Kevin McGuire

Photo: John Tran

With Taconic RR rich in the suit of leg speed for the 60+ age group, the battle in the team point race for our men this season is for second place. One would suppose a 10k run in Central Park this time of year would be a draw for most of our talent, well yes and no. Between injury and other commitments, the number of our starters was remarkably small. While our 2:09:16 was no match against Taconic’s 2:03:49, it was good enough to keep Witold’s at bay with their 2:11:02 collective effort. The past powerhouse of Brooklyn RR could not field 3 starters for 60+. For years, Taconic reigned unchallenged. As it aged, Brooklyn took center stage. Now Taconic is back up on top with younger, faster talent. Brooklyn has a few very fast runners about to turn 60; things shuffle. Meanwhile, CPTC hasn’t been able to push to the fore, always remaining a bridesmaid. We are currently in first place with 2 down and 7 team point races to go. 

Charles Parchment had run a leg of our 60+ effort at the Penn Relays the evening before, he still proved to be our big fish by leading the scoring. His dedication to improvement both on road and track was borne out in less than 24 hours.

Thus with 5 starters [Alex Wilkinson was the sole 70+ runner] we managed to get 12 out of a possible 15 points in the team point tally. The cool temperatures, overcast sky and no wind lifted all boats; with a threat of rain, it turned out to be a wonderful day to race.

Charles Parchment, 42:17 / 77.59%, 4th age group. Last year 43:14 / 75.19%, 13th in age group, a personal best for 10k by just under a minute.

Noel Labat-Comess, 43;27 / 75.52%, 6th in age group.

Hank Schiffman, 43:32 / 82.15%, 4th in age group. Last year 43:29 / 81.42%, 1st in age group. That amounts to running an average of less than half a second slower per mile than last year.

Kevin McGuire, 49:26 / 70.93%, 10th in age group. Last year 49:55 / 69.56%, 11th in age group.

Alex Wilkinson, 59:59 / 61.78%, 17th in age group. Last year 57.12 / 63.94%, 10th in age group.

Additionally, Charles and Noel have made the top 10 lists of all-time best performances from CPTC masters in 10k:

M60+ 8th: Charles Parchment 42:17

M60+10th: Noel Labatt-Comess 43:27  

 

All of our finishers voiced their satisfaction with today’s race:

Noel ran negative splits.

Kevin did better than last year, as did Charles and Hank.

Alex was our first 70+ scorer, first time!

On to Brooklyn.

In other competitions:

Norman Goluskin took 2nd place 80 – 84, at the USATF Masters 10k Championships, the James Joyce Ramble in Dedham, Massachusetts, running 59:27, with a pace of 9:34. Norman:

I remember when that was an embarrassing slow warm down.

 

Our 60+ 4 x 400 collective effort at the Penn Relays was 5:02.1:

David Blumel, 1:11.76

Victor Osayi, 1:12.3

Charles Parchment, 1:14.36

Hal Lieberman, 1:23.69

An hour and a half earlier, Captain Hal competed in the Masters Men’s 100m dash 75 and older, running it in 17.59.

 

In the Run as One 4 miler, Dennis O’Donnell ran 31:31.

 

In the Cystic Fibrosis Run to Breathe 4 miler, Noel Labat-Comess took 1st in age group running 26:30 / 78.09%.

George Hirsch, in the same event was 2nd in his age group [to Witold] 40:55, just under 74%.

 

In the American Airlines NYC Half:

Don Favre ran 1:31.01 / 78.39%.

Art Palmer, 1:37.51 / 74.33%

Stuart Calderwood, 1:47.23

Dennis O’Donnell, 1:52.17

 

In the Boston Marathon, Don Favre ran 3:20.43 / 74.86%.