Do you think Maggie Vessey could run a good half marathon? Or do you think she should?
When he was younger, Neil Fitzgerald thought of himself as a speed type middle distance athlete, like Vessey. He ran a 1:50 800 in high school, which suggests a mile around 4:05, but he never got below 4:20. A typical workout might have been repeat 200s in 24 seconds and 40 miles per week max.
Too bad the 44-year-old Neil never met the 17-year-old Neil.
As you probably know, Neil has stayed a middle distance guy into adulthood, winning the 800 meters at the 2011 World Championship in the 40-44 with a 1:55, and splitting 50.4 on the gold medal 4 x 400 relay team. But the dream of a faster mile has stayed with him from adolescence, and in 2012 he decided to do something about it.
As winter was releasing a feeble hold on NYC and Neil was planning his running year, he decided that since there was not a WC outdoor meet in 2012, he would branch out a little and work on his strength. He penciled in a goal of a fast mile and maybe even a steeplechase as goals for the summer. While for most 800 guys strength training might mean adding a few tempo runs to the mix, Neil apparently felt he needed a little more incentive.
That incentive involved the Eastern and Ocean Parkways. Neil signed up for the Brooklyn Half, figuring a race would be the best way to draw a line under the need to go long.
It didn’t start well: while Neil has things wired on the track, Thursday night long tempos were uncharted territory. The first few of Coach Tony’s long tempos ended up like Jager in a water jump. One was a DNF, and another was a slow shuffle home. He was used to long slow runs or fast short runs, not long medium fast ones, and his body was rebelling.
“Most 800 meter runners can bang out workouts – 3k of work is over so quick,” Neil said afterwards. “But four or six or eight miles at 90% is tough on the system.”
But Neil channeled his inner Snell, got advice from coaches and teammates and carried on. He credits Coach Tony for helping him keep his eye on the right things and to remember that strength is speed. Brad Weiss helped him solve some stomach problems on the tempos. He stretched his long runs out to 13 miles and at a faster pace than usual, finishing at near marathon race pace and with rising confidence.
And finally, two weeks out from the race, the weather cleared and the summit looked sharp as an Ansel Adams print. As yet another Coach Tony long tempo carried on – this last an eight mile effort at marathon and half marathon pace – Neil did not start to fade and he did not have stomach problems. The strength was there.
From that point, Neil had some confidence that his long distance fitness was coming around. On race day, his teammates convinced him to go slowly the first miles – Brad Weiss described a good goal would be to hit the 3 mile mark as fresh as possible, ready for a 10 mile race. So Neil ran the first 5k at 6:06 pace, as relaxed as possible.
That seemed to go well, so the next 5k he did the same thing. With six miles down, Neil unwound a little and started running in the 5:40s, with the aid of a gu packet, and that felt ok too. The long tempos kicked in with the smell of salt water, and Neil finished with dignity at around 5:50 pace, for a 1:18:09 negative splitted debut HM.
While Neil had been concerned before that big miles might hurt his speed, he is confident that has not happened. He has continued to do 300s for form and mental reasons, and they felt good.
“I learned a lot through this process,” Neil commented. He is cheered by his ability to absorb more miles, and may be able to run more road races without fear of disrupting his track training.
While the summer of 2012 has no outdoor world masters track championship, Neil is considering traveling to Nebraska for club championships and maybe getting in that fast 1500. Or perhaps experimenting with a steeple. Or even a 5000. A fit NF at the end of a tactical 5000 would be a force in orange.
“The main thing is for me to get back to Thursdays,” Neil said about his summer training, referring to tempos with the road crew. “Thursdays will be a key part of my training for the foreseeable future.”
Neil had the standout race in Brooklyn, but several CPTCers ran 52-week age graded PRs. Carlos Rodriguez has had a barnstorming spring 2012, PRing in three straight races, including his 1:31:10/70.4% Brooklyn race. Michael Siegell also hit a yearly age graded PR, and Andre Lejeune ran 1:25:34 for a three minute absolute PR.
Alan Ruben won the 55-59 by 90 seconds with his 1:23/83.3%.
One the women’s side, Sylvie Kimche not only ran a 1:41/89.81%, but she had the very highest female age graded score of all 7,000+ female participants. That got her $75 from the NYRRC, which is a nice way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning.
Neil was not the only middle distance runner running out of his comfort zone: Coach Tony Ruiz set out at a decidedly slower pace than his 800 pace, and ran sub 7s the whole way: 1:31/73.6%.
The team competition was highlighted by the M 50+, with Rennock, Ruben and Donnelly doing what they do. Meaning winning. All three ran Boston just a few weeks ago.
First place: M 50+
Second Place: W Open
Fourth Place: M Open, M 40+, W 40+
Seventh Place: M 60+
Japan Day is often a good race to go fast for four miles, and orange types zoomed along. Yumi Ogita returned to the roads after a layoff by running at 6:15 pace/87.4% and earning the class win. Michael Rennock also won his division, very soon after Boston with his 24:14/81.5%
Two CPTCers hit 52 week age graded PRs at Japan: Sam Mann took second in the 60-64 with his 6:50 pace/78.7%. Budd Heyman did the equivalent of a basket catch with his best race in a year: 6:59 pace/71.4%.
Also of note: Lynn Blackstone took over the lead in the race count from Wanda Wang. She has run 11 races over the last 12 months. Chris Donnelly has a solid lead in the men’s contest, 15 vs 13 for Michael Ahern.
The Kidney was not a speedfest for the team, although Michael Hawtrey had his best race in a year, and Carlos Rodriguez hit his second consecutive age graded PR.
The Run as One was held in ideal conditions and many of us responded with good runs. Age graded PRs were had by Giovanni Caracci, Phil Vasquez, Oscar Garcia, Carlos Rodriguez, and Marvin Cabrera.
At a humid Run for the Parks four miler on April 22, Sylvie unleashed her fastest road race of the year, with a 7:17 pace/91.8%. Three other PRs hit the tape: Ricardo Mora 6:42 pace/69.70, Chip Olsen 7:47 pace/69.9%, and Marvin Cabrera 6:56 pace/64.9%.
Off the roads and in an exotic land, David Greenberg won race #1 in the New Jersey Summer Biathlon series – his first outright win in a race since 1986 and first ever biathlon win. He will travel to Lake Tahoe later in the summer for the national championships in August.
On the track, Jill Vollweiler won the prestigious Loucks Games Masters mile earlier in May.
On to Portugal!
Race reports from the captains:
From Thom Little of the M Open:
The men’s open team placed 4th in the half this Saturday.
The top 5 are TBD as we are unsure if Patrick’s time will count for the team, so here is the top six:
Phil Falk 1:11:52
Patrick Hynes* 1:12:11
Tom Dichiara 1:14:31
Greg Cass 1:14:44
Jonah Blumstein 1:15:45
Jesse Green 1:51:51
Many many great PRs:
| Time | PR | |
| Derek Saville | 1:18:16 | 0:08:00 |
| Henry Tong | 1:28:48 | 0:07:56 |
| Tyler Silverman | 1:23:14 | 0:01:04 |
| Gabriel Loeb | 1:20:13 | 0:00:56 |
| Rohit Mitter | 1:19:40 | 0:00:44 |
| Ken Tso | 1:22:00 | 0:00:38 |
| Jordan Hare | 1:20:58 | 0:00:11 |
| Stephen Curtis | 1:19:40 | 0:00:01 |
From Jim McQuade of the M 40+:
Another strong showing by the Men’s 40+ team on the revamped Brooklyn Half course this past weekend. The team was led by Neil Fitzgerald (1:18:09), who ran a brilliant race in his first attempt at the half marathon. David Greenberg (1:21:45) and Michael Ahern (1:24:41) followed with very solid races. Andre Lejeune (1:25:34) also turned in a stellar performance, crossing the finish line next with a huge 3 minute PR. Others who laid out nice races were George Ross, Nigel Francis, Carlos Rodriguez, Marvin Cabrera, Michael Siegell, Ricardo Mora, Michael Caggia, Ken Winfield, and Andy Kiss. Congratulations to all.
From Andrew Moore of the M 50+:
Congrats to the 50+ road team for returning with a first place finish at the Brooklyn Half this Saturday. A near-perfect day, a new route and an early start added up to solid performances all around. Scoring was led by Mike Rennock with 1:23:50 and Alan Ruben close on his heels at 1:23:57. Chris Donnelly closed out the scoring with a 1:26:10. It seems that the team is taking turns with the scoring honors so far this season, showing great depth and overall speed.
Our scorers were backed up by Peter Allen, Coach Tony Ruiz (stepping out of his comfort zone mileage-wise), Andrew Moore, Oscar Garcia and Brett Fromsom – A job well done by all.
Hope to see you all at the Father’s Day/Portugal Day 5 miler in Central Park June 17th
From Hank Schiffman of the M 60+:
What a beautiful day for a race. A half might be less half brutal than a full marathon, but it too is a race of attrition; a tough one to get wrong or to soldier on with a nagging injury. Been there, done that.
For whatever reason, NYRR put me in the second coral. Perhaps divine retribution for the crime of hubris. Instead of running with Joe Porcaro, I ran with our team mate Elisabeth Lopes. A memorable run it was. We reasoned out options and kept a steady effort. And yes, Joe took me to the cleaners for 3rd in age group by 8 seconds but the big concern of leg cramps never raised its ugly head. The last 300 meters were out of Coach Tony‘s playbook, bless his injured soul. He finished the race not hitting on all cylinders, as Captain Andy, unrecovered from his chronic injury. Kevin too is on the mend but sat on the sidelines. We 60+ guys aren’t generally hot to race this distance. Who can blame us? If you aren’t injured, ramping up mileage for this event is likely to put an aging athlete on the disabled list.
CPTC did not field 3 scorers for our women 50 and 60+. Thus we honor Fred and Dale for stepping up to the plate. Our mens 60+ finished a less than wonderful 7th, but we did score, with an heir to spare. Dan scored second with Fred as 3rd man and Dale was our insurance policy.
Racing through Brooklyn on such a fine day was our reward for throwing ourselves on this pyre, and lighting a match. Sorry I missed a post race reunion; I had committed to hand out Founder’s Day 5k fliers and rush to the F train for sailing on LI Sound. No wind; divine retribution again.
From Ani Go of the W 40+:
Our 3rd scoring race brought us out to the battlefield of Brooklyn, where we ran around and in Prospect Park before taking the long journey to the cyclone via parkway and the boardwalk of Coney Island to finish by sand and sea. In a large competitive field, the ladies fought valiantly, and we missed 3rd place by less than a minute. Our scoring pack was led by the amazing Jill Vollweiler who ran 1:28:30, followed by yours truly, me, in 1:34:21, and the wonder woman Wanda Wang with 1:39:58. Also representing proudly for the masters team is local Brooklyn resident, the great Julie DiMauro, who ran a solid 1:42:57 and distance road queen Maria Luz Caballero in 1:52:39. Congrats ladies, and great job by everyone!
Dgreenb300@aol.com