Going into her eighth race in nine days at July’s  World Masters Track and Field Championships, you might have expected Lisa Daley to wonder if she had checked off too many boxes on her application. But there she was, with USA on her uniform and a teammate barreling toward her,  hand reaching out with a baton to pass, with medals on the line. Would the 4 x 1 be one too many?

A month before, on a warm evening in Northern Manhattan, Lisa had found herself in a  very different place:  on the way to the emergency room. While training for the hurdles she had crashed hard to the Rekortan, hitting her head and bruising just about everywhere else.  Her coach got her to the ER, but would that be the end of Lisa’s world championship dream?

As Lisa, a lawyer by trade, might say – no, your honor. She was soon back training, learning intermediate hurdle technique with intensity and ambition. Sacramento was the finish line, not the hospital. She had set out to win at Worlds, and if she had to train with a mouthguard, she would do it.

From talking to Lisa, you get the sense that she actually welcomed the challenge of playing hurt. She had already been to Worlds twice in the 200 and 400, but she decided to add the hurdles. “I like challenges,” says Lisa, “I thought that at 40 I would like to add spice to my track career.”

The ones who win often think that way. In an interview with Flotrack, Bernard Lagat said that one of the things that he believes makes champions is the desire to keep improving, never being satisfied with where he or she is. Maybe we should all try a new event every time we hit a new age group.

The way to improvement for Lisa was through learning a new event. Despite only having raced the event a few times, she entered the 400 hurdles, hoping her training and 20 years of track experience would get her through the event. “It was harder than I thought,” she said later.

She ran cautiously in the prelims and was not the top seed going into the final. Rather than being discouraged, she put together a race plan to take advantage of her underdog status. She would attack the first four hurdles, hoping her relative anonymity would cause the field to assume she would come back to them. “The last couple of hurdles were ugly,” she laughed later, but she held it together to take her first win.  She crossed the line in 63.95,  .45 of a second under her old American record.

Knowing she still had seven heats and finals to go, Lisa used everything in her toolbox to help her recovery. Massages after each event, ice baths, epsom salts baths, proper cooldowns and stretching took up much of her time between events.

The 200 began a few hours after the hurdles final. Pushing back against her nerves with breathing exercises and memory of the hard work she put in, she was the top seed going into the final, and took gold with a 26.16, versus an Australian at 26.71.

Even after winning the 200 decidedly and heading toward her specialty race, the 400, Lisa could not relax because a long-time friendly rival, Charmaine Roberts (USA), was waiting for her. Since 2006, the two had raced against each other in every big meet. In the best tradition of masters racing, they hugged before the race and went to the blocks.

The 400 posed a challenge to Lisa because she had already been on the track all week. She had tried to get enough sleep and do the little things right, but racing that much takes a toll on your legs and your confidence. Adding to her nerves, she knew her rival, Roberts, liked to put the hammer down at around 300 meters, just when Lisa’s week might start to drag her back.

The only way for Lisa to win would be to have the right race plan, which she summed up as ‘I want to win.’ In practical terms, that meant ignoring what she had already done that week and going out hard to put some distance between her and her rival’s fast finish.  At 300 Roberts made her move, but Lisa relied on her hurdler’s strength to stay ahead by a head, 57.42 vs 57.76.

The individual meet was over,and Lisa had executed like a Goldman trader circa 2007:  three golds in three finals. Lisa was therefore invited to compete on the relays, and she was eager to participate. After her 400 gold the team got together to practice handoffs for the 4 x 1, knowing the Australians would be tough. Lisa asked for the second leg, figuring that the slightly longer leg might be right for her as a long sprinter.

“It was a good effort,” she said later. “It doesn’t matter how tired you are – the team aspect of the relay gets you going.” The Americans got the stick around and crossed the line second, but the Australians were disqualified and Lisa got her fourth gold.

Two hours later she was back for the 4 x 4. She had no doubts about racing for the ninth time and finishing the meet in style.  Racing with her rival from the 400, Charmaine Roberts, the Americans ran 4:03.49, winning by 40 meters and, particularly gloriously,  beating the time of the W 35 winners.

After the meet, Lisa’s only bittersweet thought after winning five golds and setting a national record in the hurdles was wondering how fast she could have gone in the 200 or 400 had she raced less.  Bernard Lagat would have approved.

Flights from Sacramento to JFK were weighed down by more gold than just Lisa’s. Neil Fitzgerald won an incredible M40 800 (1:55.70), with all three medalists finishing within 13 hundreths of a second of each other. Neil won a second gold in the  4 x 4.  Darnell Gatling won the M50 400 hurdles in 56.86.

Back home in New York, gold was rarer than in post-gold rush Sacramento. I’ll start in June, when Wanda Wang won her first-ever age group championship in an NYRR event at the Front Runners 5 miler. First out of 139 is a good percentage.

The very next day at the Achilles 5 miler, Yasuhiro Makoshi continued his comeback with an age group win, as did Yumi Ogita with a strong 87.3% age group score.

And then we come to the first of the scoring races of the summer, the July 16 four miler. As Coach Tony has pointed out, the scoring races are testaments to the overall depth of CPTC. Take a look at the men’s competition – despite not a single 52-week age-graded PR, the masters team scored a first and two seconds in the team competition. The women did have some strong individual races, and won two the age groups and finished 4^th in another.

The fast women on the day were Jill Vollweiler, who ran at 6:05 pace for her 83.52% and an age group win, Sue Pearsall, who medalled in her age group with a 52-week PR of 6:42 pace/77.1%. Audrey Kingsley medalled in the 40-44 with yet another age-graded 52 week PR – 6:40 pace/75.7%. Marie Michelson and Deb Barchat also won age groups on the day.

On the men’s side, despite no age group wins and no spectacular individual runs, the 50s won and the 40s and 60s finished second.

And then on to the amazing race we call team champs. The women were the stars of the day, as Yumi, Jill and Audrey rolled over the hills to the win in the 40+ and Sylvie Kimche, Marie-Louise Michelson and Deb Barchat won the day in the 60+.

On the men’s side, the M40+ was the highlight with its second place team finish. Michael Ahern had the race of the day, as he pulled out his best ever age-graded race in Central Park with his 5:48 pace/79.7%. Always fantastic to see a peak performance at champs. Otherwise, the pack was the key to the race, as CPTC finishers 2,3,4,5 in the 40+ finished within  53 seconds of eachother.

Also setting nice 52-week age graded PRs were Casey Yamazaki and Michael Siegell.

Standings as of press time (not including team champs)

First Place: M 50+

Second Place: M 40+ (up from third), W 40+

Third Place: W 60+ (up from fifth)

Fourth Place: W 50+ (up from fifth)

Fifth Place: M 60+ (up from sixth)

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