ben ko mass start

Photo: Ben Ko

From Phil Falk of the Open:

Ahh, the summer race circuit, with the sun up by 5:30am, the warm haze hovering over the ground, the temperatures dipping into the seventies, and the mild tingle of a light heatstroke setting in. All things considered this was a bearable summer outing, although the bright, direct sun on much of the roads made the heat feel a little more intense. So not a day for the fastest racing, but still a good day to run! As NYRR put it, “A sea of rainbow-clad runners, many sporting T-shirts with ‘We Support Orlando’ and other important messages, braved the hot and humid day to take on the Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run, now in its 35th year.”

The orange section of the rainbow showed up to play, as always. Our top five runners gave the team a third place finish. Considering that four of these guys ran a marathon in Boston just two months ago, it’s great to see them bounce back. Matt Rand led the team in his first race for CPTC. His 25:35 was good for 12th place overall. Great things to come from him in the future. He was followed by Kyle Marks, 26:26. In third, fourth, and fifth came Greg Cass, 26:58, Ryan Scrudato, 27:00, and Connor Rose, 27:09. Despite the conditions, Herb Plummer also notched a 1-minute PR, at 28:30.

Next up: Same distance, same park, same direction, (though without the Harlem hills) at Team Champs in one month!

Teammates:

The Orange 40+ men solidified its second place standing in the year-long points competition at Front Runners with a narrow loss to Urban Athletics.

Unofficial season standings:

All races:

Urban: 68

CPTC: 59

West Side: 56

 

With two worst races dropped:

Urban: 45

CPTC: 39

Warren Street: 36

So our hill got a little steeper this week, but the top is still within our reach. A win at club champs could close it up since it counts as two races. Having five athletes score is a big advantage to us at that race, so the ball is up in the air. Then a solid show at the marathon as I expect, and it could come down to the wire. And with that I am plumb out of metaphors.

Challenging conditions and the slow course reduced the number of PRs and good races.

Scorers were:

Matthew DeAngelis: 28:29/78.70%/4th 40-44

Brad Kelley: 28:42/83.88%/2nd 50-54

Mohammed Lahseni: 28:44/81.14%/2nd 45-49

Race of the day honors are shared by three men, each of whom set a masters PR over five miles:

Matt DeAngelisBrad Kelley and Jesus Ansede Ferreira.

Point man Matt DeAngelis PRd by 24 seconds:

Matt:

Humidity was pretty brutal, but that time of year so we have to embrace it right!

(I’m writing that on my number at Team Champs – ed)

Final scorer Mohammed Lahseni came within a second of a masters PR as he continues to improve.

Jesus Ansede Ferreiro had a 45 second masters PR at 5 miles. Now that’s improvement.

Top 10s:

 

2nd: Brad Kelley

2nd: Mohammed Lahseni

4th: Matthew DeAngelis

6th: Dan Gay

6th: Tim Stockert

8th: Cary Segall

9th: Eduardo Ribeiro Ferreira

 

Participation statistics:

5 races: David Alm and David Greenberg

4 races: Brad Kelley and Tim Stockert

2016 Scorers:

4 – Brad Kelley

2 – Eric Lattin

2 – David Greenberg

2- Matt DeAngelis

1-Mohammed Lahseni

1-Tim Stockert

1-Coleman Cowan

1-Josh Rayman

1-Peter Brady

From outside the NYRR lasso:

Peter Brady has been running very well on the track, hitting 1:58.98 for 800 this week. Peter has been invited to compete in the masters 1500 at the Olympic Trials – that is a great honor for Peter and for the club.

Peter was named masters athlete of the month for May by USATF NY.

Rich Nelson:

I raced and broke the tape at the Public Prep Memorial Day 5K on Roosevelt Island on Monday.  It was pretty hot and extremely humid so I wasn’t running for a PR – ran a strategic race that I finished in 17:31, 6 seconds ahead of the #2 finisher.  Took home $100 in prize money to boot!

David Dorsey:

Ran my fastest 5k in a few years last night! (June 8) Just gotta stay on the grind! 79.6% age graded performance factor!

David Alm ran a track 5000 in 17:25, good for 9th all-time at CPTC: http://www.centralparktc.org/best-times/masters-best-times/masters-men-5k/

Way out of NYC, Alex Tilmant ran a spectacular 100 miler – I’ll let him tell the tale:

Back from the Bighorn mountains in north-central Wyoming where I ran the Bighorn 100-miler in 24h40mn, placing 25th (8th 40-49) among the 172 finishers (285 at the start). Magnificent out-and-back course through canyons, meadows, forests and cascading waterfalls, with 17’500 ft (5300m) of positive elevation at an altitude between 4’000 and 9’000 ft (1200-2700m). Excellent organization, wonderful volunteers and lots of camaraderie among runners. Lost a toe nail in the battle but otherwise just normal wear and tear! Pretty happy with this year’s running season so far, with a second best half-marathon time (1h17mn) at the NYC Half in March (4th age-group), first at the Wawayanda 50-miler and 1st 40-49 (13th overall) at the World’s End 100K in May. Now rest and recovery with an eye on the NYC Marathon in November. Many thanks to my coach Tony Ruiz for his guidance, my Central Park Track Club running mates for keeping those workouts so exhaustingly fun and Helen Dole for being so lovingly patient and supportive. Happy summer everyone!

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+

Unless someone has something to add at the last moment, here it is. If the tabbed table does not work out, I have it as an image taken from a screen shot at the bottom.

With a 2nd place team finish our 60+ guys are back in the hunt.  Or as Lafayette said in Hamilton, “…we get the job done.” Chris Neuhoff and Yasuhiro Makoshi are still out but Bob Holliday‘s summer return to NYC, Gary Gosselin’s reliable running, Kevin McGuire in place as back up scorer followed by a sick and rundown Allan Dias qualifying for the Team Championships, and standard bearer Phil Vasquez, we held off all challengers short of the dominant Brooklyn Road Runners. Front Runners made the podium one step lower than CPTC. Taconic had the high card with Ken Pfaff, but failed to deliver a third fast scorer:

1 Brooklyn Road Runners Club  01:41:43

John Shostrom                  33:23

Jack McShane                   33:58

Douglas Currier                34:22

 

2 CPTC New Balance            01:46:49

Hank Schiffman                 34:51

Bob Holliday                   35:33

Gary Gosselin                  36:25

 

3 Front Runners NY            01:49:46

Steven Vizena                  32:01

Alan Brown                     38:37

Paul Racine                    39:08

 

4 Taconic Road Runners Club   01:50:03

Kenneth Pfaff                  31:48

Joseph Porcaro                 36:23

Thomas Maile                   41:52

 

5 Witold’s Runners            01:56:03

Zdislav Kloc                   36:45

Patrick Keane                  39:18

Stanislaw Sendrowicz           40:00

Thus standing of total points after 5 races are:

1 Brooklyn Road Runners Club         75

2 Taconic Road Runners Club            44

3 CPTC New Balance             42

3 Witold’s Runners                 42

4 Front Runners NY               34

Age graded percentages were down (prior years recalculated /w 2015 formula):

 

2016                2015                2014

 

Hank Schiffman          34:51, 1st AG             79.44%                        81.21%                        79.36%

Bob Holliday              35:33, 2nd AG                        77.17%

Gary Gosselin             36:25, 9th AG             73.28%                        73.88%

Kevin McGuire           40:03, 17th AG           67.85%                                                            68.43%

Allan Dias                   40:03, 9th AG             68.47%

Phil Vasquez               41:18, 24th AG           65.21%                        66.3%

 

conditions                    (temp/humidity)           67F/76%                      69F/68%                      76F/50%

Lower humidity and temperatures of prior years. Could it really be the humidity, not the temperature? Only 3 men over 60 cracked 80% AG.

Hank:

Just squeaked under the 7 minute pace with 6:59.

Garmin 620 splits: 6:40, 6:55, 6:56, 7:24, 6:46. On Coach Tony’s urging I picked it up in the last mile and pushed the last 300 meters.

Bob:

Three weeks after the Retro race, I just kept thinking about what a difference a fifth (hilly) mile makes.  But any race where Michael Cerveris sings the National Anthem will be a memorable one for me.

 

Further afield race reporting from Stuart Alexander:

Fred Trilli and I signed up months ago for the inaugural running of this race. They were making it up as they were going along. The course changed a bit and the start time changed too between the time we signed up and race day. A day or so before the race they said the course is closer to 3.25 miles than the advertised 5km. They also told us only then that the course would not be a closed course so we would be running on the sidewalk!

http://www.citytri.com/home/runs/brooklyn-bridge-5k-run

 

Also, the start shifted later to 10:00 am. It was about 80 degrees when we began. We were directed to a random point between Foley Square and the Brooklyn Bridge and told that the race would begin when the first person reached the bridge. ??? I thought there might be a timing mat there or some indicator. Nope! No idea exactly where they would decide was the beginning of the Bridge.

 

Anyway, I have been undergoing intense treatment for hamstring and hip issues and should not have run at all but it was an expensive race and I really wanted to do it. The last time I ran was ten days before the race and it felt as if daggers were plunging into each hamstring with every step. So, off we went into the intense hot sun. About 400 runners dodging tourists all the way up and down the bridge. I have never stopped for water before in any race shorter than 10K but my core temperature had already reached the danger point by the one and only water stop just short of the 2 mile point so I stopped and dumped one glass over my head and I poured another down my throat. Still a bit dizzy I set off about 40 seconds later to finish the race.

 

Their timing said I finished the course, whatever distance it was, in 26:41 for fourth place in my age group, only 17 seconds behind the third place finisher. Hmm… if only I hadn’t overheated. Freddy came in a bit later at 33:22 for First place in his 70+ age group but they did not have any plaques left. But they looked again and saw that his performance was also good for First Place in the 65+ group so he got to take home a plaque after all. And I left with a nice t-shirt.

https://raceforum.com/2016/brooklyn5k.htm

 

On to the Team Championships, double scoring!

 

Hank