, though results had not been posted as of press time and he wasn't sure of Tom's time. Finally, club friends Chris Lundy and Katy Hollbacher went 1-2 in the women's 10K. Congratulations all! Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon - 02/06/05 Stephen Donahue ran a tough 1:12:15 on the deceptively hard Kaiser Permanente (was Home Depot, was SF) Half Marathon course for fifth place. His time was almost a minute ahead of last year's winner--a much more competitive race this year! Chikara Omine continued his Never Met a Race I Didn't Like exploits with a fine 1:15:27, 10th place finish. Wearing the old yellow was Greg Koniowka (1:18:21), followed closely by new member George Torgun (1:18:25). Peter Lewandowski started his warmup for the spring Tri season in 1:25:38. On the women's side, Helen Kao ran 1:37:33 (80th), followed closely by Nicole Britvan (1:37:51, 83rd). In the 5K, club friend Chris Lundstrom won a nail biter in 15:02, just barely over a quarter mile ahead of his closest competitor. Patti Bershers continued her return from injury in 20:11, with Marlin Gilbert running 21:58. I'm sure I missed several people out there (and not just the bandits, Phipps)--sorry! Davis 10K and Half Marathon - 02/06/05 Allie Bigelow won the 10K up at Davis this weekend, running 39:31. In the Half, erstwhile club member Darrin Rohr won in 1:13:53, with Dan Rhodes finishing third in 1:15:27. Congratulations all! Mud N Guts XC Run - 01/29/05 Wallen, Phipps Show Guts in Mud
Tim Wallen won the masters competition at Saturday's inaugural Mud N Guts XC Run. Tim ran 23:36 on what was basically the traditional 4 mile GGP course (using the single track on the Polo Fields and extended by 12 seconds or so at the end, with plenty of mud). Tyler Abbott won the third and last masters prize in 25:18. John Spriggs was fourth master in 26:17, followed by Tom Bennett in 35:44. In the open competition, club friend and race director Chris Lundstrom had an excellent fourth place finish in a stacked field, running 20:42. New member George Torgun finished 13th overall in 24:00, with Dan Lilot finishing next in 24:10. In the two miler, scorer Chris Phipps ran 11:19 to win running away. Cal 10 - 01/09/05 The masters and seniors started 2005 where they left off 2004, both with convincing victories. More below . . . . Open Men: No Sub 55 Shirts, but 5 sub 60’s Byline Chris Phipps The 2005 PA Road Grand Prix got under way last weekend at everyone’s favorite Stockton road race, the California 10. Chikara Omine led the team placing 20th with a PR of 55:02 just missing the coveted Sub 55 shirt (according to Mancini, the wet day made times about 25 seconds slow). Next for the team was Chris Phipps in 25th running a PW 55:58 and ending his streak of sub 55 shirts. He was followed by Dan Rhodes 32nd, 56:40, Don Hogue 36th, 57:31, and Parker Kelly 54th, 58:48. It looks like we started the season in 3rd place again and picked up $50 in team prize money. Woo hoo! Women Byline Shelly Pierson After watching the clouds open up and down pour on us all night, we all got up on Sunday morning thinking the worst.......RAIN! To our glorious surprise the morning and race ended up being perfect! With a temperature around 49 degrees and not much more than a few sprinkles here and there, the NB Excelsior women lined up for the 2005 Cal -10......and what a team they were with the top-4 women running the entire first 5 miles together. At mile 5 Jen major coaxed Shelly Pierson into picking up the pace a bit, though closely followed by both Patti Bershers and Jenny Wang. Running strong and the top-4 still pretty close together. They all finished strong and the top-4 within 1:49 of each other with Shelly Pierson 17th (1:05.28), Jen Major not too far behind in 21st (1:06.28), next was Patti Bershers with a new PR (I believe) 23rd (1:06.40), Jenny Wong 25th (1:07.19), and new team member the "Mighty Moi-Tai" Vanessa Alvarado in 88th (1:23.48). Old'uns The masters showed their penchant for team running, with the top four all coming within 35 seconds of each other. Craig Steinmaus led the masters in a fine 56:15, 3rd master and 25th overall, one place behind Phipps. Vitas Ezerskis (5th) finished second in 56:27, followed by Tim O'Rourke (6th, 56:36) and Dan Mancini (8th, 56:50). Tim Great to have you back Geraghty finished the scoring in 59:19 (18th), with Tyler Abbott (59:52, 24th, next to last person under 60) and Ian Hersey (1:04:13 in the middle of Ironman training) rounding out the team. The seniors also seem to have won. In spite of a cramp that sidelined him for half a minute or so, Don Paul still finished 4th senior, in 1:00:32. Jim Gorman finished two places back in 1:01:53, with Lloyd Stephenson next in 1:02:13. It seems like every team featured one runner returning to action after an extended absence, and for the seniors it was Brock Hinzmann, finishing 9th in 1:03:29. Tom Bernhard led the senior B team in 1:04:58, followed by Ian Reid (1:06:30, second super senior!), Les Ong (1:06:41), Kenny Warde (1:14:19), and Wayne Plymale (1:15:16).
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