From Greg Cass of the Open:
Sunday was a great day for racing in NYC, and the CPTC Open Men threw down some fast times to prove it. When all is said and done, the Open Men should have 3rd place locked down once again. Unfortunately, due to some issues with registration and B-tags, the current standings don’t reflect what will ultimately be the team’s second consecutive 3rd place finish and hopefully the beginning of a 2013 trend.
The team was led by Dan Seidel, who made the quick trip in from California to run a 26:03 in what appears to be a Central Park 5-mile PR for him. Matt Lacey built on his strong BK showing with a 26:15, followed by Greg Cass with a 26:35. The scoring team was rounded out by Rob Gill and Brian Valentini – unofficial timing has them at 27:12 and 27:19.
A big congratulation to those of you who PR’ed, including:
Giancarlos Zambrano (27:37, PR by 1:46)
Herb Plummer (29:16 with a 5:39 last mile…also PR’ed at the 1500 in 4:33 at Icahn on June 11…big month!)
Ken Tso (29:56, PR by 17s)
Edgar Costa (32:48)
Also, a special shout-out to Francois Lhuissier for his victory at the San Francisco Marathon in 2:25:15 (on a hilly course)! Way to represent the Orange out west!
The scoring circuit keeps going strong in June with the Pride Run on Saturday, June 29 – if you’re around that weekend, sign up and get the PR that escaped you this weekend (or lower your recent PR). Extra credit if you spend the afternoon volunteering at USATF Club Track & Field National Championships, which we’re hosting that weekend at Icahn Stadium.
Overall – job well done, team. Let’s keep this momentum going with a strong showing in 2 weeks.
From David Greenberg of the 40+:
The 40-49 had its best turnout of the year at Portugal Day as a school of thirteen of us trotted toward the tuna. This compared to an inexplicably small eleven running for beer and hotdogs at Brooklyn. Not coincidentally, the team matched its best placing of the year, finishing third, far better than fifth at Scotland and sixth at Brooklyn.
The scorers were Josh Rayman, Jim McQuade and John Milone.
Here’s an eyewitness tale from Josh at the front:
“Jimmy and I ran together for 4M, really him doing the heavy lifting, strong on the hills, and me trying to keep up. On the first hill, we were talking about the course and he mentioned how tough the third mile is and I said, “oh well, let’s bag it!” And we also had Cary Segall just ahead of us to keep us on track. At the end, I was battling with a West Side runner who kept re-passing me and cutting in immediately until the final level section at Tavern on the Green, when I was able to put him away.”
I can add that it helps a lot to have teammates around you – I was part of a six person pack that finished between 29:42 and 29:56 and it sure made the last 3218 faster.
Josh’s 28:07/82.76% was his best five miler in Central Park since 2008. He also snagged the luscious Lucite for third place in the 40-44.
Jim had his best age graded score in the NYRR database since 2011: 28:31/80.99%.
While Portugal was the first time Josh and Jim scored for the team in 2013, not so for John Milone, our #3 scorer. John has been Mr. Dependable this year, scoring for the 40-49 three times in four races. John is training primarily for the track this season, and ran 4:30 for 1500 meters earlier in the week.
David Greenberg earned his first points race Lucite, taking third in the 45-49 with his 29:43/78.92%… and learning just how fast John Milone can run the last 100 meters of a race.
James Charlton gets special recognition for running three points races in a row. James was our #1 scorer at Scotland.
Let us welcome Wolfram Schenker to the 40-49 as he ran his first race as a CPTC master, and right away scored his best AG (71.42%) in the NYRR database. We could all use some of that.
George Ross had a good day with his 32:17/71.55%, which was his best five miler ever in the db, and his best AG of any race since 2008. Also running their best 5 mile AG scores ever were Kimihiko Oishi and Mickey Hawtrey.
Wayne Merdis ran what looks to be a 5m PR in Central Park, Frederick Paredes ran two minutes faster than he ran at 2012 Portugal for his best AG score of the year, and Fred Chiao ran his second points race of the year.
Finally, Nigel Francis ran his 8th NYRR race of the year and had his best AG yet: 74.3%. I need to race more.
Away from Portugal, I’ll throw some light onto Rich Nelson’s fast run at the Corporate Challenge: a 19:48 for 21st overall. That implies Rich went through 5k in 17:32, which is flying in CP.
On the track, here are the best marks so far:
Gerald O’Hara: 4:10.55 (93.16%)
David Peters: 1:59.72 (89.66%)
Peter Brady 2:01.90 (88.05%)
Glen Carnes 4:30.86 (83.5%)
John Milone 2:08.28 (82.92%)
Armando Oliveira 17:09.6 (80.8%)
Hey, what’s the world record in the 40-49 4 x 800?
Next is the Front Runners 5m on June 29 – registration is still open. If you are on the fence, I hope you fall off and sign up – let’s keep the participation numbers rising.
From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:
CPTC 60+ men prevailed to take 1st place, so far leaving us overall just trailing Taconic RR, 54 to 52.
In an extremely competitive race for men 60-64, Yasuhiro Makoshi swept 1st place in 30:48, worthy of age graded 86.15%, the highest among all CPTC men in this event. The next 60-64 finisher was Jack McShane at 32:09. Yasuhiro would have placed 3rd in 55-59, just 27 seconds behind also 1st place Alan Ruben. Yasuhiro scored 2nd place in the 50+ division, where CPTC also took 1st place. As an aside, I ran the race with Allan Dias. At the start we were just by the 72nd St transverse and Allan asked me if Yasuhiro was running; Yasuhiro ran past us on our right, smiling. Gifted, happy and doing what he does so well, Yasuhiro is our super star.
I scored second for us in 33:28, 6th in the age group. Snapping on my heels was seasonal CPTC member Bob Holliday blown in from the Windy City. Bob ran it in 33:41, age graded 80.17%, 7th in the age group. We maintain email contact. I waited for him at the finish, never having met face to face. I was expecting our next 60+ guy to be Allan or Chris but was greeted by Bob wearing a blue singlet. We are fortunate to have him for the summer. These 3 have proved to be our big guns.
Thus these 3 finishers totaled 1:37:57 to Taconic’s 1:45:50. TRR has talent, we have talent, but we also have depth. At 34:00, along came Allan Dias running 6:48 pace and 79.44%. He was 8th in the age group. Allan is taking the long view, building the miles applying speed where needed. His star is rising.
Chris Neuhoff was our 5th runner, 35:16, 76.55%. He was 10th out of 115 men in men 60-64. He needs to be moved into the first corral. Why NYRR has not done so eludes me. Allan and Chris have the potential to propel our 60+ track fortunes.
Our most dependable runner, Kevin McGuire came in next, 26th in the age group in 39:16, 68.17%, running a 7:52 pace.
Scorer for our team last year was our 7th runner, Harry Lichtenstein. He ran 44:05, good for 44th place.
Fred Trilli at 67 ran 45:34, 25th out of 71 for men 65-69. Fred and Kevin were the first of our men’s 60+ runners I came across pre-race. With them I knew we would have our 3 to get our score counted. I’d never have thought 8 would cross the line. And of these, we had 5 in the first 10 in men 60-64, a field where 7 ran over 80% age graded.
We’re cooking. Just shy of 2 weeks we have another 5 miler, the Front Runners race. July 27th is our Founder’s 5k, a week later is the Club Champs, the double pointer. Consider these events.
Proud of our guys,
Captain Hank
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Standings after Brooklyn (not updated yet for Portugal):
First: M 50+
Second: W Open, W 60+, M 60+
Third: M 40+
Fourth: M Open, W 40+
Seventh: W 50+