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EXCELSIOR Running Club Results - 2006 
Christmas Relays - 12/17/06
Bronze Bronze Bronze
An intense end to a long racing year came at Sunday's Christmas Relays. With nothing at stake in the grand prix standings, all three of our teams (open men, masters, and seniors--the women took a well-deserved bye)
finished third. Details . . .
Open Men
Byline by Dan Rhodes
The open men had an interesting week leading up to the Christmas relay with the competitive spirit between our two relay teams leading us to nearly forget about racing other teams and just focusing on our inter club rivalry between A and B teams.
Unfortunately by race time one of the prime instigators of all the trash talking and betting was sidelined by injury,
and another simply showed up to hungover to defend his claims.
In the end there was to be no beer relay or nakedness to be seen which was probably a relief to all the other participants. We had to settle on just running hard and placing our A-Team in 3rd overall 2 minutes faster than our effort last year despite having 3 men returning from the marathon 2 weeks ago.
Dan Rhodes led the 1st lap in 24:41, Brian Gilliss ran the 2nd in 24:50, Chikara Omine blazed a 23:47 (Just 1 second off his PR) and Jin Daikoku sobered up enough to do a lap in 25:01. For a team time of 1:38:20.
As for the B-Team I didn't get a clock on them and no one is fessing up what their time was plus I haven't seen the results posted yet but I believe we were 6th open and 18th overall with Oliver Chan, Matt Hinde, Matt Patout, and Dan Rhodes returning for a second lap after running leg 1 on the A-Team.
Congratulations guys! If anyone wants an extra trophy mug let me know I ended up with 4 of them. Stay tuned for the season end wrap up report.
Masters Men
Vitas Ezerskis led the masters off with a fine post-marathon 25:30. Jeff Dewey returned to club racing after running his own fall marathon to run the second leg in 27:32. Tim Wallen, who'd promised himself he'd be running tempo pace, broke his promise to run the third leg in the second fastest club time of the day in 24:16, moving the team up several places and setting up anchor Cliff Lentz (24:48) to pass two masters teams and give us a third place masters/eighth place overall finish. Time was
1:42:16 (yes, 10 seconds of phantom time).
Senior Men
Byline Rocket Darling
We finished in 3th place. The senior team splits were:
1. Rocket: 29:39 (6:38 avg)
2. Jim Gorman: 27:39 ( 6:11avg)
3. Brock Hinzman: 29:44 ( 6:39 avg) (Welcome back from retirement)
4. Tom Bernhard 26:18 ( 5:53 avg) (great anchor leg)
USATF National Club XC Championships - 12/10/06
The open men and women suffered from some CIM-itis (affecting the depleted entry list more than the fine performances), the masters men faced some tough luck in an unprecedentedly deep field, and the senior men fell just short of a full team, but we saw some great efforts from the likes of Bigelow, Major, Kimple, Nelson, and Wallen, just to name a few, and hey, everyone had a great time at Saturday's National Club Cross Country Championship.
Special thanks to the Asics Aggies and to our own Tim Wason for putting on such a great event. And I'm saying that even after missing the party! When can we do it again?
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men were a bit depleted for nationals with many of our regulars recovering from CIM but still managed to get 8 men across the line.
Leading the way was our import Bret Kimple visiting from OR and running a 33:40 on the muddy course. Next in we had Ben Chaffee running well in 35:43 with Jin Daikoku close behind in 35:58 making his long-awaited
return after a Spring injury.
Parker Kelly waited all year to join us but has been a big help in the last 2 XC races and finished next in 36:06. Papa Shore was our 5th man running 37:16 with what I would guess to be little to no sleep. Then we had a couple of marathoners out for recovery runs with Matt Patout recovering well in 37:21 and Dan Rhodes not so well in 38:43 but I had fun and didn't get lapped!
Ron Gutierrez rounded out the team with a 39:59 ultra marathon speed workout. Yurik Riegel also came out to run but wisely dropped out when he knew this wasn't his day as opposed to me who never received that memo. Good job guys.
Women
Byline Allie Bigelow
On a picture perfect cross country day in San Francisco (also known as
overcast, rainy and MUDDY) 9 brave Excelsior women took on their first
National level competition. Everyone went in with the idea to have fun and it sounds like we all accomplished that mission.
Despite an incredibly crowded course (248 women!) and a LOT more mud than a few weeks ago at PA Champs, everyone ran well. First across the line for the team was Allie, who ran 23:12 in brand spanking new shoes [ed: a 20 sec. course PR, despite the adverse conditions!]. Next up was Jen M. who tore in in 23:36, finishing strong after working hard to not start too fast. Hot on her heels was Stacey in 24:13. A perfect minute later Helen came in, in 25:13.
Next in the train of pink was TRACY, who ran an impressive 25:41, despite working on her swimming much more than her running as of late. Lee and Megan came through next in 26:57 and 27:22 respectively. Next was Gerry in only her second XC race ever, finishing in 29:06. And last but far from least was Julie H, who enjoyed herself thoroughly and finished in 31:03.
[ed: Jen and Helen capped off a very long 2006 racing season, competing in pink in an incredible number of road races (PA and otherwise), cross country meets and even a triathlon!)]
Thanks to everyone who raced and to our fabulous cheering squad of Jamie, Carin, Tanja and Julie M, as well as our enthusiastic men's teams. The support was fabulous and well appreciated!
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
The rain soaked fields of Golden Gate Park held host to the National Club
Cross Country Championships on Saturday, greeting a mammoth pack of some 450 runners in the Masters Men's race - the largest National Masters XC field ever assembled on the planet. And the competition was ferocious.
The stampede across Speedway Meadow literally shook the earth as the
runners jockeyed for position. By the time they reached the mile, Dan
Nelson had firmly established himself in the leading group. The lead pack
was a veritable who's who of former National class runners from the mile
to the marathon.
Dan showed his pedigree by holding his position amongst the best Masters runners in the country throughout the race, ultimately finishing in a terrific 8th place (33:24) and defeating the 2002, 2003 & 2004 Champions in the process.
Meanwhile, the rest of the squad was doing their best to earn a top-5 team placing. Tim Wallen, running his best race in 3 seasons, finally showed some grit with an excellent 35th place performance (34:56). Cliff Lentz showed a wrestler's tenacity in the final miles to score a strong 56th place finish (35:36), while Dan Mancini spewed out a 71st place showing (35:54), followed closely by Iain Mickle who was suffering a side stitch, but hung on gamely for 74th (35:57).
Mike Slavin, suffering from knee problems, was forced to run defensively,
but still managed a solid 82nd (36:11). Pete Vicencio started out
conservatively, but stormed home late in the race, passing runners by the dozen to grab 90th (36:20). Hans Gouwens, in the final race of his career, but also hobbled by knee problems and virtually no running since PA Champs, ran bravely for 95th in 36:28, and cross country perennial John Spriggs rounded out the team in 40:27 (243rd).
Though the injury setbacks conspired against the team achieving its goal of a top-5 placing, they nonetheless represented themselves admirably with an 8th place finish (and just seconds from 6th place) among some 25 teams.
Due to a little miscommunication, our seniors fell just short of a full
5-man (national rule) team. Captain Allan Stanbridge led the four in 44:20 (20th 55-59), followed closely by Dave Schmidt (44:20, 87th 50-54), Kim Lilot (44:30, 21st 55-59), and Tom Bennett (57:29, 37th 55-59).
Pictures:
Mike Shwe forwards a series of great pictures he took at nationals . . .
And Tom Bernhard forwards this link to 553 pictures . . .
Les Ong and Tom Bernhard have uploaded a bunch of nationals pix of our runners to:
And Tom points out that there are also a slew of pictures at:
California International Marathon - 12/03/06
VITAS, MASTERS WIN!
Vitas Ezerskis capped off another fine year of racing with his first win
of the year. Vitas ran 2:42:08 to finish 48th overall. Unfortunately, he
seems to have fallen shy of the long grand prix win by just ouch two
points.
Thanks to new member Tim Sheeper and Ian Hersey, the masters also
seem to have won the race--thereby vaulting them back into the grand prix lead, by just one point going into Christmas Relays. Among other teams, both the women and the open men had great performances and great turnouts. Details . . .
Women
Byline Tanja Tamguney
On a cold but sunny day we had a team of six women running the 26.2 miles from Folsom to Sacramento: Donna, Jocelyn, Heather L, Julie M, Carin and Tanja.
Tanja had lots of fun running her first marathon and crossed the finish line after 3:08:45 (7th F25-29), closely followed by Carin who ran steady and finished strong in an excellent 3:12:13 8th F25-29). Although fighting cramps Heather L was the next to come across the line in a great 3:20:53 (11th F25-29), closed in by Julie M in awesome 3:21:27 (12thF25-29).
Jocelyn looked amazingly fresh when she came into the finish after great 3:26:17 (27th F35-39). Donna was troubled by a rib she cracked two
weeks ago falling during a training run, but nonetheless fought her way
through to complete the 26.2 miles.
Great job everybody! All this would of course not have been possible without great support from others: Big thanks to Helen, who gave 'warm' last minute advice (heating pads etc) and was on the course 3+x times to cheer people on.
Shelly, Brenda (running alongside Donna and helped her fight the pain to finish) and team friends Charlene Bayles, Carol and Cheryl Shwe were also cheering on loudly, as was the Alex & Alex support team on bikes. Thanks a lot everybody!
[Ed: Tanja's husband Erdem also finished his 3rd marathon of 2006!
Phenomenal!]
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men had a strong showing again with 8 men in this years CIM.
Leading the way was Chikara Omine in a PR? of 2:36:03/6th PA. George
Metronome Torgun rounded out a great season with a very smart and well paced race to finish next in 2:39:48/9th PA, followed by Brian Gilliss who after a late season injury scare has returned to run well finishing in
2:53:50.
Next in was Craig Riebersal in 3:00:02 Ouch! just missing the 3:00 barrier. Rounding out the team were Oliver Chan 3:05:48, Matt Patout
who was earning brownie points by running with Heather finished in
3:20:35. And Matty Green rounded out the team with a 3:21:18.
As for myself I was soon reminded why this is my least favorite of distances when after the 1st 10 miles in 59:25 (on pace for my goal time) I proceeded to set a PR for the longest death march of my life! to finish in 3:01:19.
Good job to everyone it is great to see so many teammates out there and I am sorry for the lack of commentary about your race but I was in no shape after the race to find or talk to anyone.
Old'uns
As mentioned above, Vitas Ezerskis won the race, finishing strong in a
tactical 2:42:08. New member Tim Sheeper followed in 2:48:13 (8th?)--welcome Tim!--and Ian Hersey fought the calf problems that have
sidelined him for most of the period since Humboldt with a fine 3:05:52. I
believe Kenny Warde was the only senior running; Kenny finished in 3:34:50.
Run Wild - 11/26/06
[Kao]
Excelsior women did New Balance proud at Sunday's Thanksgiving tradition race. No longer called 'Run to the Farside' because of losing Gary Larson and his familiar comic characters, the race was somewhat smaller and less costume-d than previous years.
Perhaps the impending rain scared away runners as well. But on Sunday, Jen Major and Helen Kao braved the cold for a fun 5K. Jen placed 2nd overall in 18:30 and picked up a medal and gift certificate. Helen, a straight minute behind Jen, finished 4th overall in 19:30 (testament to the smaller field)--relieved to finally have a PR and finish an otherwise crumpy year with a good race.
In the 10K race, Kim Fanady finished 3rd overall (1st age group) in 41:26. Fortunately for everyone involved, the rain did not pour until after the race was well over.
Ed.: Among men, Tim Wallen tuned himself up for Nationals with a fine
second place 16:13 finish in the 5, followed by Chikara Omine doubling
back from Thursday, not to mention the previous Sunday (16:36, 3rd),
Oliver Chan (17:10, 6th, also doubling back), Andy Chan (17:10, 9th),
Agustin Cruz (17:56, 16th), and Stan Yasuhara (22:52, 9th 50-59). In the 10, David Moulton ran 40:25, 38th, followed by Brian Schultz on the
comeback trail 40:41, 43rd. I apologize to anyone I've missed . . . .
Seagate Elite 5K - 11/23/06
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men had a Thanksgiving surprise this year when the Seagate Elite 5K snuck onto the schedule (for open men only). What better way to spend your holiday than running 4 laps in down town San Jose in fear of being lapped by a pack of Olympic runners!
Needless to say it was a bit hard to talk 5 guys into running this one and the PA as a whole had only a small group of around 30 men entered.
Leading in our men was Chikara Omine who's legs are showing signs of life after running his 100 miler and finishing in 31st/16:25. Ben Chafee also running well finished in 34th/16:41. Oliver Chan out to take one for the team was next in 40th/17:16.
From here things get a little fuzzy as some runners were apparently not given timing chips and the results may be a bit off. Robin Hart ran +/- 41st/17:20-17:30 while narrowly avoiding being caught by the leaders, and Yurik Riegel who has been out 5th man and savior many times this season showed up again to contribute a +/- 42nd/19:05. Good job guys and thanks again for coming out on the holiday.
Pacific Association XC Championships - 11/19/06
PA CHAMPS: DYNASTY!
The masters men won their third straight PA Championship in dominating
fashion, with the PA winner, the entire scoring team in the top 10, and 8
of the top 15. All that with two non-PA members in the mix (so in the PA
we had 8 of the top 13!).
No other team had more than one runner within our top 8! Hey, if the D-word fits . . . . The women put forth a very strong team, the strongest we've seen all season, while the open men were similarly strong and the seniors scored a cross country team for the first time this year. Details . . .
Women
Byline Helen Kao
We fielded what I believe was our largest PA XC women's team in years
(ever?). There was definitely tight teamwork at play with pods of women running together--as evidenced in the photos and finishing times.
See the terrific photos from Lee's message below and Mike Shwe's link at the end of this e-news (if you scroll through Mike's photos fast enough it's almost like watching a movie!)
Jen Major, 55th, topped the team in 23:27 with her mother out on the field proudly cheering. Jenny Wong, 58th, kept a tight pace with Jen, finishing 23:31 after an exhausting week of work. Allie Bigelow, 60th,
post-marathon, passed off baby Zach to the cheering squad and raced with a tight achilles, 23:34. Stacey Schweighart, 67th, proves she fits in well with her new team, capping a stellar 23:49.
Tracy Hogan, 97th, enjoying a change from her usual triathlons, rounded out our top 5 scorers with 25:14. Helen Kao, 99th, had a blast on the new course and used Tracy to help pull her to 25:22. Heather Leutwyler, 102nd, preparing for CIM, kept pace with Tracy and Helen for 25:30. Lee D'Alessandro, 120th, continued her steady recovery from a tough year to finish 26:16. Jocelyn Friel, 135th, also in her taper for CIM, worked though a sprain mid-way in the race for 27:05.
Megan Thomas, 138th, also post-marathon, ran her first XC race ever, enjoying a 27:19 finish. Molly Newlon, 170th, single-handedly representing the NBEx masters and seniors proved its never too late to try new things; she had a lot of fun in her first XC race, as well, racing to 35:24
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
This years PA Champs offered a great chance for a pre Nationals XC tune up and course preview and many of the area's best runners came out to play. Leading in the men was George Torgun showing the strength of his marathon training with a strong last 4K loop to finish in 34:13.
Next was Brian (back from the scrap heap) Gilliss running 35:48 only 3 weeks after injuring his hamstring and thinking his season was over!! Ben (don't ask me about oral hygiene) Chaffee was next in 35:54.
Parker Kelly making his 2006 debut ran well finishing in 36:13, not to be confused with Kelli Parker who finished a few places ahead? Matt Patout ran 37:02 to be our 5th man, with Chikara (badger of Babiak) Omine still recovering from his 100 miler finishing in 37:42, Dan Lilot 38:47, and Yurik Riegel beating the Schneid! in 41:02.
Ron Gutierrez our 50K trail specialist finished in 42:57 to round out the team as our 9th man. Good job guys!
Masters Men: Threepeat!
Byline Dan Mancini
The Masters men captured their 3rd consecutive PA Cross Country
Championship title, taking 5 of the top 10 and a phenomenal 8 of the top 15, in a team performance that ranks as one of the most dominant in PA Championship history.
Their team score of 22 (15 being the lowest possible) gave them a 56 point winning margin over the 2nd place team, and was a testament to the superb individual efforts by each member. In an effort to inject some competition into the race for the usually dominant Dan Nelson, the USATF flew in U.S. Marathon Olympian and newly-minted master Rod DeHaven. Though Dan ultimately finished 2nd, he earned his 3rd
consecutive crown as the first PA finisher in a fine 33:37 over the 10,026 meter course.
Behind Dan, the parade of NB Excelsior men followed in rapid succession - 7 men within 1 minute! - Tim Wallen 6th (4th in the PA) - 34:58, Iain Mickle 8th (6th PA) - 35:12, Mike Slavin 9th (7th PA) - 35:24, Cliff Lentz 10th (8th PA) - 35:32, Dan Mancini 11th (9th PA) - 35:44, Hans Gouwens 14th (12th PA) - 35:53, and Pete Vicencio 15th (13th PA) - 36:00.
Meanwhile, leading the B Team [and after shall we say a decent gap -Ed.], Tyler Abbott finished in 75th - 40:01, Andy Apfelbaum 81st - 40:20, and John Spriggs 86th - 40:46.
Tom Bernhard led the Seniors in a fine 39:53 good for 69th overall and
19th Senior, followed by David Schmidt 127th - 44:20, Allan Stanbridge
129th - 44:26 and Tom Bennett 176th 56:46.
Pictures
First from Mike Shwe, almost recovered from knee surgery . . .
Iain Mickle forwards masters pics form Zinsli:
and Lee D'Alessandro points out that pics for all races may be found at
www.zinsli.com, weekend results, PA and Western Regional Championships.
Finally, thanks to the many many runners (Helen mentioned at least eight women who came to watch in addition to the eleven racers) and blasts from the past who came out to watch and cheer. Among the latter were spotted founding modern men's open team member Antonio Corgas (almost 50, seniors!) and Chris Evans. I think someone said they spotted Sylvester Franklin lurking in the trees, but this was unconfirmed.
Davis Turkey Trot 5K - 11/18/06
[Kao] Nancy Vuong and Helen Kao trucked out to Davis on Saturday, Nov 18 for the annual Turkey Trot 5K. The weather was perfect and the race was impressively attended for a community event.
We each pulled the other along, crossing the finish line together in 19:10, 19:12 (on what we believe was a slightly short course), for 1st and 2nd Age Group and 4th, 5th overall.
CLARKSBURG 30K - 11/12/06
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
We had a strong showing at the Clarksburg 30K this weekend with our top 3 finishing 3 in a row.
Dan Rhodes lead in the open men with a 50/50 effort = running my planed pace to the turnaround then gimping all the way back to finish in 14th/1:54:10.
Next in was George Torgun running his last long tune-up for CIM ran much smarter taking it easy one the way out and picking off loads of people on the way back in what he described as an "interesting run" finished in 15th/1:56:32 just catching Oliver Chan in the last 1/4 mile.
Oliver who also subscribed to the Rhodes racing method of going out hard and suffering all the way home finished 16th/1:56:32. Craig Riebersal rounded out the team with a 40th place 2:07:38 effort and
was reported enjoying a casual conversation with an undisclosed Impala
along the way!
Good job guys we look to have taken 2nd place as a team.
Women
Only two Excelsior women showed up in Clarksburg. Julie McGee and Carin Ward were pleased that the event was officially titled a "country run," as both used the morning to complete their final long run before CIM.
Carin finished in 2:16:17, and Julie in 2:27:22. They had fantastic
support from #1 fan/personal physical therapist/gear carrier/chauffer Alex.
Old'uns
Vitas Ezerskis and Cliff Lentz posted fine 5th-6th place masters finishes
at Sunday's Clarksburg 30K in 1:51:32 and 1:52:26, respectively. Tyler
Abbott ran ouch 2:13:22 to round out the team. Miraculously the team may have even pulled off the win there.
With two senior drops in the final 48 hours, Kenny Warde was the lone runner; Kenny finished in 2:24:05 (17th 50-59).
City of Trees Marathon - 11/05/06
From Allie Bigelow
Just a quick marathon report from beautiful Boise, Idaho...it was cold and rainy, but I paced my good friend Stacy to a solid 3:32 finish at City of Trees yesterday, so we are off to Boston in April.
Since that will be an even slower marathon I am thinking I might try to run a hard effort sometime soon just to see what I can do. But in the meantime we had a ton of fun, Boise is beautiful, and my 2 friends and I finished 11th, 12th and 14th women overall (yep, it is a small marathon).
US Half Marathon - 11/05/06
Helen Kao reports that new member Stacey Schweighart finished 3rd in 1:29 at Sunday's US Half Marathon. Team friends Kasia Tarantino and Amy Pearson ran 1:43 and 1:47. Helen thought Jocelyn Friel was running, but didn't have her result.
FLEET FEET XC - 11/04/06
Mickle Second!
After five straight third place finishes and a sixth in last week's stacked Tamalpa race, Iain Mickle broke through with a strong second place
finish in a deep field at Saturday's Fleet Feet cross country meet at
Ancil Hoffman Park in Rancho Cordova.
The masters seem to have just missed out on the win though, in spite of another strong effort by Cliff Lentz and Pete Vicencio's best race of the year (so far). The women and open men took well-earned byes for the out-of-town race, though Jenny Wong ventured up and finished a strong 8th in 22:40.
Details . . .
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
In the final tuneup before PA Champs, the Masters men put in another
strong performance at the Fleet Feet Open in Sacramento on Saturday.
Leading the way for the team was Iain Mickle who blazed his way to a
stellar 2nd place finish - his best performance of the year - in a speedy
19:19 over the 3.63 mile course. Cliff "I'll Be Late To My Own Funeral"
Lentz followed in 5th place (19:53), with a fast-improving Pete Vicencio
in 7th (19:57) right on his heels.
Meanwhile, Dan Mancini used the first 3.5 miles as the warmup he never got, then kicked hard for 200m enroute to a 15th place finish (20:23), while Tyler Abbott continued his post-post improvement in 44th (22:19).
The team is primed for PA Champs in 2 weeks where they will field their first full squad all year in hopes of three-peating as champions.
And finally, Mike Shwe, moving quickly along the comeback trail, forwards the following pictures from the race . . .
Marine Corp Marathon - 10/29/06
Congratulations to Brenda Deperalta who ran an awesome 3:48 Marathon this past weekend in DC. She placed 51st in age group. WOW!
Lafayette Reservoir 10K - 10/29/06
Kim Fanady reports that she ran into Julie Huy while they were both out
racing this east bay 10K over the weekend. She wrote "Beautiful day, fun community event, great tshirt, and beautiful course around the reservoir but very very very very very very hilly.
Julie was 9th in her age group, 51:32, and I was 3rd woman and 3rd in my age group (first 4 women were all over 40--good day for us oldsters!), 23rd overall, 43:52." Congratulations!!
SF One Day Event (12/24 Hour) - 10/28/06
Congratulations I think to Chikara Omine on completion of his first 100
mile run, as part of a 24 hour run last weekend.
From Chikara via Dan Rhodes: "The race went alright. I didn't feel as good as usual, but at least my legs kept on moving. I originally planned to go for the entire 24 hours but by mile 80 I changed my mind. I psyched myself out, when I thought about how much sleep I will be missing out on and was satisfied with 100 since I've never gone that far before."
Tamalpa XC - 10/28/06
Nelson/Masters Win!
Dan Nelson led the masters in a dominating pre-Champs performance by the masters at Saturday's John Lawson Memorial Cross Country Meet, placing all scorers in the top 10 and 7 in the top 16. Details . . .
Women
Byline Patti Shore
Saturday was a great day for racing! Five NB-Ex women made up our full team for the John Lawson Memorial Challenge, over a 4.25 course at China Camp in Marin County.
The sun was bright but not too hot, and the course was challenging but not too much so. Jen Major was our first runner in, 28:03 for 15th place. Close behind, and with a scary-good kick, was new member Stacey Schweighart, 28:32 for 21st place. Stacey says she gets
that kick from playing soccer - going to have to try that.
Helen Kao showed that her ankle is really, truly getting better, with a fine 29:40 for 34th place. Heather Leutwyler was our 4th scorer, with a great 31:00 performance for 50th place.
Carin Ward gets the "taking one for the team" award for the day - Carin ran the race in the midst of her marathon-prep 22 miler. After a short warm-up, she ran a nice tempo effort 31:15 for 53rd place, and then took off on her long run.
We watched the masters men AND the open men before we saw Carin again. Nice work, Carin! Out cheering were Patti Shore and Larissa Polischuk - at least one of whom is desperate to start racing again. Great job to everyone who raced, and see you all at PA Champs.
Open Men @ Tamalpa
Byline Dan Rhodes
We did manage to get 7 open men to the line for this years Tamalpa XC
race. With no less than 3 men nursing mid week injury's we were a little
nervous about having a team but needing our 5th team score everyone showed up ready to run and tough out one for the team.
In years past this was a race that many teams would skip and was a great opportunity to pick up some easy points, but the secret must have gotten out and this year was vary competitive with most teams showing up in full force.
George Torgun once again led us in with another fine performance finishing in 17th/23:58. Dan Rhodes was next in 41st/25:11 with Brian Gilliss running conservatively on a sore hamstring close behind in 43rd/25:17.
Dan Shore making another appearance on his comeback tour finished in 26:16 just ahead of new team member Chris Faraday 26:23 who was running his first race in 5 years! welcome to the team Chris. Matt Hinde deciding to join us at the last minute to insure we would have 5 healthy runners cruised the course for 4 miles then dropped down to his 400 meter speed to pick off a handful of runners at the line finished in 27:33, and Yurik Riegel despite being plagued by calf and ankle problems all summer was able to run well finishing in 28:29 to round out the team. Good job everyone!
Editor's note: In a deep field, the open men tied on points for 5th with
GVH. With tiebreaker being the place of the 5th runner, we ended up 6th because GVH's 5th runner finished ONE PLACE ahead of ours. Ouch! And on the women's side, we missed 3rd place by exactly one point. Close races!
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
For the 2nd week in a row, the Masters men's team dominated the top 10 and took 7 of the top 16 in a phenomenal team effort to claim another victory at the Tamalpa Challenge.
Dan Nelson, sharply attired in all black and looking well-rested and fit in his seasonal debut, took the overall victory in a comfortable 23:54. Tim Wallen and Iain Mickle followed in 5th (24:34) and 6th (24:35) respectively, with Mike Slavin in 8th (24:45) and Dan Mancini in 10th (24:49) following closely behind.
Hans "Eddy Merckx Jr." Gouwens cannibalized most of the field on his way to an impressive 12th place performance (24:59) in his 2006 XC debut on 2 day-a-week running, causing some to whisper "EPO" under their breath, and beating back a stunned Pete "H.S. Footlocker Finalist, but what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" Vicencio to 16th place (25:14).
Rounding out the fine team effort were John Spriggs in 54th (27:39), Tyler Abbott (humming the Heat Miser song) in 90th (29:41) and David Schmidt in 92nd (29:46).
Chicago Marathon - 10/22/06
From Helen Kao . . .
Congratulations to our petite but speedy duo Megan Thomas and Larissa
Polischuk who both ran PR's (at least I'm pretty sure they both ran PRs by several minutes) at Sunday's Chicago Marathon.
Megan ran a 3:25 with a faster 2nd half than her first (wow!). And Larissa bested her marathon time with a 3:23. Hope you both had a LOT of fun.
And on the men's side, Jeff Dewey reports that he ran a 12-minute PR in
3:04:08 in the cold (38F) and windy (but thankfully rain-free) conditions, and he believes Matty Greene ran 2:58 and change.
Shoreline XC - 10/21/06
The masters men had another strong showing, with four in the top 10, as they seek to improve their ouch 5th place current gp standing, the women managed a fine team effort with some last minute fill-ins to all but guarantee that they'll score six races and end up in a money spot, and the open men took the bye they earned by running Garrin. Details . . .
Women
Byline Jen Major
Five women ran the 5K cross country race in Mountain View. Thank you to everyone who came, especially Nancy and Donna who agreed to it Friday night in order to make a complete team! What dedication!
Despite everyone's commitment to run, not race, once the gun went off, we all hurried over the fast, hot (no shade to be found), dusty course as quickly as possible!
Jen Major finished in 19:03, followed by Nancy Vuong, 20:45; Tracy Hogan, 20:59; Lee D'Alessandro, 21:36, and Donna Chan, 22:13. Thank you all so much! It was a great race!
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
Under a sweltering sun on Saturday, the Masters men circled the Shoreline landfill like vultures picking apart their prey enroute to a dominating performance, placing 4 in the top-10.
Iain Mickle led the team with a strong 3rd place finish - his 5th consecutive 3rd place of the season - in 24:14.3.
In rapid succession behind Iain were Cliff Lentz in 6th (24:48.8), Mike
Slavin in 9th (24:58.0) and Dan Mancini in 10th (25:04.2). Tyler Abbott
rounded out the scoring 5 with a 36th place showing (28:13.8), with Tom Bennett securing a 31st place Senior finish in 39:02.3.
Humboldt Half Marathon - 10/15/06
Mickle, Bernhard Silver
Iain Mickle ran 1:16:01 to finish second master (12th overall) at Sunday's Humboldt Half Marathon, and Tom Bernhard ran 1:22:15 for second senior. Details . . .
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men had a good showing at Humboldt this year. First of all just
getting 5 men to the start is a good sign after only having a 1 man open
team at last years race, and secondly with good racing weather we had
several PR performances.
Leading the way for the men were Dan Rhodes and Brian Gilliss running in a strong pack together for most of the race with Dan turning in a modest negative split for a PR of 1:15:09/9th place/1st 35-39, and Brian with a big PR of 1:15:43/11th. Next in for the men was Oliver Chan in his 1/2 Marathon debut of 1:20:11/27th/2nd 19-24, and rounding out the team were our Matt's with Matt Patout finishing in 1:21:11/31st and Matt Hinde in 1:25:35/47th. Good job guys.
Women
Byline Nancy Vuong
The women's team cut it rather close in just filling a full team of five.
Carin Ward led the way with a surprising finish of 1:28:04 despite battling a hamstring strain for the past month. She was overheard before the race to be happy to finish at 1:30.
Julie McGee was hoping for a cup of coffee mid-race to help her through the second half but was still able to reach her goal of running under 1:30 by finishing in 1:29:31. Nancy was hoping for the "This is great! I feel awesome!" feeling she had throughout the entire race last year but was not too far off with a time of 1:32:29.
Heather Leutwyler, PR'ing by at least 3 minutes, finished right after
Nancy in 1:33:18. At mile 10, Heather thought "at least I'm not having to study". Julie Huy rounded out the team of five with an enjoyable race
because "the air was so clean". She finished in 1:50:44.
Old'uns
Iain Mickle led the masters in a fine 1:16:01 to finish second master
overall. Vitas Ezerskis finished next in 1:18:26 (7th), with Ian Hersey
coming aboard at the last minute and following in 1:23:43 (13th). Tyler
Ouch! Abbott and Niall out with bronchitis all week Vignoles rounded out
the team in 1:35:04 and 1:49:43.
For the seniors, Tom Bernhard led in 1:22:15 (2nd), followed by Les Ong
(1:25:40, 8th), Jim Gorman (1:27:09, 11th), and Allan Stanbridge (1:35:49, 17th). The seniors seem to have finished second.
San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon - 10/08/06
[Kao] And congratulations to Brenda Gee Deperalta who finished 22nd AG in 1:43.54 at the San Jose RNR Half Marathon.
Primo's to Primo's Half Marathon - 10/08/06
[Kao] And congratulations to Jules Huy who doubled back from Saturday's Presidio cross to run Primo's Half Marathon as a training run the day after Presidio. She finished in 1:58.27. Helen Kao ran the accompanying 5K and finished an excellent 4th overall in 20:09.
Dick Collins Fire Trail 50 - 10/07/06
[Rhodes] Chikara Omine won the Dick Collins Fire trail 50 mile race
winning by nearly 30 minutes in 6:54:55. Congratulations, Chikara, but I
hope you saved a little for Humboldt!!
Presidio Challenge XC - 10/07/06
MASTERS SWEEP!
At our own 8th Annual Presidio Cross Country, the masters swept, with winner Tim Wallen, Cliff Lentz, and Iain Mickle running together in the lead the whole way and finishing within seconds of each other.
The open men put forth a strong (and young!) team in an unusually
deep field, and the women continued their cross country momentum with another fine effort.
Most importantly, big thanks to Carin Ward for her very capable race direction, and thanks to all of you who came out to help. Details . . .
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
This year the competition was much deeper than in the past few years for our own Presidio XC race. The NBEx men won this race last year but look to have finished 4th or 5th this year even though our team time was faster this year.
Leading us in was George Torgun in 20th/20:21, with hill specialist Brian Gilliss close behind in 23rd/20:36. Ben Chaffee was next in at 7th/21:01, followed by Dan Rhodes in 31st/21:20, and Matt Patout "Pa-too" who is improving every week as he seams to be racing himself into shape finished 37th/21:51.
We had a Dan Shore sighting in 50th/23:07, and Yurik Riegel rounded out our 7 man squad in 56th/23:55. Also thanks to our open men who kept to the sidelines as race volunteers--Brian Schultz, Jin Daikoku, and Chris Bowler Phipps, who was given a "timeout" and forced to sit facing the bathroom wall for the entire race. Good job everyone!
Women
Byline Allie Bigelow
Buoyed by fabulous team support on our (challenging) home course, a small but hearty women's team took on the (challenging) beautiful Presidio course.
The first pink blur across the line was Jenny Wong in 24:15, who passed Allie Bigelow in the final stretch with enough energy left in her to yell encouragement during her kick. Allie Bigelow did not catch Jenny,
but followed in behind in 24:17.
Next up was Tracy Hogan, crossing the line in a stellar 25:29 in her FIRST XC race ever (Tracy, we promise that not all of the races are this challenging!). Hot on Tracy's heels was the indomitable Shelly Pierson, finishing in 25:39 despite her ongoing battles with both anemia and vertigo!
Heather Leutwyler flew in next in a strong 26:42, and last but certainly not least was Julie Huy, who looked impressively strong as she finished in 32:20.
A good race was had by all! (but did I mention that it was challenging?) Kudos once again to our fabulous race director Carin Ward...you did a fabulous job and it was great to have one of our own at the helm.
Ed.: The team results have just been released, and the women won!
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
Continuing the domination that they have enjoyed at this race over the
last several years, the Masters men swept the podium spots with relative ease at the Presidio XC on Saturday.
Though 2-time defending champion Dan Nelson was absent, the triple threat of Tim Wallen, Cliff Lentz and Iain Mickle put a half-nelson on the field, exerting a stranglehold on the race by mile 2. By the time the 3 hit the baseball field all that was left to decide was who would win the battle over the final 400m.
In the end, it was Wallen's ferocious kick that brought him home first in 21:10, one second clear of Lentz (21:11), with Mickle a scant 3 seconds adrift in 21:14.
Early leader Pete Vicencio, hung on gamely to collect 9th place in 22:09. Next in was a still black and blue Tyler Abbott in 45th (25:34), with Alan Stanbridge, our only Senior, posting a fine 27:41 good for 62nd place.
Garin Park XC - 09/30/06
With the women and masters men taking byes this week, the open men were our only representatives at Saturday's second annual Garin Park cross country meet.
It was great to see such a strong team of twenty-somethings out there (but where are the thirty-somethings?), with token master Tim Wallen helping out. . . .
Open Men
Byline Brian Gilliss
After some last minute uncertainty as to whether we would field a full team, the open men brought out a solid group to Garin Park in Hayward to run a hilly 5K on a cool, overcast day.
The race began slowly across a muddy, gopher hole-filled field and onto a fast flat cinder road for the first 1/2 mile. A pack of Transports darted right to the front but then settled into a slower pace, causing the rest of the field to be bunched close behind.
As the run turned uphill, things began to spread out and the Excelsior men moved into position. Chikara Omine went out front first followed closely by George Torgun. Next up, Ben Chaffee and Brian Gilliss,
shadowed by Masters drop-down Tim Wallen, climbed ahead of Matthew Patout and Yurik Riegel who followed up the hill.
Reaching the midpoint of the course at the top of a ridge, George moved toward the front of the race with Brian chasing, and Ben, Chikara, and Tim picking off runners behind in a tight group.
Everyone more or less maintained position through to the end of the race, except Chikara and Tim, who kicked hard to reel in Ben, who had put in a small gap. Matthew finished next, remains uninjured, and seems to be improving week by week. Yurik will report on the relative success of his race after seeing the results and determining who he finished with.
Excelsior results:
George Torgun (15th-17:04), Brian Gilliss (21st-17:29), Chikara Omine (22rd-17:38), Tim Wallen (25th-17:45) (3rd Master), Ben Chaffee (26th-17:45), Matthew Patout (44th-18:39), John Spriggs (67th-19:42), and Yurik Riegel (78th-20:11). I believe we finished third, narrowly missing an opportunity to beat host WVTC, and not so narrowly behind the Transports. Great job guys!
Women
Byline Helen Kao
While the team took a 'bye' for Garin Park, fellow teammates HEATHER
LUETWYLER and JULES HUY forged ahead to compete in the XC race. Heather ran a super 22:05 in a tough pack of runners. And Jules, who reports her father has been slowly recovering from a long hospitalization and is doing better (our best still go out to him!) continues her return to racing with a 26:33.
Heritage Oaks 10K - 09/24/06
Fanady National Champ! Seniors National Champs!
At Sunday's Heritage Oaks Bank 10K National Masters Championship, Kim
Fanady ran 40:32 to finish first in the 45-49 age division (and 11th 40+)
to win her first national championship. Congratulations Kim!!!
It took a few days for the dust to settle, but it now appears that our
senior men became national champions yet again, this time at Paso.
Congratulations Tom, Les, Jim, Dan, and Kenny!
Among men, Tom Bernhard finished second in the 55-59 division. Details . . .
Women
Byline Kim Fanady
The NBEx women painted Paso pink yesterday at the Heritage Oaks Bank 10K yesterday! The team prepped with a fun dinner of Thai food -- chili, garlic & basil make you run faster -- on Saturday night at a very nice restaurant on the town square in pretty Paso Robles.
On Sunday everyone was ready to speed over the flat, fast course on a sunny, cool morning. Kim Fanady led the team in 40:32, 11th master overall and 1st! age group.
Next across the line was Tanja Tamguney in a sharp 40:43. Helen Kao followed in a strong 42:11. Julie Huy posted a 50:27 in her first team race in awhile -- good to see you back Julie -- and Nancy Wang rounded out the team in 50:37.
Team friends Chris Barberich (42:57) and Erdem Tamguney (43:17) livened up the team dinner and also ran very well
(although their S.O.'s dusted them, of course). Nice running everyone!
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open team ran 35:18 and finished 13th! So what did you do this weekend?
Old'uns
The masters decided to use their bye this week, so only Vitas Ezerskis, in need of long grand prix points, showed up. Vitas ran 35:51 for 22nd place.
Among seniors, Tom Bernhard was the national championship runner-up,
leading us as he has all year, in 36:54 (3rd senior overall), followed by
Les Ong (38:44, 12th), Jim Gorman (39:01, 13th), Dan Ramos (41:03) and Kenny Savior Warde (43:46). Congratulations all!
Banana Man 5K - 09/17/06
Women
Byline Jen Major
This past Sunday, we had a great turnout for the Banana Man 5K! We had gorgeous, warm weather for the race, although it soon felt very hot after the start--many of us agreed we started out way too fast!
Personally, I could have used a water stop at mile one. After the first fast mile, everyone settled in and finished strong! Allie Bigelow led the women's team in a blazing fast 18:16 (14th OA, 6th AG), just one second off her PR from August!
Jen Major was behind her in 18:30 (20th OA, 5th AG). Our next four runners were very close together: newly-engaged Nancy Vuong ran
a 15 sec PR in 19:31 (10th AG); Shelly Pierson ran an amazing 19:35 (8th AG) despite being sidelined by illness for several weeks (more proof that lots of self-care and recovery are good for the body).
Kim Fanady ran 19:38 putting her solidly into 3rd for her age-group [Kao editorial: Kim--you're no longer allowed to bemoan your 'slow' times 'as you get older'  Happy.png ":)") ]; and new teammate Tracy Hogan fit right into the Pink Pack with 19:46 (11th AG).
Next came Heather Leutwyler who has been racking up a lot of Pink time in her 3rd race with NBEx in just 3 weeks with 20:22 (12th AG). clocked 21:13 during marathon training (13th AG).
New Senior runner Donna Chan reNB Ex fantastically with a 1st place AG run of 22:10. Fellow master Brenda DePeralta and senior Nancy Wang ran hard to field our final team count of ELEVEN runners in 22:56 (19th AG) and 24:10 (3rd AG).
Also, special thanks to Larissa Polischuk for coming to cheer us on and
watch everyone's stuff as she recovered from an exceptionlly long marathon training run. Chelsey Remington sent her positive vibes. And team friends Corrie Drakulich and Monica ran the 10K (with Corrie finishing 3rd OA). It was a great race with lots of fun and festivities! Oddly, we couldn't find any bananas at the expo! I highly recommend participating next year!
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men set out on a perfect day in chase of a few Bananas. Leading the charge was George Torgun running his best 5K since 99' finishing 22nd/15:54. Next in for the men was Jake Gilchrist running great in his return from injury posting a 34th/16:23 performance.
Dan Rhodes finishing hard to avoid being caught by the top Banana was 3rd NBEXOM in 41st/16:36, followed by Brian Gilliss in 51st/16:53. New member Oliver Chan contributing in his first team race as our 5Th man finished 55th/17:00 welcome Oliver.
We also had a full B-Team just for good measure with Agustine Cruz in 17:18, Robin Hart 17:40, Adam Lucas 17:52, Matthew Hinde 18:19, and Yurik Riegel 18:39.
Good job everyone, great to see everyone out running.
Congratulations to teammates Andy Chan on his 6Th place finish in the new 10K edition in 37:02, and Matty Green in 12Th/40:25. Sorry to anyone I may have missed in my scan of the results.
Old'uns
The masters struggled this week with only three (ouch!) runners. This race usually pulls people out of the woodwork, but not this year, at least not for the masters.
Tim Wallen led the group in an excellent (masters PR?) 16:06, good enough for 4th master in the loaded field. Cliff Lentz followed 17 seconds and 3 places back in 16:23, with Vitas Ezerskis completing the squad in 17:01 (16th).
Fortunately, however, the seniors did come out of the woodwork. Tom
Bernhard led the crew with a fine 17:36 performance (3rd, 1st in his new age group of 55-59). Les Ong announced his return in 18:31 (9th/3rd 55-59), followed by Jim Gorman (18:43, 11th/4th) and Dan Ramos (19:11, 13th/6th). Jim Remember Me? Tracy (20:04, 19th/10th) and Rocket Darling (20:18, 20th/11th) rounded out the team.
Yes, one does notice that every one of these six runners is in the 55-59 age group . . .
Golden Gate Park XC - 09/09/06
Wallen/Mickle Lead Masters to Win
The club was out in force for this traditionally strong race, led by Tim
Wallen and Iain Mickle's 2d and 3rd place masters finishes and a
dominating masters team performance. Details . . .
Women
Byline Carin Ward
The pink ladies were out in fine form on Saturday at the Golden Gate
Park Open. Ten women toed the line on a perfect morning for cross
country--foggy and cool.
Julie McGee led the team, finishing 15th 26:05 despite a tough week of marathon training and the beginning of a challenging semester in school. She was followed closely by Jen Major (16th 26:06), who claims "it was all Hood-To-Coast adrenaline" (Helen's note: before the race, Jen sandbagged by claiming she was still in pain from HTC and might be "jogging it.").
Allie Bigelow placed 20th 26:22, despite stopping to tie her shoe in the first 1/2 mile. She got mad, and proceeded to pass half the field. Jenny Wong was 26th 26:44,sporting some totally cool sea-blue shorts (preview of things to come in the uniform department?) and Carin Ward rounded out the scorers in 40th 27:30.
Heather Leutwyler had a fantastic race (her 2nd XC race ever), improving her time from last week, on a much tougher course in GGP, helping the team to 'displace' other runners by finishing 28:43. Nancy Vuong finished right on Heather's heels 29:01, incorporating the race into a longer workout for the day- she was later spotted sprinting through the park, when everyone else was barely moving on their cooldowns.
Jocelyn Friel, racing her first XC for the year, came in 29:29, followed by Lee d'Alessandro (29:55) and Gerry Kim (31:03). This was Gerry's first XC race of her career as well as first race with NBEx. Team friend Ann
Schulz was also out blazing through the course in 28:58. Congratulations!
The highlight of the race was definitely the fantastic crowd support
along the course: pregnant teammates, Patti and Molly screamed at the tops of their lungs, Jamie sprinted around to about 6 locations to maximize her cheering support [and she reports she is finally able to do very small runs in her road to recovery! yeah!], and Helen cruised around the course to encourage the pink on a not-so-spectator-friendly morning [trying not to twist more ankles]. Thank you, thank you, thank you teammates for giving us the extra push from the sidelines!
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men had a good showing at the GGP race with 8 men making the familiar 2 lap tour of the park. Leading us in was Chikara Omine running very strong over the 2nd lap to finish 28th/22:47, followed by Ben Chaffee running a great race for 3 miles and paying back over the last mile to finish 29th/22:49.
Brian Gilliss was next in 37th/23:19 with Dan Rhodes 39th/23:39 not so close behind. Matt Patout came across in 51st/24:51 to complete our top 5 scorers. Danny Lilot 54th/25:02, Adam Lucas 57th/25:15, and Yurik Riegel 64th/26:04 rounded out the team. Good job guys.
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
The Masters men notched their first team victory of the XC season on the strength of placing 4 runners in the top 8 in a very competitive field.
The team was lead by the 2-3 punch of Tim Wallen (22:51) and Iain Mickle (22:53), followed by Cliff Lentz in 7th (23:12) and Mike Slavin in 8th (23:15), Dan Mancini (14th, 23:35), Pete Vicencio (16th, 23:49), John Spriggs (48th, 25:28), Senior runner Charles Griffin (60th, 26:02),
David Schmidt (88th, 28:08), and Senior Tom Bennett (132nd, 35:53).
Santa Cruz XC - 09/02/06
This is always a hard one to get people to, and we did manage to field three full teams there for I believe the first time ever . . .
Open Men
Byline Dan Rhodes
The open men were able to assemble a 5 man roster to take on the
challenging Santa Cruz course (both to run and to find!). Leading us in
with a great race was Brian Gilliss in 12th/22:22. Chikara Omine out for
a recovery run 7 days after running the Headlands 50K was next in
24th/23:17, followed by Dan Rhodes in 33rd/23:37.
Matt Patout finished in 39th/24:06 2 weeks after completing Triathlon then being out of town and not running, and to round out the team Cesar Guillen finished 52nd/24:45. Good job guys.
Women
Byline Helen Kao
I wasn't able to make the trip myself but I've heard from Carin that the
team had a lot of fun. Alphabetically: Lee d'Alessandro returned to
racing with a fabulous 29:05 after being sidelined for several months due to illness.
Heather Leutwyler ran her first XC race with NBEx in 28:33. Larissa Polischuk inserted a quick 30:02 into her marathon training schedule. New team friend Ann Schultz flew through the course in 27:28.
Carin Ward was thrilled to be out running XC again after years away from the sport to finish 11th in 26.15. Jenny Wong sorted out bridge traffic from the east bay to finish in 10th 26:09.
Old'uns
Byline Dan Mancini
At the UC Santa Cruz Challenge on Saturday, Iain Mickle paced the
Masters Men's XC team with a fine 3rd place finish in 22:46, followed by 4th placer Dan Mancini in 23:06, a fast-improving Pete Vicencio in 10th in 23:32, Charles Griffin - 8th Senior - in 25:25, and Greg King in 34th in 28:10.
[Ed.: And I think Cliff Lentz is still driving somewhere along the
Boardwalk . . . .]
Finally, Carin Ward forwards some photos from the men's race--thanks
Empire Open XC - 08/26/06
Wallen Wins, Mickle Third!
Tim Wallen continued to tear up the masters circuits, winning the Phil
Widener Empire Open in 19:13 (new course). Tim was tailed closely by Iain Mickle, just four seconds and two places back. Pete Vicencio made his master's debut in 20:48, good enough for 29th place in an unusually tight race.
On the women's side, I believe Jenny Wong was our only representative, finishing 10th in 21:34. With many race conflicts, all our teams decided to take byes at Empire--but hopefully we'll have strong team's at this weekend's Santa Cruz meet!
Headlands 50K Trail National Championship - 08/26/06
Lentz First Master, Bronze Overall!
Cliff Lentz won the master's championship and finished third overall at
Saturday's Headlands 50K Trail National Championship, running 4:12:34 on a course extended and made, if you can believe it, more difficult due to construction in Pirate's Cove.
Chikara Omine ran 4:37:14 to finish fourteenth, a few minutes ahead of new member Ron Gutierrez (4:53:26, 20th). Official team results are not out yet, but the team seems to have finished second to a Boston team. Congratulations all.
Hood To Coast - 08/25-8/26/06
Santinis Repeat!
The Santini Extra Virgins and Santini Popeyes and Olive Oils repeated as
Hood to Coast champions in the men's submaster and mixed open divisions (the latter being the largest division, with almost 1/3 of the field), the Extra Virgins for the tenth year in a row and the young'uns for the second year in a row and the third time in six tries.
Both teams faced unusually tight competition, with the margins of victory only 8-9 minutes (though apparently there was a penalty which made the Extra Virgins' official margin much larger) and those gaps only opening up in the last few legs.
The Extra Virgins ran 19:23:25, ten minutes slower than last year (but
only after losing 8-9 minutes with an injury on a course .4 miles longer
than last year) to finish 9th overall, just EIGHT seconds behind the
rapidly fading 8th place team, which wasn't even in our sights going in to the last two legs.
The Popeyes and Olive Oils ran 2:00:08 (ouch!) for 12th place overall. Statistics out soon--if you're interested and don't receive them by the end of the week, let me know. The teams featured current and former club members Dan Rhodes, Bret Kimple, Mike Mahurin, Tyler Abbott,
Jen Major, and Robin Hart.
Marc Boutillette led another club-related team, Pink Eye, to a 150th place finish. Team featured club members Marc, Helen Kao, Matty Greene, and club friend Susan Beck.
From Helen:
Helen Kao and Susan Beck joined NBExers Marc Boutillette and Matty Greene on the Pink Eye team (don't ask about where the name came from) to finish 150th. Turns out Jen (Major, of the Santini Popeyes & Olive Oils) and Helen were running the same legs (6, 18, 30) --which meant we both ran the first 2 legs in the pitch dark.
[I could have sworn I saw someone who looked just like Jen warming up at 4:45AM at the start of leg 18 but she was off before I even made it there from the port-a-potties.] It was a wild, fabulous run. The event was incredibly fun despite stinky sweaty vans, lack of sleep, and an overdose of chocolate-covered raisins and re-used water bottles.
Both Marc and Matty were tremendous sports in having to run an extra leg each due to manpower shortage on the Pink Eye team.
Hook & Ladder 10K - 08/20/06
S.F. Cliff House Here We Come!!!
Chikara Omine, Dan Mancini, and Jen Major led a good-sized New Balance Excelsior contingent at Sunday's Hook & Ladder 10K, a traditional club favorite returning after a one-year hiatus.
Chikara and Jen won the men's and women's races in 34:59.9999 and 39:07 to become the California State RRCA Champions! Dan Mancini finished next in third place overall (35:38) to become the California State RRCA Masters Champion, followed by Cesar Guillen (36:52, 4th) and Dan Rhodes (36:61, 5th).
In the first three ouch non-money spots came Adam Lucas (37:31, 8th), Matt Hinde (38:29, 9th), and Matty Greene (38:29, 10th), followed by Tyler Abbott (38:48, 11th/2d master), Jeff Dewey (39:12, 14th/3rd master), Tommy York (40:45, 17th), and Ian Reid (42:30, 22nd, 1st 60-69).
Even with the last minute cancellation of the team competitions, club members came away with 14 free Cliff House breakfasts . . . save 'em up for post Presidio???
Susan B. Anthony 5K - 08/13/06
PR's PR's PR's
Byline Jenny Wong
Eight brave NB ladies in pink woke up very early on Sat morning to race
the women-only Susan B. Anthony 5k. Everyone loved the fast, scenic
course through residential Sacramento featuring a police car esort (we also liked the cute pink shoe bags that they gave to everyone for goodie bags).
In an extremely competitive field, Allie Bigelow raced to a 15th place finish and an incredible 33 sec PR! in a time of 18:15--we have all noticed that as the number of sports bras/nursing bras has decreased (she was at an all time high of 3 bras during Across the Bay) Allie's times have gotten much faster. She may be on to something with her training regimine of sleep deprivation, marathon training and track workouts on the treadmill.
Carin and Allie ran most of the race together and Carin finished just behind Allie in 18:20 (also a PR since college). Julie McGee also had an
amazing 30 sec PR (even in the midst of serious marathon training) with an 18:23, but that may be from the training regime of long work days and running at 4:30 am during the weekdays.
Next was Jenny Wong in 19:19 (having worked way too much on Friday) and really wishing that Bender could have pulled her the entire way. Our favorite doctor, Helen Kao, finished in 20:22.
We were very excited to have fielded a masters team with Kim Fanady, also working way too much, finishing in 19:52. Brenda G, who studied the course the night before and noted the 16 turns, finished in 23:34 and Nancy W. who really enjoyed the course and the mild (for Sacramento) weather finished in 24:21. The team bonded during our warm down along the American River (complete with a miniature replica of the Golden Gate bridge).
Skyline 50K - 08/06/06
Congratulations to Cliff Lentz and Chikara Omine on their 2d and 4th
place finishes at the Skyline 50K a week ago. Cliff ran around 4:00, Chikara 4:15. They also managed to recruit new member Ron Gutierrez, who finished just behind Chikara and is a great addition right before the Headlands 50K National Championship!
NATIONAL MASTERS T&F CHAMPIONSHIPS - 08/03-08/06
DOUBLE GOLD FOR BERNHARD!
At the National Masters Track and Field Championships in Charlotte NC over the weekend, Tom Bernhard continued his torrid racing of the spring/summer and won the 55-59 age division in both the 5,000 and the 10, and Jim Gorman won silver in the 1500. Among younger age groups, Jesse McAlman finished 6th/5th in the 35-39 age group in the 800/1500. Their reports . .
Tom's Report:
For us old guys, it seems an all too rare occurrence when we are both
healthy and fit for a major national competition. As the running gods
were kind to us this year, Jim Gorman and I decided we would make it all
the way out to hot and humid Charlotte NC to try our luck at the
National Masters Track and Field Championships, Jim in the 1500m on
Sunday and I in the 5,000m on Thursday and the 10,000m on Saturday.
5,000m (50-54 and 55-59 age groups) Because of some delays in the earlier races, our heat (pun intended) did not start until about 10:30 AM and by that time the conditions were brutal, 95 degree temperature and 95 percent humidity.
After a relatively brisk first 3 1/2 laps (which I did in 4:54) the collective
plug was pulled on all the runners and the event became more of a
survival exercise than a race. For the last 7 laps I just tried to maintain some form and hold off the other 55-59 year olds.
Somehow I was able to throw in a kick the last lap, and hold off the #2 55-59 year old by 6 sec. End result - 18:18.88, 4th overall, 1st in the 55-59 age group. It was the slowest 5k I have ever run, but a National Championship nevertheless.
10,000m (50-54 and 55-59 age groups) After the awful 5,000m race on Thursday, I was dreading the 10,000m, but fortunately conditions were somewhat better with the temperature about 10 degrees cooler, the race began at about 9:00 AM which helped.
After a slow first lap, Mike Houar (a 50 year old from FF Sacramento) and I sped up and went into the lead. Mike really pressed the pace the first 2/3rds of the race and at one point had a 180m lead on me. I decided to run a more conservative race and just worry about the other 55-59 year olds.
In the last 8 laps however, I started to slowly catch up to Houar and
thought I might have a chance to win the race outright. By the end of
the 23rd lap, I had whittled his lead to about 50m. However, at this
point I didn't feel I had much left and didn't begin a real surge until the last lap. Mike still had a 40m lead with about 180m to go when I decided to give it all I had and went into a dead sprint.
Surprisingly, I made up a lot of ground on him very quickly and with about 30m to go I thought I might actually pass him. Unfortunately at that point, because of the crowd noise, he realized the situation and put in a bit of a surge and held on to win by about 7m.
End result - 37:32.10 (hey, it was still pretty hot), 2nd overall, 1st
in the 55-59 age group and a 2nd National Championship.
Jim Gorman's 1500m (55-59 age group)
The 1500 meters was a much more competitive event than the 5000 and 10000 meters, and Jim was up against the very fast David Salazar who runs for SoCal Track Club (even though he lives in Cedar Crest, NM).
As Salazar is a also a very good 400m and 800m runner, it looked like
Jim would need to take the lead and set a fast pace, which is what he
did. Jim went through 300m in 57sec with Salazar right behind. He
remained in the lead at 700m at 2:13 with Salazar in tow. The situation
was identical at 1100m with Jim coming through in 3:29 and Salazar in
lockstep a meter an a half back.
At this point I should mention that Jim had just flown in the night before, whereas Salazar had run an 800 heat on Thursday and the 800
final on Saturday. Just enough running to be sharp but not enough to be
worn out.
Jim continued in the lead until about 250m to go, when Salazar made a
decisive move and went on to win in 4:40.49 to Jim's 4:44.92.
End result - Jim Gorman 2nd place, men's 55-59 age group.
Jesse's Report
I was here in Charlotte, NC for the Masters Track Championships and it was sweltering most of my 5 days here. It was fun and the experience was great.
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