I called teammate John De Csepel to get some details on his ever-accelerating fall season. Sunday at the four-miler, John ran 24:53, for an age-graded score of 73.8%, and was fourth CPTCer on the team of any age. But more to the point for Faster Masters, he has the distinction of having the longest streak of age-graded PRs on the team – five races in a row. Think about how difficult it is to run a better race than your last one, five times in a row, over several months, over different race distances.

I asked John how he has continuously improved over the year. The answer was threefold: more miles, faster miles and a deadline.  While he is not a marathoner at this point, he came to realize that higher mileage has a positive affect even on shorter distances. So he kicked his overall weekly mileage up to around 50 from 40, including a 16 miler each week.

But no dead-legged Lydiardian, he. A regular devotee of Thursday nights with Webster, John has amped up his tempo runs, to the point where he runs several per week. It is clearly working: “The tempo runs helped – I am comfortable running at lactate threshold,” he said, adding that he went into today’s race aiming to run a fast third mile and was able to do so even in the hills.

Longer and faster we covered – but what about that deadline? John is a surgeon associated with Doctors Without Borders, and he is awaiting another assignment in Africa, probably to happen in the next few months. Given the hours and safety issues involved with his work in Africa, he says it is unlikely that he will be able to run much. “Now is the time to get PRs,” Dr. de Csepel says. He will try to continue his streak at the Joe Kleinerman 10k in December, but after that, competitive running will be a lower priority.

John is the rare masters athlete who is still setting absolute PRs. “I never feel bad about getting older as long as I can continuously run PRs,” he said, as I headed out for a tempo run.

One of the intriguing aspects of masters running is how some successful athletes – like John – come to the sport relatively late in life, while others have been running virtually their entire lives. Catherine Stone Borkowski , who also set an age-graded PR on Sunday (80.1%) and had the best age-graded result of all the women, has been an elite runner since high school. An All-American at the University of Arkansas, she has struggled at times – like all of us – to keep the competitive fire going as she has responsibilities including her business, the QiGong Wellness Center in Butler, NJ.

In February she had foot surgery, which put her off the roads, and “running became a secondary thing.” After the surgery, Catherine was able to get up to 15-20 miles per week, but wasn’t racing. Until the fall.

Watching the NYC Marathon as a bystander was more than she could take. Seeing thousands of people searching for accomplishment and aliveness got Catherine going again.  She called Devon and told her “The fire is relit – I want to run.”

The two of them devised a plan to get Catherine back on the starting line, and immediately Catherine was able to run 6:30 pace for a four-mile race, despite not having done any speed work at all. “It was just wild,” says Catherine, and attributes her speed to a mental shift rather than intense training. “Devon made that happen,” she added.

Catherine is looking to stay off the track for a while, even though she says “since I’ve been with CPTC that’s what I’ve been known for.” Her reputation as a track athlete is well earned; as a masters athlete she ran the 800 in 2:19. Short term, she may run the Kleinerman 10k. Her intermediate goal is to get up to 35 miles per week, run a half-marathon and qualify for the 2009 New York Marathon.

The roads appeal to her for several reasons, not the least of which is that road races aren’t so precise as racing on the track. “It’s kind of nice when you are not under a microscope,” Catherine says. “I don’t want to put pressure on myself. I just really enjoyed the last two races. The fire is back, it’s been relit. It’s been years, but it’s exciting.”

George Hirsch also set an age-graded PR today. George has done just three races this year – let’s hope he is gearing up for more. This 20-year CPTC veteran ran 30:36 for third in the 70-74, or 79.5% – almost reaching the 80% national-class level.

Other athletes of note: Yasuhiro Makoshi came back to amaze us again – this time by recovering quickly from the marathon – and again won his age group (24:14). Tom Phillips can (almost) not be beaten this fall – winning his age group for the fourth time in five races with a 23:19. Frank Wilson won the 65-69 age group for his first triumph in several years.

Some notes from other races: The great Tom Phillips finished his undefeated NYRRC cross-country season with a win in the 50-54 at the championships. Cross-country specialist Salih Talib won the 60-64 with a 20:58, and the legend himself – Sid Howard –  won the 65-69 with a 22:23.

The five toughest Orangemen of all ran the Knickerbocker 60k in the heat, humidity and rain on Saturday. Ramon Bermo was the top CPTCer, finishing second overall and first in his age group. He ran 7:28 pace for over four and a half hours. Other CPTCers who completed the 37 miles: Benjamin Gutman, Leandro Germosen, Harry Morales, and Chris Solarz. 

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