From Andrew Moore of the M 50+:
A beautiful day for a 10K in Central Park
Congrats to our 50+ runners at yesterday’s Scotland 10K. CPTC finished in 4th place in the team race led by Chris Donnelly with 38:15, Yasuhiro Makoshi with 39:58 and Tom Raymond at 40:09. Our 50+ age bracket is very competitive – according to the NYRR results, the age group winner was Karl Wittmann who ran a 34:01 – that’s 5:30/mile and good for an age grade 95.65%! (and btw, he does not run for a team)
We had a great turnout with John Kenney, Oscar Garcia, Toby Nelson, Budd Heyman, Philip Vasquez, Stuart Alexander, Harry Lichtenstein, Giovanni Caracci, and Steven Bernstein all competing. Well done all.
Next up on the team points calendar is the Brooklyn Half on May 19, for those of you who sat by their computer and registered before it closed out. Drop me a line to tell me if you are in and plan on racing – thanks.
Good luck to all the Boston runners next Monday.
From Hank Schiffman of the M 60+:
Our mens 60+ runners finished 3rd place in the standings for the second time, Taconic took first, 2:06:25 and GNY second, 2:11:02. Witold’s was 4th, 2:20:33 to us, 2:19:00 nipping at our heels. West Side, who won Coogan’s, did not field 3 finishers for this race.
Let us praise worthy men; Paul Saunders at 70 ran this race for our mens 60+. I bet West Side wishes it had him running for them. Dale Jones, Dave Delano and Chip Olsen backed up Kevin McGuire, 48:11, and Dan Molloy, 49:33 and me, 41:16 (1 minute 19 seconds slower than last year.)
NYRR has not posted Club point standings, nor rules of the competition. We don’t know if last year’s protocol is unchanged. Even with rules, there can be grey zones. Last year’s 2nd “mulligan” [online dictionary – “an extra stroke allowed after a poor shot, not counted on the scorecard”] was across the board for the missed Percy Sutton 5k, rather than each team’s 2nd low scoring race. It might appear to be just a small point, but it kept us out of 3rd place overall for the year. Yes, it did keep competition to 9 events, but one of those events was the NYC Marathon, not an easy race for old legs. For my eyes, an expensive race that is not all that easy to qualify for should be more accommodating to NYRR clubs if it is a club point race; it was and is. The upshot is a guess at current team point standings.
Using the prevailing protocol, Taconic is in 1st place with 27 points, CPTC and GNY tied for 2nd with 20 points each, West Side in 3rd, and Witold’s in 4th.
With new, old runners coming on line each month, the balance keeps changing. This should prove an interesting racing season. Last year Witold’s proved the value of consistently having 3 finishers. West Side just learned what the back side of this door feels like when it hits you. We have 4 runners lined up for the Portugal Father’s Day 4 miler but we only have 3 for the Brooklyn Half; Dan, Kevin and me. They are all we need but we have no wiggle room for injury or the many other things which can intercede in making the starting line. Let me know if anyone else is on board for this race which is now closed to registration. At the risk of being a bore, I will once again say NYRR needs to do more to support its competitive teams to allow greater freedom in registering for all team point races.
Proud of our “Thundering Herd” -Dan Molloy’s nomenclature,
Capt’n Hank