From Nicole Falcaro, Matt Lacey and Cat Beck:
Womens XC-
Jane Vongvorachoti, Erin Koch, Cat Beck
Photo: Michael Scott
Team Grandma proved that, like fine wine, cast-iron skillets, George Clooney, and cheese, runners get better with age!
The geriatrics were led by Erin Koch in her first XC race in CPTC’s fiery orange singlets and a +1 min PR, which helped blaze a trail for Cat Beck who ran a 14 second course PR. Erin and Cat ran 20:48 and 20:53 for the 6k course for 2nd and 3rd overall, respectively. Also running in that pack and displaying “good teamwork and super support” (Cat’s words!) were Jane and course PR-ing by 53 seconds Rolanda. Christina rounded out the top 5 and shook her cane at some of the men on the course. “I felt that the CPTC women were way tougher than runners in the men’s race [with the exception of the CPTC men] who just started walking and taking naps in the middle of the course part way through.”
“I was wondering why everyone was dropping faster than frozen turkeys thrown out of an airplane. At first I thought they were admiring the foliage of the Lehigh Valley, then I realized a) their eyes were closed and b) they couldn’t really see any trees from the cornfield” reports Nicole, who worked well with Christina on the course.
Hannah Rose
Photo: Michael Scott
Steph and Hannah (with a 27 second 6k PR) had solid season openers, despite Steph predicting and following through with “wanting to hang yourself once you get into the cornfield.” Sue Pearsall had a course PR by 10 seconds in “god awful heat,” as temps rose to mid-70’s with 90%+ humidity – hotter than Ryan Gosling in a pair of New Balance NBX Split shorts.
Mens XC-
It was a hot and humid Saturday morning as 8 of our Men’s XC runners took the line in the open 8k race at the Paul Short XC Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. After an awkward 10 minute ‘stagger’ from the Women’s start, the men got off to a fair but aggressive pace with Jon Wetzel and Carlos Jamieson running stride for stride through the mile in a hair under 5 minutes. Paul and Joe Gilhuley were not far behind, with Stan Berkow lurking back a bit further. Through the later half of the race Jon Wetzel, running a course he clearly knows very well, was able to hold strong and finish an impressive 45th out of over 500 runners in a time of 26:07. While Carlos faded, Stan surged through the masses, passing countless runners en route to a 108th place finish. Carlos came next, with Paul and Joe closing hard on his heels. Herbert Plummer executed an impressive negative split after a conservative first mile to cross the line in 29:25, just ahead of Bill Wells in 29:29. John Milone also had a strong showing with a 31:22 finish.
These performances must been seen as more impressive based on the deteriorating weather conditions that resulted in the afternoon high school being cancelled due to ‘extreme heat.’ 18 runners were taking to hospitals after the days first 8 races. The images from this story pretty much say it all.
As the cross country squad looks ahead to the rest of October there are many races to come, 5k’s at Van Cortland Park on Oct 13th and Oct 20th, and the very competitive Mayor’s Cup returns to Franklin Park in Boston on Sunday October 27th. Until then, challenging workouts will continue to prepare the team for the Club Championships in Bend, Oregon on Dec 14th.
If you are unfamiliar with any aspect of CPTC’s Cross Country efforts please feel free to ask me any questions. Otherwise, happy training!