From David Greenberg of the 40+:

The 40+ took over sole possession of the year-long points competition with a strong win at Brooklyn. We had it all – debut performers, old hands throwing down PRs, comebacks from injury and more. For those of us who had become accustomed to us being perennially in second or third…having the lead is sweet indeed.

The best news is the turnout – 15 of us were on the roads – 1/3 more than last year’s total. The increased turnout this year at every race is the best thing we have done – that’s what it’s all about, and almost all of us set a PR of some sort. It seems we can’t run a race without breaking personal records.

At the pointy end, Brooklyn 2014 was about as good as it gets: our scoring three averaged 1:18 vs 1:22  last year, and we won the race by almost two minutes.  And two of our scorers were in the 45-49! We will pull into the lead in the point standings when they are updated since Warren Street, with whom we had been tied, finished sixth.

Daniel Gercke

Nigel Francis

Our #1 man was the same as last race: Daniel Gercke, who set a lifetime half marathon PR and also a lifetime best AG score. Hard to get any better than that, but it does: His races at Scotland and Brooklyn constitute a comeback – his first races since March 2012. So the next time you miss some races, remember how Daniel came back faster than before and be confident.  For the record, Daniel ran 1:17:36/84.14% and won the 45-49 by 34 seconds.

My plan was to crash through the park and just try to hold on through the flats of Ocean Pkwy. Which was fine until Mile 11 or so, which felt more like the end of a full marathon or some unspeakable bar crawl. Seriously, Nathan’s never looked so good. Amazing support all over the course by the Mighty (and mighty loud) Orange.

Cary Segall

Nigel Francis

The great rejuvenation of 2014 began this week with Cary Segall’s first race in the 40-49. He responded with his best age graded half marathon ever: 1:17:57/79.14%. Cary wrote about his race:

I was pleased with my performance based upon four weeks out from Boston along with a full week off and one four mile tempo. I am looking forward to some good speed work over the coming weeks and getting ready for Portugal.

 I didn’t realize the guy I was jockeying with for the first few miles was Gercke.  I passed him around five mile point and then he passed me around mile twelve.  I should have said something and worked with him on Ocean Pkwy.

 Cary was the first of the rookies to score: Next up will be Brenn Jones and Jacob Cooper as they age in.

David Greenberg

Nigel Francis

Third man was, again, for the third time this season, David Greenberg. His 1:20:38/80.30% was a masters PR and I have reason to believe he feels it was a step forward in his racing after some recent disappointing long races. He placed third in the 45-49.

 Coming down Ocean Parkway was one of the best bits of running I can remember – I was ten seconds per mile ahead of plan but felt reasonably comfortable. Great to have so many guys in orange around to run with.

 En Cho and Michael Nolan

Nigel Francis

I always want to spotlight absolute PRs, and En Cho continued his PR streak at Brooklyn.

 For the Brooklyn half, I ran 1:23:37/74.36%, a PR of 1:11.  The 13.1 distance is a bit out of my comfort zone, but all the CPTC support and camaraderie makes the event so enjoyable.  I’m looking forward to continuing my PR streak alive at the Portugal 5 miler in June.

 CPTC long run capo Daniel Ifcher hit one out of the park with his own lifetime best (in the NYRR database) 1:21:09/79.13%.:

 Great day, feeling strong with a 1:21:09 finish, and fifth place 45-49 age group (note CPTC took four of five of the top finishers in the 45-49 – go team).  This is my second fastest master’s time at the half distance.  Given all of the racing mileage I have put in since the new year and Boston a month ago, I was quite pleased.

 I started off easy with a 6:30 mile, then a 6:20 mile, and worked well up the hill in Prospect Park.  By the time I made it to the top of the hill, I had gotten the cobwebs out of my legs from Boston and was ready to roll….Progressed down to roughly six flat pacing for the transition and flats, down Ocean Parkway.  Throughout that segment, I was thinking about the prior Thursday workout – 4 x lower loop – and the mental toughness it taught, and Ocean Parkway was pretty much the same thing.  Thanks Tony and team mates!

 Ended up with a time one minute faster than last year (scored for the team), and yet, was fifth place masters for CPTC, the irony!  Yet, it is still good news because we took top honors in the Team master’s competition!

 Another Boston vet, Edwin Hernandez, ran Brooklyn still in recovery mode:

 My time was satisfying as i was not racing the Brooklyn Half.I am still recovering from Boston. Wanted to run under 1:30 and finished 1:27:09.I am extremely delighted that our team took first place – let’s keep the momentum going!

 Wayne Merdis also set a lifetime best at the distance, with his1:48:28/58.72%. Wayne is one our most prolific racers – Brooklyn was his fifth NYRR race this year – great to see results getting better and better.

Many of us set course records – the speediest of them was Timothy Stockert, who not only set a Brooklyn PR with his 1:20:53 but set his best AG score since 2011. Timothy was also 4^th in the 45-49.

 Coleman Cowan set a course PR and a half marathon age graded best with his 1:22:59/76.14%. Coleman is on a surge – this was his second best AG score in the NYRR database for races of all distances.

If you see Michael Nolan wish him safe travels – he is departing for Oceania. But not before he set a course PR with a 1:24:27/77.3%:

 It wasn’t a great race for me but not a disaster either. I tried to run the first half conservatively, particularly in the Prospect Park hills, and thought I’d have enough for the remainder. But I was just barely holding on for the last 2-3 miles. I did not pr but am very glad to be part of another great race for the CPTC masters. And as I mentioned just before the start, this might be my last race for a while because I’m moving to Singapore for a couple of years.

 Michael Caggia is another of us who set a course AG PR – great to see Michael running well.

 Glenn Gaudi

Nigel Francis

Glenn Gaudi ran his first half marathon as a master, and must have met expectations as he ran an AG % course PR.

George Ross wins the ‘you have to start somewhere’ award – he chose a half marathon to kick off his year and it sounds like he had a tough day out there:

 ​Great news about the team!  As for me, it was my worst race in a long time; I clearly have my work cut out for me. Held 1:28 pace or thereabouts for the first six and just blew up and jogged it home for 1:34.  I thought I was fit for a 1:28 but lack of base from winter injuries caught with me I guess.

Dave Bosch was happy to see his masters brothers running hard on Flatbush.

After a super rough dehydrated last mile at Boston, the medical tent thereafter and some rest Dave got “made” as a pace team leader for NYRR and ran 1:39:59 as the 1:40 pace team leader and helped some good and hard- working non-CPTC runners hit PRs.

 No turning back now my young boys – let’s win it this year.

 We are in the points lead for the first time in years – now we have a stretch of three warm weather five milers – hope to see you out there.

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While most of us thought Brooklyn was a long race…for our Alex Tilmant, Brooklyn would have been a warmup. Alex is having significant success on the longtrail – here he is:

This morning just completed the inaugural ThunderRock 100M in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, about 60 miles from Chattanooga. Hilly (over 17,000 feet of climbing) and fairly technical, gorgeous remote trails. The race started at noon on Friday and I came in 12th overall with a time of 21h04mn.

Hit a rough patch between miles 40 and 50 but then recovered and teamed up with two other runners during the last 50 miles of the race, nice teamwork.

ThunderRock 100M caps a rather intense winter/spring season that also included 3rd Master Empire State Building, 1st CPTC Master at NYC Half and Boston Marathon, 2nd Master 7th overall at Leatherwood Ultra 50M and 54th overall at Miwok100K two weeks ago. Now time to rest those legs!

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Don’t forget the Saturday long runs – they are a great way to get to know your teammates. And bring a friend – the runs have a very casual vibe.

 

From Chris Donnelly of the 50+:

The CPTC 50+ men took second place in the highly competitive Brooklyn Half Marathon this past weekend, extending our lead in the 2014 club points race. In near ideal running conditions, one runner hit a big PR and another scored for the first time in 2014.

 Alan Ruben

Nigel Francis

Coming off the Boston Marathon just a few weeks ago, Alan Ruben led the team with a 1:23:19, (85.48% AG), capturing first place in the 55-59 age group. Yasuhiro Makoshi once again gave us a scoring assist, winning the 60-64 age group with his 1:26:05 performance, for an 85.85% AG.Casey Yamazaki was next, his 1:29:46 good for 75.24% AG and 16th place among the 590 men in the 50-54 category. It was Casey’s first time scoring this year.

For continuous improvement, it’s hard to top Dennis O’Donnell. Denis shaved about a minute off his half marathon PR at the NYC Half a couple of months ago, and chopped another whopping 2:20 in this race with a 1:34:03 (75.72%), good for 20th among the 350 competitors in the 55-59 age group.

Chris Donnelly played a supporting role this time, clocking a 1:31:49 (74.2%). Oscar Garcia was out there for us too, racing to a 1:43:29 (65.83% AG), along with Stuart Alexander at 1:53:42 (63.79% AG).

Congrats, too on all the great CPTC performances, notably the 40+ men’s team on their first place finish. They’re firing on all cylinders now!

 

 

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:

In a race on a spectacular day in Brooklyn, if we were going to take second place, it had be to a Brooklyn team. And so it was. Thus we moved up from last year’s third place. Just getting to the starting line of a half for a 60+ runner is a blend of training, caution and luck. We juggled those 3 balls well:

Yasuhiro Makoshi, habitual club point double dipper, roaring back from his injury of autumn, nailed first overall men 60+ by 2 minutes.

 Yasuhiro Makoshi

Nigel Francis

George Hirsch, in the shadow of his loss, took first place 75-79 age by 9 minutes, one year short of the next age group.

Kevin McGuire, our happy warrior and potential third finisher, arose early from afar in spite of the forecast uncertain weather to better his last year’s time by almost a minute.

Rick Shaver, forwent participating in the Gran Fondo due to a last minute business trip, rose to be our 3rd scorer.

Fred Trilli, the Mayor of Cobble Hill, once again did an iconic run thru Brooklyn, this time minus a beard and wearing orange and blue instead of red and white.

Hank Schiffman, ran close to an even race with legs intact for a real effort to the line.

 Hank Schiffman

Nigel Francis

Our combined ages (395 years) subtracted from the current year would land us in the year 1619, very likely predating Dutch settlement in Brooklyn.

Hank: “ Calf spasms have dogged me in the last few miles of this race. This year I:

1- adhered more strictly to Coach Tony’s workouts (tempo and long runs solo)

2- did exercises to push my calves/quads to fatigue.

3- took gels at mile 4 and 7 in an attempt to maintain blood sugars.

4- tried to get Alan Ruben’s and Yasuhiro’s NSA records to see if I could find the Devil’s phone number, but was unsuccessful.

I almost ran into a Galloway runner on Ocean Parkway. A couple of miles on she devolved into a Galloway walker. Following this, I put it on cruise control and hoped that I wouldn’t run out of mojo before I ran out of road; I didn’t.

 Captain Chris Donnelly and I ran the last couple of miles together until he found his passing gear and motored to the line.”

Yasuhiro: “It was a wonderful day for running and I enjoyed competing with John and Jack again today! …since I was 54 seconds behind John at last Scotland 10K, I was doing training, especially intervals, pace and LSD. I am glad that made a good result today!”

John Shostrom, of Brooklyn RR and 2nd place men 60-64 finisher, told me that he tried to hang with Yasuhiro, but it was futile.

Kevin: “Was a wonderful day to run and the air was so clean from the rain the night before. Ran the last few miles with Tony Gonzalez from VCTC, we kept each other honest trading the lead and had a nice chat after the finish. I told him he won as he is 68 and his net time was better anyhow. You meet such good people when you run.

Don’t want to forget the delicious Nathan’s hotdog with Fred to top off the race. BTW, Joey Chestnut is the record holder having eaten 69 hotdogs in something like 10 minutes; ugh.”

This was the second most participated half marathon in the US this year with over 25k finishers. 292 were men 60+. Our 6 CPTC men represented just 2% of this group, but we punched far above our weight:

 

time                 2013                pace                 age       AG%   AG men overall

Yasuhiro Makoshi       1:26:05            (1:25:12)          6:35                 1          85.85   16

Hank Schiffman          1:31:42            (1:32:28)             7:00                 4          82.92   37

Rick Shaver                 1:42:41                                            7 :51                 19        71:96   415

Kevin McGuire           1:47:18            (1:48:07)          8:12                 32        69.53   632

George Hirsch            2:02:48            (2:02:37)          9:23                 1          75.87   190

Fred Trilli                     2:28:19            (2:0814)           11:20   55                     53.34   6249

Nor has the rest of our team been sitting idle:

At the Run as One 4 miier Yasuhiro took 1st age place, 25:21, Chris Neuhoff, 4th age place, 27:49, the great Sid Howard, 2nd age place, 33:24, the day after the Penn Relays, George Hirsch, 3rd age place, 34:29, and Bob Haig 36:41.

At the Healthy Kidney 10k Yasuhiro, was 1st age place in 40:55 and Chris Neuhoff, was 2nd age place in 42:50.

At the Japan Day 4 miler Yashuhiro, was 1st age place in 25:11, Chris Neuhoff was 4th age place in 27 even, Bob Haig was 12th age place in 36:48, and Fred Trilli 22nd age place in 39:29.

We are officially out of 1st place by 1 point in club standings with 39 to Brooklyn RR’s 40. Taconic RR is 3rd with 28.

Our overall time was over 5 minutes faster this year, but Brooklyn RR improved 12 minutes, yet we were only 2:19 behind them:

2014                            2013

Brooklyn RR:                    4:38:09            4:50:14

CPTC                                    4:40:28            4:45:47

West Side                           4:48:23        4:43:17

Taconic RR                        5:22:26            4:36:34

 

June brings us the two 5 milers, 13 days apart. See you then.

 

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2014 Points Standings After Scotland

First Place: M 40+, M 50+, M 60+

Third Place: M Open

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Gal Cohen

 Da Ping Luo