Like a good 19th century novel, the theme this month is personal improvement. Would Charles Dickens and his Victorians not approve of Chris Donnelly? In his 49-race history in the NYRR database a careful reader can follow his progression through the 40%s to the 50%s to the 60%s and at Scotland, he broke the 80% marker for the first time in a Central Park race with his 38:15/80.29%.
Like honest Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, Chris hit his targets through doing the work and looking to the end reward. As readers of Faster Masters know, he has led the race to live/live to race award, toeing up 15 times over the last 52 weeks, more than any other CPTCer. Like runners of the (19)70s, Chris has clearly made racing the cornerstone of his running, and the results keep accumulating.
Not only did he hit 80% for the first time, he ran 16 seconds faster than last year, was the top scorer on the CPTC M 50+ team, and was 6th in his age group. Bleak House? More like The Time Machine.
Want some more self- improvement? How about Gregg Lemos-Stein, whose 39:00/74.51% at age 43 was his best age graded race over the last year by five entire percentage points? And is his best ever over the five years in the NYRR database?
Or maybe Oscar Garcia, whose 43:48 at age 50 was his third age-graded PR in 5 weeks? Or maybe John Affleck, who ran his best race in years for a 52 week age graded PR?
And then there is Sylvie Kimche who is making a new home above the 90% mark, as she was the only age group winner among the orange. Sylvie ran 46:49/90.10%.
In the club team contest at Scotland, CPTC came back down to earth a little after three wins at Coogans.
2nd: W 40+
3rd: M 40+, M 60+
4th: M 50+
No Score: W 50+, W 60+
Going back in time, at the Colon Cancer 15k, our Rae Baymiller set a single age world record with her 67:36/99.56%, which stands as the top CPTC performance on the roads in 2012. Michael Rennock also won his age group with a fine Boston tune up 57:48/83.01%. Oscar Garcia set a 52-week age graded PR.
At the truly epic NYC Half, Alan Ruben knocked the cover off the book with his age-group winning 80:22/87.03%. Which is not even his best race of the year, because Alan is very fast.
Yasuhiro Makoshi continues to regain form, as his 1:27:11/83.20% was the third best CPTC run of the year to that point.
On the track, the subject of last month’s profile, Marie-Louise Michelsohn, ran an American Record in the indoor 400 in March with her 80.16 at the Armory.
Standings after Coogan’s:
1st: W 40+, M 50+. W 60+
3rd: M 40+, M 60+
6th: W 50+
Reports from Scotland:
From Andrew Moore of the M 50+:
A beautiful day for a 10K in Central Park
Congrats to our 50+ runners at yesterday’s Scotland 10K. CPTC finished in 4th place in the team race led by Chris Donnelly with 38:15, Yasuhiro Makoshi with 39:58 and Tom Raymond at 40:09. Our 50+ age bracket is very competitive – according to the NYRR results, the age group winner was Karl Wittmann who ran a 34:01 – that’s 5:30/mile and good for an age grade 95.65%! (and btw, he does not run for a team)
We had a great turnout with John Kenney, Oscar Garcia, Toby Nelson, Budd Heyman, Philip Vasquez, Stuart Alexander, Harry Lichtenstein, Giovanni Caracci, and Steven Bernstein all competing. Well done all.
Next up on the team points calendar is the Brooklyn Half on May 19, for those of you who sat by their computer and registered before it closed out. Drop me a line to tell me if you are in and plan on racing – thanks.
Good luck to all the Boston runners next Monday.
From Hank Schiffman of the M 60+:
Our mens 60+ runners finished 3rd place in the standings for the second time, Taconic took first, 2:06:25 and GNY second, 2:11:02. Witold’s was 4th, 2:20:33 to us, 2:19:00 nipping at our heels. West Side, who won Coogan’s, did not field 3 finishers for this race.
Let us praise worthy men; Paul Saunders at 70 ran this race for our mens 60+. I bet West Side wishes it had him running for them. Dale Jones, Dave Delano and Chip Olsen backed up Kevin McGuire, 48:11, and Dan Molloy, 49:33 and me, 41:16 (1 minute 19 seconds slower than last year.)
NYRR has not posted Club point standings, nor rules of the competition. We don’t know if last year’s protocol is unchanged. Even with rules, there can be grey zones. Last year’s 2nd ”mulligan” [online dictionary – “an extra stroke allowed after a poor shot, not counted on the scorecard”] was across the board for the missed Percy Sutton 5k, rather than each team’s 2nd low scoring race. It might appear to be just a small point, but it kept us out of 3rd place overall for the year. Yes, it did keep competition to 9 events, but one of those events was the NYC Marathon, not an easy race for old legs. For my eyes, an expensive race that is not all that easy to qualify for should be more accommodating to NYRR clubs if it is a club point race; it was and is. The upshot is a guess at current team point standings.
Using the prevailing protocol, Taconic is in 1st place with 27 points, CPTC and GNY tied for 2nd with 20 points each, West Side in 3rd, and Witold’s in 4th.
With new, old runners coming on line each month, the balance keeps changing. This should prove an interesting racing season. Last year Witold’s proved the value of consistently having 3 finishers. West Side just learned what the back side of this door feels like when it hits you. We have 4 runners lined up for the Portugal Father’s Day 4 miler but we only have 3 for the Brooklyn Half; Dan, Kevin and me. They are all we need but we have no wiggle room for injury or the many other things which can intercede in making the starting line. Let me know if anyone else is on board for this race which is now closed to registration. At the risk of being a bore, I will once again say NYRR needs to do more to support its competitive teams to allow greater freedom in registering for all team point races.
Proud of our “Thundering Herd” –Dan Molloy’s nomenclature,
Capt’n Hank
From Ani Go of the W 40+:
Scotland ho! The masters 40+ ladies came to represent at our 2nd points race for 2nd place.
Jilly V hunted and destroyed with 40:22, followed by yours truly, trotting out the cookies in 43:18, and the speedy season debut of Ms Susan Laucius-Stamp (formerly Strazza) rounded out our team with 44:07. The scoring lasses placed top ten in age group as well. Awesome Audrey Kingsley came to play with a strong 44:15. We had a very nice team showing!
Note that none of the ladies wore kilts. 🙂
Congrats to everyone who ran, and to our open and masters teams! And thanks so much for those who came to cheer. GO ORANGE!