Race Reports from the Men: Autism Speaks

From Greg Cass of the Open:

 

Emmanuel Bello

The Open Men continued their season-long battle with Urban Athletics for a coveted spot on the podium at this past weekend’s Autism Speaks 4 Miles of Hope.  Racers were met with a cool fall morning, and the payoff from months of slogging through heat and humidity was evident in fast times across the board.  Despite a number of great performances, the Open Men fell just short of Urban, sliding into 4th place by a mere 28 seconds.  Congratulations to the whole team for a great showing, both on the course and on the sidelines cheering.

The scoring race series continues in another week and a half at the Fifth Avenue Mile.  Track stars and cross country burners – here’s your chance to make a mark on the NYRR standings, so if you think you’re fast, come out and prove it on Fifth Avenue on September 22.  To secure our spot in the standings, we need to have a strong showing in the final few races of the year!

 

 

From David Greenberg of the 40+:

 

Jim McQuade

Looking over the 40+ results from the Autism 4 miler was immensely cheering. We had a big turnout – fifteen people – and they set many, many PRs and season bests. It all added up to an excellent 2^nd place finish, which will improve our current third place standing in the year-long championship with four races to go.

Our scorers were Jim McQuade, Jesus Mateo de Castro and David Greenberg. Their average time was 22:21, which is a pretty amazing 1:24 faster than last year’s four mile points race.

The M 40 has done a great job of spreading the load – of 23 possible scorers so far this year, 15 different guys have hit the top of the sheets. Our depth is our strength, especially around the fall marathon season when many need to be doing three hour runs rather than racing.

Top gun was Jim McQuade, who ran an all-time best AG in the NYRR database (21:45/84.51%) as his training for Chicago is clearly going well. Jim wrote afterwards:

A couple of days before the race, I ran with Jesus Mateo de Castro, who told me he was going to run under 22:00 minutes, and Jesus encouraged me to do the same.  Although I felt that it might be too ambitious based on my current conditioning, I decided to go for it, and I raced aggressively.  It worked out well for me, and for Jesus (who did run under 22:00).  It’s another good example of one teammate pushing another teammate on to a faster time.

Jesus met Jim’s AG PR and called it, with his own all-time best CP AG (21:57/84.40). Both medaled, third and second, respectfully.

Our third scorer, David Greenberg, had his best AG of the year (23:22/79.30%) and is very pleased to have scored for the team for the first time in 2013.

I’m going to have to resort to lists, because we set so many PRs and bests.

Best AG races ever in the NYRR database:

Jim McQuade 84.51%

Jesus Mateo de Castro 84.40%

Daniel Ifcher 78.83%

Edwin Hernandez (welcome – this was Edwin’s first race with CPTC) 78.20%

Nigel Francis 77.95%

Wayne Merdis 62.84%

In other words, 40% of those who showed up on the line had their best AG scores ever. How about that!

Daniel Ifcher was one of those and he wrote in later:

I had a great day yesterday…  ran a 23:30, which is either a good comeback (having not been in running shape for some time), or a PR in the recent years (call it in the 40+ age group). 

Wayne Merdis joined the club in April and is slicing time off his PRs like the lox guy at Zabar’s: 7 minutes over four miles. I’m looking forward to following Wayne – who credits Coach Tony for his success – as he moves up the time sheets.

It tells you how fast we all ran when those who merely ran season bests get pushed to the end of the race report.

Gregg Lemos-Stein had a great day as he prepares for the October 12 Hartford Marathon – a 20 second PR and a season’s best AG. Gregg also mentioned that running with teammate Brenn Jones has helped.

Those who ran their best AG of the year:

David Greenberg 79.3%

Gregg Lemos-Stein 74.30%

Mohammad Lahseni 77.79%

Louis Pahnke 72.16%

Outside of Central Park, cheers to Rich Nelson, who was the overall champ of the 9/11 Heroes Race at Icahn. Always great to see one of us break the tape.  Identically, Armando Oliveira started his XC season with an overall win at an XC race upstate.

As it stands, we are in third place in the standings, but catching up to second place West Side Runners with our two consecutive second-place finishes. Urban Athletics may be out of reach in first, but second place is not out of the question. We should have a strong Fifth Avenue Mile and NYC Marathon – but we need some firepower for Grete’s – I hope you will race hard there and keep up the press.

From Chris Donnelly of the M 50+:

Once again, it’s the quality of our efforts that matter, not the number of bodies that show up to race. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the men’s 50+ team put together another winning effort in the Autism Speaks: 4 miles of Hope race, edging out West Side Runners. Arthur Palmer was back in fine form, posting his best age-graded performance of the year in a NYRR race, with a 24:15, for an AG percentage of 83.47.  Even though it meant being left behind like yesterday’s papers, I got a real charge out of seeing Art scamper away up Cat Hill and then disappear in the middle of mile 1. He executed his race strategy perfectly, and the run was good for 4th in the 55-59 age group.

Art’s scoring effort was bookended by age-group winning performances by Alan Ruben (23:49/AG 85.04) and Yasuhiro Makoshi (24.39/AG 84.99). Yasuhiro’s been on a real tear in 2013 and more often than not he’s pulling double duty, pitching in with the 50+ effort while driving results on the 60+ team. We’re lucky to have this kind of depth, but it doesn’t stop there.

The scoring trio were supported by myself (coming off the injured reserve list, at 26:04/AG 74.53), Dennis O’Donnell (27:22/AG 73.97), and Budd Heyman (28:13/AG 71.16).  Budd, you really brought the flair with those striped shorts!  And it’s comforting to know that Captain Hank was in the mix if we needed him (26.08/AG 83.12).  Thanks for all the great cheering on the course. It always makes a difference.

On to the Fifth Avenue mile!

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:

 

Chris Neuhoff

 

CPTC Men 60+ continued its roll taking 1st place in the 2013 Autism 4 miler. Our 3 scoring runners’ collective time of 1:17:45 bested Taconic’s 1:24:33 and Van Cortlandt’s 1:27:37. It appears that Coach Tony’s bullpen is more reliable than the Yankees’ of Joe Giradi.

Our effort was backed up by Dave Delano, most senior and best coiffed runner, crossing the line in 35:11, 63.45%,

4th runner Kevin McGuire, our most dependable back up, ran 29:52, 70.81%.

3rd scorer, Chris Neuhoff’s 26:58 was a tad under the magic 80% with 79.12%, good for 6th in the highly competitive men’s 60-64 age group of 69.

Scoring 2nd, I was humbled as GNY’s Gabe Gonzales gained almost a minute on me in the last 2 miles. He ran mile 4 in 6 minutes. My 26:08 was good for 4th place age group and earned 83.12%., proving that nothing boosts your age grade as much a recent birthday.

Once again, double dipper, super star and alpha male of men 60-64, Yasuhiro Makoshi was our 1st scorer. His 24:39, 6:10 pace earned him 84.99%, but let us not quibble over 0.01%. He is the rising tide that has lifted all our boats.

Had Allan Dias been running in orange and blue rather than volunteering out on the East Park Drive, we would still have only finished in 1st place…

Thus we remain in 1st place club point standings. Thank you all for supporting us.

Whether the lower humidity and cooler temperatures, or the shorter, less hilly course, we all did better age graded in this race than in the Club Championships.

Hats off to Jane!

Hank Schiffman

 

Standings After Team Champs:

1st: 50+, 60+

2nd: Open

3rd: 40+