The best race in Central Park this month came from the new baby of the masters team: Joshua Rayman. Josh turned 40 this winter, and it must have fired him up somethin’ awful, since he tore up the Scotland 10k with a 33:51, or 83.9% on the age-graded tables. Since it looks like Josh is one of the fastest masters guys on the team at that distance, and since he seems to be getting faster as he gets older, I rang him up in the cold arboreal forest somewhere near Burlington, Vermont.

An active member of the team, Josh lives in Burlington teaching in the Ethnic Studies department at UVM while his partner and fellow professor Allison Moore instructs in the Art History department.  And that might be the least unusual part of his story.

Sometime around 1989, college sophomore Josh felt pain in his knee. We all do at some point unless we grew up near Addis Ababa, and I imagine Josh thought it would be a transient problem as he got ready for another competitive season at Williams. A lost season turned into two and then three, and the injury didn’t heal. Walking itself was difficult, and training hard was out of the question.

That could have been the end for Josh’s running career – a story that non-runners might enjoy telling – another runner-hurts-knee story.  But running was in his well-educated soul, and he wanted back in. The traditional rest and ice prescription for chronic tendonitis wasn’t working, so he tried to address what he saw as the underlying problem – an imbalance between different muscle groups. He strengthened specific leg groups with low weights and high reps. It took fifteen years of hurt, but this time, in 2006, the cure took, and he got back on the roads, with years to make up in a hurry.

While healthy, Joshua felt he wasn’t making much progress on his own, so he joined CPTC in the Fall of 2006. Immediately, his times started coming down. From racing at 6 minute pace, he knocked it down to 5:45, then 5:35 and now 5:12 over 5K. What made the difference?

Remember back in the late 1980s and 1990s when coaches rebelled against big miles? Those days when the top US marathoners ran 2:12? Those coaches turned out to be wrong, but that was the coaching Josh had in college. “I didn’t know what hard work was,” he said.

Josh credits his newfound speed as a masters athlete simply to running more and running faster. He punched up his running to around 100 miles per week, and attended both Tuesday and Thursday sessions with Tony’s group. That worked very well. He particularly gives credit to tempo runs, paying attention to VO2 max, and running on soft surfaces.

Now that he is in the North Country, Josh stays connected to CPTC by doing Tony’s workouts solo and coming down for big races. Training big miles solo is  “a bit of a chore,” he says, but he wanted to make sure I wrote that he gets motivation from wanting to make sure the coaches are satisfied. He says he also has a sense of urgency that he didn’t have as a young runner – that this is the time for him to get fast again.

Signed, sealed, delivered, Josh has knocked out absolute PRs at virtually every distance. He has run 4:20 for the 1,500 and 16:04 for the 5,000 (and done them on the same day). He ran 2:40 at New York last year. Next, Josh has trained his sights on breaking 16 for 5K, 33 for 10K and maybe even getting into the low 2:30s at the New York Marathon this year. His next effort is at the Healthy Kidney 10K in May.

For those of us who weren’t stars in high school and college, Josh’s story is a sweet one. Moving from a high school mile PR of 4:55 to running a 16:04 5K at age 40 – after taking 15 years off – is reason enough why so many of us love this sport and keep at it.

Less than a minute off Josh’s stern at Scotland were the top shelf slow-twitch muscles of Steven Monte. We know Steven as one of the great masters marathoners on the team – he ran 2:39 last week in London – but he can get around in a 10k too, as his 35:40, or 80.8% proves. That is his best age-graded time for a distance greater than a mile and shorter than a marathon – bravo Steven.

In the women’s race, Stacy Creamer knocked one out of the park in the park, running an 83.0%, or 41:16 for second in her age group. Tough town, New York.

Other 52-week age graded PRs at Scotland were laid down by the steadily improving Allan Piket and Hank Schiffman. Those who won age groups were, no surprise, Stuart Calderwood, Jill Vollweiler, Sylvie Kimche and George Hirsch. Sylvie has won her age group an astounding 18 times in a row.

Moving on to the peculiarly named Run as One four miler, I’ll point out Ross Taylor’s performance as an example for those of us who don’t race much. Ross has only run three races in Central Park over the past year, but still managed to put up what looks to me like a lifetime best age-graded percent: 79%. Hey, Gebreselassie picks his shots too.

Also at the Run as One, Melvyn Stafford continued to stair step up the charts, with his fifth straight improvement, dating back – amazingly – to May 2008. Melvyn ran a 77.1%, or 5:51 pace, and that is his best age-graded result in the NYRRC database. Samuel Mann continued his own streak of improving races, hitting 78.8%, for his third straight improvement.

In the age groups, CPTC swept the 60-64, with Sylvie Kimche and Samuel Mann disappearing off around the next bend in the park. Sid Howard won another  – in the 70-74.

Looking back at the Run for the Parks four miler on April 5, we had four 52-week age-graded PRs: the Roberts Howard and Mauriello and the aforespotlighted Melvyn Stafford and Samuel Mann.

Notable was the return of the great Yasuhiro Makoshi, who started his 2009 campaign with a win in the 55-59. 

Also notable are the team results  – after the first two scored races of the year, the 40+ women and the 50+ men are leading their divisions. 

Thirdly notable was newly 50-year-old Mike Rennock’s 2:47 at Boston – a feat that needs no clever remark, statistical punctuation or reference to quick Ethiopians. 

Dgreenb300@aol.com