Report from Phil Falk and Ed Mulder of the Open:
CPTC Men lit up the roads last Sunday at the Healthy Kidney 10K, taking second place in the team competition, with an insane 31:27 average time for our top five finishers. I am told the CPTC Men’s team of legend in the early 1990s may have topped this performance, but I can say with some confidence it’s the strongest road 10K showing we’ve had in the 21st century.
Coach Tony notes: “Wow! That was a magical day! I am so proud of the whole crew!”
Of course – it was a great day to race, with perfect early spring conditions: low-50s temperature, not much wind, and the air dried from the previous night’s rain.
Matt Rand
Photo: Jay-R Mojica
Matt Rand led the team with a 12thplace overall finish, crossing the line in 30:47. He snags #5 on the CPTC All-Time Best list (just above CPTC-great Chris Spooner).
Ryan Archer made his CPTC road debut in 31:09 and Eddie Mulder followed closely in 31:10 – those guys take #9-10 on the CPTC Best list. Archer set a 10k personal best two weeks ago on the track at the Bison Outdoor Classic in 30:29.
Luis Porto
Photo: Ben Ko
Fourth on the squad was mile/5k runner Luis Porto, with a stellar performance and HUGE personal best of 31:54. And Connor Rose rounded out the scoring team in 32:13.
Other notable performances:
Jeff Ares clocked a 33:22, a 34-second PR for him, and John Paulett came through in 34:37 – rocketing past his previous 10k best by 1:20. (He even went out hard enough to take an 8-second PR along the way!)
Thomas Barrett notched a 35:33 personal best, and Arnaud Enjalbert chopped 27 seconds off his PR for a 35:53, and Johnny Zhang buzzed a minute off his, coming in at 37:36.
Great stuff out there – Brooklyn Half is coming up in about three weeks!
______________________________________________________________________________________
Report from Laurence Go of the 40+:
April showers bring May flowers so they say but for us it’s the running of the UAE Healthy Kidney.
So far two points races this year with two 3rd place finishes. Our time was 1:49:42 a bit slower than last year but a bit faster than the year before.
Current Standings:
1. Westside Runners: 30
2. Urban Athletics: 24
3. CPTC New Balance: 20
4. North Brooklyn Runners: 16
Our top scorers:
1. Brad Kelley (35:23, 86.39%, 2nd in 50-54 age group)
2. David Alm (36:57, 76.21%, 7th in 40-44 age group)
3. Osvaldo Martinez (37:22, 74.17% 8th in the 40-44 age group) – 48 second PR!
The first (Westside Runners) and second place (Urban Athletics) teams blew the competition away finishing almost 7 minutes ahead of us.
The team results (which mimicked the results at the Washington 5K) were:
1. Westside Runners
2. Urban Athletics
3. CPTC New Balance
4. North Brooklyn Runners
Our 2nd scorer David Alm had this to say about his race:
To be honest, I didn’t feel great on Sunday — turns out that too many nachos and margaritas the day before a race leads to heavy legs and a foggy head. Fortunately, discomfort sometimes helps me power through better than I would in peak condition. On my way to the race I mentally broke the course down into thirds, knowing that miles 1 and 2 would be fast, miles 3 and 4 would be slow, and miles 5 and 6 had the potential to be fast if I paced myself correctly. The strategy worked: My splits were 5:46, 5:41, 6:02, 6:12, 5:48, and 5:53. Those comparatively slow miles in the middle helped me bring my pace back down to sub-6 in the final third of the race. The weather was also perfect, and I locked in with a couple of people who kept me on target, particularly our teammate Jordan Snyder and Megan Foster of WBTC. I finished within the range I wanted — 36:xx — for my fastest NYRR 10K in four years. So while I still want to bring my time down further, I’m encouraged and happy with my race, and very happy to have scored for the team.
Duncan McVerry (35:37, 75:03%, 6th in the 45-49 age group):
It’s always a tough course, but conditions were ideal. Stupid trains – express going local – cost me my warmup so 1/2 mile in I was thinking “how do people run at this pace?” All the same I had a strategy & I ran to it which gave me the confidence to oversee the pain later on. With 0.75 to go I was running on fumes and while I missed my “A” goal by 5s, I PR’d – 14 of the 15 races since I started training with CTPC – by 10s in 39.04. That got me a 6th place in my age group – the top 5 were miles ahead, so I’m delighted, as that’s stronger than this time last year and is a nice set-up for Brooklyn in 3w.
Herve Megras (40:11, 74.14%, 14th in 45-49)
Eric Lattin (40:12, 72.31%, 15th in 45-49)
Vincent Corso (41:14, 67.24%, 37th in 40-44)
Thierry Soudee (42:02, 68.61%, 24th in 45-49)
Gerd Zeibig (42:10, 67.29%, 37th in 40-44)
Shane Campbell (42:23, 67.48%, 49th in 40-44)
Laurence Go (43:24, 68.09%, 40th in 45-49)
Zebulon Nelessen (44:26, 63.86%, 81st in 40-44)
Robert Peszkowski (46:48, 59.24%, 139th in 40-44) – 45 sec PR based on NYRR database
Mohammed Lahseni (48:37, 60.79%, 155 in 45-49)
Kimihiko Oishi (49:07, 60.66%, 172 in 45-49)
Next up is the Brooklyn Half. Let’s see if we can break the 3rd place trend.
See all you on the boardwalk. 😀
– Larry
______________________________________________________________________________________
Report from Chris Donnelly of the 50+:
CPTC’s 50+ men led a fantastic overall team effort at Sunday’s Healthy Kidney 10k. The lucrative purse always ensures a competitive field, and swift times. And yes, there were fireworks and record breaking up front, but with this race moving into the club points competition last year, bigger stakes loomed for New York’s running clubs. With spring finally in the air more than 7,500 racers were there to toe the line, though only five of our 50+ crowd were there, a light turnout relative to our normally heavy participation.
Not that it mattered as the CPTC scoring trio, Brad Kelley, David Greenberg, and Don Favre, delivered a first-place effort besting powerhouse Urban Athletics by nearly three minutes with a collective 1:55:14 despite Paul Thompson’s heroic 33:10 to take first place in the 50-54 category. However Brad’s 35:23 was good for second place, while David took fourth at 38:20. Don captured sixth place in the 55-59 age group, crossing the line at 41:31.
Brad:
It hurt start to finish…also happy to see age age adjusted 30:56, getting older sometimes the slower you get the faster you get haha.
David tells us: “I was very pleased to get a W on the board – after getting beaten pretty badly at Washington Heights, coming back and winning a race was very satisfying. I used April as a rest month after a long seven months of racing, so my fitness level was not high. That said, I think I used everything I had on the day, so I am content. I hope to be in better shape for Brooklyn and then especially Team Champs and Bronx, leading up to NYCM.”
Note also that Sunday’s effort propels Brad Kelley to #3 on the CPTC’s 50+ all-time best list for 10K. Moreover, Brad did double duty, scoring for the 40+ men as well as they took third.
Don on his race:
I was really hoping to break 41 minutes today, but the hills of CP kicked my ass. So I settled for 41:31. Happy to contribute to the Masters 50+ Men 1st place finish for CPTC !! Next stop…BROOKLYN !
Charles Parchment
Photo: Jay-R Mojica
In addition, the team had able support from Charles Parchment (43:14) and Eric Paredes (1:00:20). Parchie, that’s a PR! Congrats! Eric also was in the mix during the Run As One four miler the prior week. While not a club points race, Noel Labat-Comess (26:07) and Mike Caggia (29:47) were also out on the road during Run As One. Noel took fourth place among men 55-59 and was among our top three 50+ masters in that race, along with Yasuhiro and Mike Caggia. Well done, gents.
Last but certainly not least, hats off to our teammate Ron Romano for following up his soaking in Boston with a sun scorched marathon in London a mere six days later!
Via the social media, “From Hypothermia running in The Perfect Storm @bostonmarathon to the hottest @londonmarathon on record; toughest thing I’ve done!” Ron, that was completely badass! Rest well and we’ll see you on the road soon. I’ll tell you, Ron looked pretty good at mile 20 of Boston, but maybe i was projecting since we were standing around in the cold driving rain. Pretty inspiring, everyone who ran.
Away from the 50+ men, some shout outs are in order, folks. In addition to the numerous top three finishes among our teams, note that the amazing Colleen McGurk ripped that 10k apart with a 37:32, landing at #3 on the 40+ all time best list, and newcomer Paige Yellen rocked a 38:53 to capture #9 on the 40+ all time best list. What an auspicious team debut by Paige, helping the 40+ women to a second place finish!
Remember, No Sleep Till Brooklyn. May 19. Anyone wishing to run without a bib, contact David Greenberg RIGHT NOW. There’s a deadline on Friday.
So that’s it for now gents. You continue to rock it hard.
Go Orange!
Chris D
______________________________________________________________________________________
Report from Hank Schiffman of the 60+:
Wonderful racing weather in one of the most esthetic times of year to be in Central Park as our 60+ men took 2nd place in 2:08:49. That was 6:36 behind Taconic and 1:15 ahead of Brooklyn. Last year we ran it in exactly 5 minutes slower for 3rd.
Hank Schiffman
Photo: Jay-R Mojica
Much too and fro till all crossed the finish line. Yasuhiro Makoshi ran along Hank Schiffman, Larry Go and David Blumel from the B corral till the Harlem Hill, where he disappeared. He could not get a bib for the race but set a fine pace for the rest of us. Art Palmer, a later victim of Boston as spectator, dropped out at 5k with too much congestion from the cold he picked up there.
David Blumel cautious, as is his nature, decided to run with Hank through mile 4 and push on from there, he did just that. We averaged a 7 minutes per mile. Doing the math, he had to run a 6:25 pace for the last 2.2 miles to attain his final time, nabbing 3rd in age group while chugging along for the first 4 miles. My fingers are crossed that he puts the whole package together for Queens. The man is capable of bringing the game to Taconic. Thus David ran 42.18 for 78.28%.
Alan Ruben
Photo: Jay-R Mojica
Alan Ruben, freshly washed in Boston and wearing summer running attire, tore off a 43:02 for a fine hair under 80%, good for 6th in age grade in the 60-64 age group where they eat their young. The man runs like a trencherman coming off a fast. In his day he ran 10k’s in 33.
Hank Schiffman, me, actually ran the race 20 seconds faster than last year: hallelujah! The 43:29 was good for 81.42% and 1st in age group. I’m attributing it to running with David, Yasuhiro and Larry Go. Armando gave Larry the order to pass me just past Tavern on the Green. He must have Larry trained because he did just that. Away he went, taking his track speed with him.
Dennis O’Donnell was our 1st back up at 48:01, only running it as a training run with limited mileage/training. May it bear fruit come Brooklyn.
Kevin McGuire, fresh off the Mendocino 50k trail run, found the gumption to soon run again. His 49:55 was just a minute slower than last year’s, again after the same bodacious trail race.
Robert Haig rounded out our finishers at 1:00:53.
George Hirsch and Fred Trilli were out in the cold encouraging the troops.
Time to ramp it up for Brooklyn, but not too much. Maintaining fresh legs is the lesson to us all from running track.
Hank
Photo: Ben Ko