From Matt Lacey of the Open XC:
It was an up and down day for the Open Men at the USATF Club Cross Country National Championships. One one hand it never feels good to walk away from a race with a 38th place team finish, but on the other hand there were numerous season’s best times and performances, and marked improvement over the last time the team competed at the 10k distance. It should also be noted that this race had a whopping 572 finishers from 68 scoring teams. Even on a championship caliber course such as the one at Lehigh University, this was still a sight to behold, and a great indication of the rising popularity of club racing, something that will no doubt benefit everyone down the road (or trail).
Our scoring team was led by Stan Berkow, fresh off his victory at the Prospect Park Turkey Trot, running a strong 32:39. Following Stan our next 4 runners crossed the line within 1 min, giving our team a desirable 1:24 spread, something to build on as everyone looks to move up in the overall pack in the future.
Stan Berkow
Photo: Sue Pearsall
Teddy Quinn led this group (in an actual CPTC uniform this time), nipping under 33 minutes with a time of 32:54. Next came Taylor Burmeister in 33:28, 26 seconds faster than his race on a shorter course at New Englands. Matt Lacey followed in 33:45, taking perhaps a bigger swing for the fences than was advisable on this day, but fortunately backed up by Ryan Fitzsimons running his self described best race of the year to finish up in 33:53.
Ryan Fitzsimmons
Photo: Sue Pearsall
Another monumental race of note was a 25 second lifetime 10k PR by Herb Plummer, who finished up in 36:29 for the CPTC ‘B’ Team. Bill Wells led the ‘B’ Team 36:11 finish.
Herb Plummer
Photo: Sue Pearsall
A team meal of pizza and beer at a cozy restaurant in downtown Newark capped off a satisfying fall of cross country racing. As to be expected conversation ranged from indoor 3k aspirations to winter and spring half marathons, highlighting one of the great assets of our sport, there is always another racing opportunity on the horizon.
228 #1488 Berkow, Stan 25 Central Park A 32:39.18
255 #1502 Quinn, Teddy 28 Central Park A 32:54.37
302 #1491 Burmeister, Taylor 27 Central Park A 33:28.09
331 #1496 Lacey, Matthew 30 Central Park A 33:45.65
340 #1493 Fitzsimons, Ryan 24 Central Park A 33:53.05
377 #1489 Britton, Justin 24 Central Park A 34:20.08
401 #1501 Pollina, John 25 Central Park A 34:46.67
406 #1505 Wetzel, Jonathan 27 Central Park A 34:50.83
472 #1504 Wells, Bill 30 Central Park B 36:11.46
482 #1500 Plummer, Herbert 32 Central Park B 36:29.96
493 #1490 Buckley, James 21 Central Park B 36:49.51
532 #1492 Dengate, Jeffery 37 Central Park B 38:25.91
From Phil Falk of the Road Open:
CPTC men finished of its road season this year at the Ted Corbitt 15K.
Life is short, running makes it seem longer. Especially winter races, the longest of all!
Actually it was a perfectly pleasant sunny 36-degrees for the final NYRR club race of the year. Since cross-country nationals were the very same day, CPTC got to draw on some familiar and some new faces in its results. The course has two loops of Central Park, so the most treacherous part might be swooping across (runner) traffic, from the outside lane to the inside lane to finish. In last year’s icy grip, there were some spills and falls, but everyone stayed upright this year.
Greg Cass evaded the timing chips, but when he was reinstated, he put up an impressive 51:05. Peter Brady (52:39) and Phil Falk (52:46) hit the tape pretty close together. Eugene Douglass at 54:13 made his debut for CPTC. We are glad to have him and see great things in his running future! Rounding out the team was Coleman Cowan, 56:49. Additional congrats are due to Justin Cawley, notching another PR of 57:39 in a year of PRs, and Andrew Sutherland, swooping in with his singlet from Chicago.
At the conclusion of 2014, the CPTC Open Men earned third place in the NYRR club standings, matching our 2013 results. On behalf of your captains, we’d like to thank all of our runners, veterans and newbies alike, for their participation from the mile to the marathon. And of course our inimitable road coach Tony Ruiz, without whose weekly wisdom we’d be at a loss. We’re proud of running with such a deep, committed, and energetic team all year!
From David Greenberg of the 40+:
The CPTC M 40+ wrapped up its first championship season in 12 years with a second place showing at the Ted Corbitt 15K.
Final score for the year:
CPTC: 138
West Side Runners: 119
Warren Street: 105
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We won the championship with consistency – of the 11 races we were
First: 5 times
Second: 5 times
Third: Once
Since we never had a bad race, we just kept putting points on the board and despite a late season surge by West Side, our lead was large enough to hold.
Congratulations to all those who raced this year.
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I do want to list our scorers and how many times they scored – note how long this list is – we did depend on a few key scorers, but many others filled in well:
Dan Gercke: 6
Jim McQuade: 6
Cary Segall: 5
Peter Brady: 4
David Greenberg: 4
Dave Bosch: 2
Coleman Cowan:1
Sherman Lau: 1
Thom Little: 1
Gerry O’Hara: 1
Alan Ruben: 1
Douglas Tsao:1
Brad Weiss: 1
Next year we should compete strongly again – we will add several solid runners including David Alm and Uli Fluhme, and oldsters Gercke, McQuade, Bosch, Kelley and Greenberg don’t seem to be slowing down much.
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As for this past weekend, as you know we ran two squads, which diluted each race result, but there is good news to report.
At the Corbitt we had only five finishers and Alan Ruben had to help us out from above as our third man, but we still finished second to West Side, and by just 21 seconds.
Peter Brady led the scoring, winning the 40-44 and finishing 2nd among all CPTCers of any age. His 52:39/83.31% was a new PR for 15k, and he won $150 for being the first guy over 40 across the line. It was also the 5th best 15k in club history for the 40-49 15k.
Peter:
That’s great that we won the 40-44 age group as a team this year. Hopefully a number of us will be able to attend NYRR club night in March to pick up the award. It’s a fun event.
Congrats to those of you who ran the National XC champs. I’m sure it was a great experience.
Regarding the 15K, I was happy with my result. I ran the first loop of the course with Phil Falk and Patrick Hynes. Unfortunately, Patrick had to drop out due to hamstring issues, but it was still helpful having someone to pace with for a good chunk of the race. Coach Tony and John Zuehlke were cheering all over the course, which also helped.
Anyway, it was a good finish to the year for me and I now look forward to switching back to indoor track training. I probably won’t race outdoors again before the Penn Relays in April (assuming I get the chance to run there again his year).
Coleman Cowan also PRd with his 56:49/78.44, and in a real accomplishment, also scored for the open team.
Andy Zhang had what looks like a 10 minute PR – can’t beat that with a stick. We can all learn from Andy’s consistency this year – he ran almost every race pretty close to his best AG %.
Speaking of racing, Laurence Go might have the most race hardened legs of us all – he finished his 14th NYRR race at the Corbitt.
And with that we close the points season – Like Peter said, we should aim for a big, big attendance at the NYRR Team Night – let’s enjoy this one.
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Jonathan Stenger and John Milone
Photo: Simon Durkin
Six of us went to the fields of Bethlehem to compete in a truly amazing event: the USATF XC Club Championships. The depths at this race might be unparalleled anywhere.
Our team result was solid – 18th out of 39 teams. Time doesn’t really matter since it was XC, but each of us ran well and fought hard.
Finishers in order were:
Brad Kelley
Armando Oliverira
David Greenberg
Gerry O’Hara (age 50)
John Milone
Jonathan Stenger
Our 1-5 spread was only 67 seconds – very much fun to pack it up in an enormous, 600 person XC championship XC race. I felt like a kid out there.
On the rarely held 10k XC top 10 list, three of us made the cut:
Brad Kelley 37:01 #3 all time
David Greenberg 37:15 #6 all time
Gerry O’Hara (50) 37:28 #7 all time
Armando Oliveira ran 37:06 but already has a faster time on the books – in fact he is the club record holder at 34:50
Gerry O’Hara‘s 37:28 rang in at #3 all time for the 50+ 10K XC list.
For those who haven’t played cross country – put it on your list for next year – it’s like road racing but more fun.
Jonathan Stenger
Photo: Michael Scott
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Speaking of road racing, our lost sheep Josh Rayman ran an outstanding marathon in Huntsville this past weekend: 2:38 at age 45. Says the Tampa resident:
Thanks! It was a 98 second pr (first half in 1:18:02, second in 1:20:02), so I can’t complain with getting that and being healthy to run a marathon for the first time in three years, plus it was a great month with three major pr’s, 10k-33:38 at the Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot (7th?, 2nd master), 10M-55:46 (2nd,1st master) at the Florida 10 Series-Sarasota, and 2:38:04 at Rocket City (9th, 1st master, $750!). But I barely got any sleep the last two days with family issues and felt lousy the day of, so with the kinds of workouts I had run in the weeks before, I was definitely looking for a lot more in this race. It was also windy, hilly by my Florida standards, and had a ton of turns, maybe 50-100 of them! But I’ll take it and see if I can keep getting the shorter distances faster and try to get the marathon right next fall. I think that I have moved up a few places in the CPTC master’s all-time rankings in all three events, but Alan Ruben is still sitting out there at sub-2:30 and joining him there someday would sure cap off my marathon career
Our marathon team is an amazing thing to think about. Off the top of my head, we have two under 2:40 and three or four under 2:50.
From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:
As the team point standings were in the bag short of all East River crossings shutting down race morning, the 2014 Ted Corbitt 15k was essentially a fun run for our 60+ men.
Concerns about the cold, clear and windy weather while waiting in pre-race corrals proved to be unfounded. It turned out to be a glorious day.
Totaling 3:09:06, Brooklyn RR took first place. Greater New York was second in 3:29:49. CPTC ran 3:28:20 for third. Taconic RR was fourth in 3:49:36.
Hank Schiffman (me) was our first scorer, 2nd age place, 22nd age gender, 81.82%, 1:05:20, amounting to run age in minutes. In fact, the 20 seconds reflect the 4 months past the age of 65. 6 runners ran their age in this 15k: Greg Diamond, 57, John Shostrom, 61, Jack McShane, 62, and John Grant, 70. Only one did so in last year’s race, no doubt due to poor weather. My time this year was half a minute faster than a year ago.
Gary Gosselin, recently relocated to New York from Bean Town, was our second scorer at 1:10:08, 72.76%. Gary was satisfied to have run his projected time. He too claimed to have run his age in minutes, age group in minutes, but the 60 – 69 age group. Only beginning running with CPTC beginning mid season, he hit the ground running. This was the 3rd time he has scored out of the 4 he raced.
Once again, Kevin McGuire was our 3rd scorer, his 4th for the season. 11 seconds faster than last year, Kevin crossed the line in 1:12:52, 71.31%. Kevin and I both ran 10 of the 11 team point races. He ran the Autism 4 miler, which I missed; I ran the marathon, he did not.
Kevin: “ Another wonderful day being part of CPTC. Had some company in the coral with Gary and briefly said hello to Barbara at mile 6 until she pulled away from me. Great way to close out our team races. My race and splits were almost the same as last year so I will take it.
And let’s not forget the after party at Dave’s with the 60+ men and women. Great time and great friends .
Dave is a fine host and serves up a tasty pecan pie.”
[reporter’s note: Chris brought that pie. And, it was voted best in the city]
For Dan Molloy, our first backup, like Gary, the Corbitt 15k was his 4th appearance in the team point series. But like Kevin, Dave and myself, this race was the finale of the series which we all began together running the Salsa 5k back in March. Plagued by injury, Dan recovered to run 1:22:47, 63.36%. He is slated to sing the National Anthem and compete at these events this coming season:
- Philadelphia Triathlon – 6/28
- New Jersey State Championships – 7/20
- National Championships – Sprint and Olympic races – 8/8 and 8/9
Dan: “ It was a HR training day and base building day for me… the goal was to keep the HR at 140… which I did… and then let it go for the last 1.3 miles… which I also did. According to my Garmin, my race pace was 8:41 and in the last mile 8:10 and the last 1/3 – 7:19. Despite running on tired legs I felt strong. In my current cycle of training, I can feel my strength building again… in all areas… in the pool… on the bike and of course the run. Great Day… and Great Après Race event.
Note; I was always better at Après Ski events… and it seems to be true in running as well… 😉 ”
Our second backup captured first place in the rarified age group of 80 – 99. But don’t be misled in thinking him any less for doing so just because there was but one other runner in his age group. His 1:23:05 translated to a WAVA score of 80.26%, good for 28th AG place men overall out of the field of 2169. Out the 31 CPTC men who ran this race George Hirsch’s AG% was 5th. As difficult as it is to stand out in the ocean of open class when young, being recognized as outstanding in a dwindling puddle is under appreciated. George appears as lithe, fit and every inch the runner as Gary’s 60 – 69 age group. He is our general who marches with his troops, not choosing the easiest races to run, his other team point race was the Brooklyn Half.
Dave Delano, ran this as his 7th team point race this season in 1:25:08, 64.63%, an improvement of 1:36:51 last year. In addition, he hosted a most excellent post race breakfast for our 60+ men and women, well-attended by those who ran and those who supported us.
Dave, Dan, Kevin and I all began the season at the Salsa 5k and ended it with this race.
Except for 3rd in the Salsa 5k, and 2 no scores, Brooklyn RR won every other race in the series. We won all those 3 races, took second place 5 times, and third 3 times, one of them being this race. The 2 mulligans do not denigrate that Brooklyn is a powerhouse. We had a great season; there is no shame being bettered by such talent.
For the year, Brooklyn had 145 points, we had 127, and Taconic 104.
The breakdown of runners and races for this season is thus:
10 Kevin and Hank
7 Chris, Dave and Fred
5 Rick and Yasuhiro
4 Dan and Gary Gosselin
3 Bob Haig and Harry
2 George Hirsch
1 Allan, Bill Allert, Doug Labar, Gary Circosta, George Nelson, Giovani, Hal, Sam and Sid
Here are the scoring numbers:
10 Hank
6 Chris
5 Yasuhiro
4 Kevin
3 Gary Gosselin
1 Allan, Dan, Doug, Rick and Sam
A shout out to Chris and Yasuhiro is in order. They have been consistent scorers, responsible for our superb showing in competition this season. Yasuhiro has been beset with the burden of injury for any number of races. Chris took the helm and was our first scorer for the Autism 4 miler.
The team point series is over but we still have the Holiday Classic on Saturday, December 20th at 9 am. afterwards, is our CPTC Awards Banquet on Friday, January 9th. Further down the road, NYRR online registration for the Salsa 5k on March 1st, traditionally the first team point race. But whether it is on the team point calendar is unconfirmed.
Captain Hank