Race Reports from Portugal Day
From Greg Cass of the Open:
Sunday was a great day for racing in NYC, and the CPTC Open Men threw down some fast times to prove it. When all is said and done, the Open Men should have 3rd place locked down once again. Unfortunately, due to some issues with registration and B-tags, the current standings don’t reflect what will ultimately be the team’s second consecutive 3rd place finish and hopefully the beginning of a 2013 trend.
The team was led by Dan Seidel, who made the quick trip in from California to run a 26:03 in what appears to be a Central Park 5-mile PR for him. Matt Lacey built on his strong BK showing with a 26:15, followed by Greg Cass with a 26:35. The scoring team was rounded out by Rob Gill and Brian Valentini – unofficial timing has them at 27:12 and 27:19.
A big congratulation to those of you who PR’ed, including:
Giancarlos Zambrano (27:37, PR by 1:46)
Herb Plummer (29:16 with a 5:39 last mile…also PR’ed at the 1500 in 4:33 at Icahn on June 11…big month!)
Ken Tso (29:56, PR by 17s)
Edgar Costa (32:48)
Also, a special shout-out to Francois Lhuissier for his victory at the San Francisco Marathon in 2:25:15 (on a hilly course)! Way to represent the Orange out west!
The scoring circuit keeps going strong in June with the Pride Run on Saturday, June 29 – if you’re around that weekend, sign up and get the PR that escaped you this weekend (or lower your recent PR). Extra credit if you spend the afternoon volunteering at USATF Club Track & Field National Championships, which we’re hosting that weekend at Icahn Stadium.
Overall – job well done, team. Let’s keep this momentum going with a strong showing in 2 weeks.
From David Greenberg of the 40+:
The 40-49 had its best turnout of the year at Portugal Day as a school of thirteen of us trotted toward the tuna. This compared to an inexplicably small eleven running for beer and hotdogs at Brooklyn. Not coincidentally, the team matched its best placing of the year, finishing third, far better than fifth at Scotland and sixth at Brooklyn.
The scorers were Josh Rayman, Jim McQuade and John Milone.
Here’s an eyewitness tale from Josh at the front:
“Jimmy and I ran together for 4M, really him doing the heavy lifting, strong on the hills, and me trying to keep up. On the first hill, we were talking about the course and he mentioned how tough the third mile is and I said, “oh well, let’s bag it!” And we also had Cary Segall just ahead of us to keep us on track. At the end, I was battling with a West Side runner who kept re-passing me and cutting in immediately until the final level section at Tavern on the Green, when I was able to put him away.”
I can add that it helps a lot to have teammates around you – I was part of a six person pack that finished between 29:42 and 29:56 and it sure made the last 3218 faster.
Josh’s 28:07/82.76% was his best five miler in Central Park since 2008. He also snagged the luscious Lucite for third place in the 40-44.
Jim had his best age graded score in the NYRR database since 2011: 28:31/80.99%.
While Portugal was the first time Josh and Jim scored for the team in 2013, not so for John Milone, our #3 scorer. John has been Mr. Dependable this year, scoring for the 40-49 three times in four races. John is training primarily for the track this season, and ran 4:30 for 1500 meters earlier in the week.
David Greenberg earned his first points race Lucite, taking third in the 45-49 with his 29:43/78.92%… and learning just how fast John Milone can run the last 100 meters of a race.
James Charlton gets special recognition for running three points races in a row. James was our #1 scorer at Scotland.
Let us welcome Wolfram Schenker to the 40-49 as he ran his first race as a CPTC master, and right away scored his best AG (71.42%) in the NYRR database. We could all use some of that.
George Ross had a good day with his 32:17/71.55%, which was his best five miler ever in the db, and his best AG of any race since 2008. Also running their best 5 mile AG scores ever were Kimihiko Oishi and Mickey Hawtrey.
Wayne Merdis ran what looks to be a 5m PR in Central Park, Frederick Paredes ran two minutes faster than he ran at 2012 Portugal for his best AG score of the year, and Fred Chiao ran his second points race of the year.
Finally, Nigel Francis ran his 8th NYRR race of the year and had his best AG yet: 74.3%. I need to race more.
Away from Portugal, I’ll throw some light onto Rich Nelson’s fast run at the Corporate Challenge: a 19:48 for 21st overall. That implies Rich went through 5k in 17:32, which is flying in CP.
On the track, here are the best marks so far:
Gerald O’Hara: 4:10.55 (93.16%)
David Peters: 1:59.72 (89.66%)
Peter Brady 2:01.90 (88.05%)
Glen Carnes 4:30.86 (83.5%)
John Milone 2:08.28 (82.92%)
Armando Oliveira 17:09.6 (80.8%)
Hey, what’s the world record in the 40-49 4 x 800?
Next is the Front Runners 5m on June 29 – registration is still open. If you are on the fence, I hope you fall off and sign up – let’s keep the participation numbers rising.
From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:
CPTC 60+ men prevailed to take 1st place, so far leaving us overall just trailing Taconic RR, 54 to 52.
In an extremely competitive race for men 60-64, Yasuhiro Makoshi swept 1st place in 30:48, worthy of age graded 86.15%, the highest among all CPTC men in this event. The next 60-64 finisher was Jack McShane at 32:09. Yasuhiro would have placed 3rd in 55-59, just 27 seconds behind also 1st place Alan Ruben. Yasuhiro scored 2nd place in the 50+ division, where CPTC also took 1st place. As an aside, I ran the race with Allan Dias. At the start we were just by the 72nd St transverse and Allan asked me if Yasuhiro was running; Yasuhiro ran past us on our right, smiling. Gifted, happy and doing what he does so well, Yasuhiro is our super star.
I scored second for us in 33:28, 6th in the age group. Snapping on my heels was seasonal CPTC member Bob Holliday blown in from the Windy City. Bob ran it in 33:41, age graded 80.17%, 7th in the age group. We maintain email contact. I waited for him at the finish, never having met face to face. I was expecting our next 60+ guy to be Allan or Chris but was greeted by Bob wearing a blue singlet. We are fortunate to have him for the summer. These 3 have proved to be our big guns.
Thus these 3 finishers totaled 1:37:57 to Taconic’s 1:45:50. TRR has talent, we have talent, but we also have depth. At 34:00, along came Allan Dias running 6:48 pace and 79.44%. He was 8th in the age group. Allan is taking the long view, building the miles applying speed where needed. His star is rising.
Chris Neuhoff was our 5th runner, 35:16, 76.55%. He was 10th out of 115 men in men 60-64. He needs to be moved into the first corral. Why NYRR has not done so eludes me. Allan and Chris have the potential to propel our 60+ track fortunes.
Our most dependable runner, Kevin McGuire came in next, 26th in the age group in 39:16, 68.17%, running a 7:52 pace.
Scorer for our team last year was our 7th runner, Harry Lichtenstein. He ran 44:05, good for 44th place.
Fred Trilli at 67 ran 45:34, 25th out of 71 for men 65-69. Fred and Kevin were the first of our men’s 60+ runners I came across pre-race. With them I knew we would have our 3 to get our score counted. I’d never have thought 8 would cross the line. And of these, we had 5 in the first 10 in men 60-64, a field where 7 ran over 80% age graded.
We’re cooking. Just shy of 2 weeks we have another 5 miler, the Front Runners race. July 27th is our Founder’s 5k, a week later is the Club Champs, the double pointer. Consider these events.
Proud of our guys,
Captain Hank
__
Standings after Brooklyn (not updated yet for Portugal):
First: M 50+
Second: W Open, W 60+, M 60+
Third: M 40+
Fourth: M Open, W 40+
Seventh: W 50+
Francois Lhuissier Wins the San Francisco Marathon
Our own Francois Lhuissier won the San Francisco Marathon on June 16, with a time of 2:25:15 over a course with an elevation gain of 880 feet. San Francisco could paint its finish line orange: our Lauren Gustafson won the race in 2008.
Race Reports from the Mini
From Lauren Carter of the Open:
In the Mini 10K this past Saturday, CPTC’s Women’s Open team proved just how effective running in pairs can be. Cat Beck lead the way with a 35:15 finish in her Mini 10K debut setting a personal best by almost 1 minute. Jane Vongvorachoti finished 18s behind Cat, running 35:33. Continuing to prove strength in pairs, Alex Brown and Annie Onishi finishing just 5s apart at 38:42 and 38:47 respectively. Emilee Brown helped bring home a third place finish for the Women’s Open team with a 39:19.
This particular race was special, not only because it was only women, but we had a few notable experiences as well. Alysia Dusseau and Megan Kelly both ran their first races in their new age groups. This was Megan’s first race in a few months. She was unsure of how well she would perform, but she did run faster than last year. Alysia finished strong with a 39:46 even with a bleeding foot! What a great way tokick off a new age group! We also had Ivette Ramirez run her first 10k in 3 years in an amazing 43:59…35 weeks pregnant! She was definitely well under her goal of finishing in 60 minutes.
Please be sure to sign up for our next scoring race, FRNY Pride Run on Saturday, June 29th, and Founders 5k, on Saturday, July 27th.
Congrats to all who raced this weekend!
Lauren
From Ani Go of the 40+:
Mother Nature decided that the conditions for our ladies race should be rain-free and it was so. On a mostly clear Saturday morning, our 40+masters took the journey up the West Side and burst into the park on a special course just for this women’s only 10k. Our scoring team starts with Wonder Wanda Wang, in her first club pts race this year, taking the lead in 45:17. The newest star on the 60+ team, Barbara Byrne, followed in 45:52 (with an 86.7% age grading–holy c%^%!), and caboosing it in my first road race in months, is yo’ cap’tn in 46:02. Making our 40+ team whole and also completing her first road race this season is the undefeated Audrey Kingsley in 46:03. Audrey, it was wonderful to be at the finish with you!
Congrats to the open women’s 3rd place finish and the 60+ women’s 1st place finish!
AND we got hot track news–the amazing Judy Stobbe ran a PR in the 800m at the USATF New York Twilight Series #3 with a scorching time of 2:28.83. in a very competitive field, she placed a respectable 5th. The next time I have a nice steak, I’m waiting for Ms Judy to run by to cook it!
Next race is the FRNY 5miler on Saturday, June 29th. http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/2013/front-runners-new-york-lgbt-pride-run-5m ;
until then, our fellas are running the Portugal Day 5m next sunday. They did such a great job pumping us up, let’s reciprocate! Come out and cheer our fast men in orange!
GO ORANGE!!!
Ani
From Sylvie Kimche of the 50+ and 60+:
Congrats to the Women’s 60+ team for their brilliant 1st place W60+ in the Mini 10K.
1st for the team: Barbara in 45:52, 2nd in her 60-64 age group (behind the unbeatable Kathryn Martin) in an excellent 86.70% AG percentage.
2nd for the team: Judith in 53:23, 1st in her 65-69 age group in an excellent AG percentage as well: 80:23%.
3rd for the team, the always reliable Lynn in 1:02:48, 5th in her age group and a 75.13% AG percentage.
As always, Judith, Lynn & Barbara scored for the W50+ team and Barbara scored also in 2nd place for the W40+ team!!!
Of course, congrats to the open team for their 3rd place in this very competitive race.
Again congrats to all and see you at the next team race on June 29!
GO ORANGE!
Sylvie
Race Reports from the Men: Brooklyn Half
From Greg Cass of the Open Men:
The Men’s Open team took to the roads of Brooklyn looking for fast times and team redemption having been edged by Urban Athletics for 3rd place in the first 2 club scoring races of the year. The CPTC crew attacked the hills in and around Prospect Park like they train in them every Thursday night and made a strong statement for what can be expected in the rest of the year’s club races.
At press time, CPTC Men’s Open sat comfortably in 3rd, over 13 minutes clear of Urban. The scoring team was lead by Francois Lhuissier, who turned in a blazing 1:08:25, good for 6th place on the club’s all-time performance list. Matt Lacey, finally back in NYC after an extended winter in Toronto, ran to a 1:10:56 training on his own in the cold (cold may be an understatement there…). Tom DiChiara came in next at 1:11:16 with an impressive negative split that lead him past NB pro Kim Smith in the final stretch. The scoring team was rounded out by Greg Cass with a 1:12:44 and Jeff Ares with a 1:14:02 (which I believe may be a PR). Harry Norton also clocked a 1:12:54, though at this time, his results are not credited to the team.
Other PR’s included:
Brian Valentini – 1:14:51 – another strong showing after a strong finish in Boston
Herb Plummer – 1:20:56 – 2.5+ minute PR
Ben Pedersen – 1:27:48 – 53s PR
Congratulations to all the racers, thank you to everyone for showing up in numbers, and let’s make sure we keep this momentum going.
We have 2 5-mile scoring races in June – if you’re around, sign up now so that we can cement our spot in the top 3. Rest up well, and see you all out on the roads.
From David Greenberg of the 40+ men:
The 40+ sent eleven men down Ocean Parkway toward the beer.
Our top three finishers were Daniel Ifcher, Mel Stafford and En Cho. The 50+ loaned us Stewart Calderwood and Chris Donnelly for scoring purposes and the team took 6th.
Individual highlights:
As always, personal records get first mention and we had a few:
Mel Stafford can claim many honors for his race: he ran 1:22:47, which was a five minute PR, he had our highest finish in the age groups (9th in the 45-49), and had the highest age graded score of the 40+: 78.2%.
En Cho backed up his recent pr at 10k (Scotland) with a huge 4:03 pr at the half marathon distance (1:24:47).
Andy Kiss continued a great leap forward with yet another PR, this one by 3:16 (1:41:47). Just a few months ago Andy was recuperating from surgery and already he is setting personal records.
George Ross ran his first NYRR race of the year and made it count: his 1:26:39/72.92% is his best age graded score in the NYRR database…by two entire percentage points. Even better, it was close to a PR even though George ran a half ironman two weeks prior.
Dan Ifcher ran his first race as a CPTCer in 20 years…but he is not yet listed in the standings as a member. If the results are changed he will count as our fastest finisher at 1:22:20.
The year is not even five months old yet Nigel Francis has already run three half marathons – and Brooklyn was the fastest of all three.
Marvin Cabrera beat his NYC Half time, as did Frank Ayala, who was two minutes faster. In fact, at Brooklyn Frank scored his best age graded score in the NYRR database for a half marathon.
On that same note, Mickey Hawtrey ran his fastest half in three years, Wayne Merdis made his team debut, and James Charlton crossed the finish line.
Outside of the boros your teammates have been racing with success:
John Milone scored a rare and surely treasured overall win in the Run the Palisades 5k with his 17:30.
Elsewhere in New Jersey, a group of eleven CPTCers crossed the river to run the wet and windy Newport 10000. Peter Brady blew through to the 8th fastest time ever for a CPTC masters runner: 34:34, winning the 40-44. That goes along with his recent listing at 6th on the all-time list for ten miles (56:53). Andy Kiss also ran well and prd at 45:38.
In the hills of PA Michael Caggia and Oscar Garcia called the Pocono Marathon’s bluff and Michael walked away with a 16 second pr: 3:32:51.
Finally, on a beautiful spring day the likes of which surely soon we will miss, David Wakefield ran the New Jersey Marathon and ran it well: a personal record and a Boston qualifier: 3:14:38.
From Andrew Moore of the 50+ men:
Congrats 50+ team on a fine performance on Saturday. A big crowd and nice conditions led to some great results in the scoring. Stuart Calderwood continued to be on a roll following his great run in London by winning the 55+ group with a 1:21:59. He led the scoring for the team.
Chris Donnelly came up with a PR of 1:24:41 and Alan Ruben – following his little 50 mile speed work out a couple of weeks ago rounded out the scoring with a 1:24:46.
Nice job guys – this was good for another team first place edging our friends at Brooklyn RRC on their home turf. Our 50+ group had another great turnout and a lot of solid performances including Art Palmer (1:29:54), Timothy Smith (1:34:29), Peter Allen (1:36:38 and a nice finishing photo on the NYRR facebook feed), Dennis O’Donnell (1:41:12) and Ralph Ripley (2:08:23).
Congrats everyone on a job well done. I hope you had a celebratory ride on the Cyclone, a dip in the ocean or at least a cold beer post-race!
From Hank Schiffman of the 60+ men:
Hats off to our 2 first place age group finishers: George Hirsch running an age graded 74.4% in 2:02.37, and Yasuhiro Makoshi AG 85.91% in 1:25.12, the first scorer in the field of men 60+.
Running what I solidly felt was a smart race until mile 12 when I realized I wasn’t so smart after all, I sputtered across the line with 2 cramped calves in 1:32.28, 8th for men 60-64, 81.45% AG; couldn’t use those track gears on parboiled legs. All that slow cooking and I burned the meat in the last mile.
Our third scorer was Kevin McGuire in 1:48.07, 68.35% AG, right there when we needed him.
Rounding out our 60+ men was Fred Trilli in 2:08.14, 61.08% AG, a man not afraid of 13.1 miles.
Like The Warriors [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)], we made our way back to Coney Island, but with less drama.
Injury and focus on shorter distance venues reduced our ranks to these 5 men, giving our 3 scorers a collective time of 4:45.47. Thus we placed 3rd behind West Side Runners time of 4:43.17. Taconic Road Runners has moved solidly into 1st place for the season with 4:36.34. We are in 2nd place with bright prospects.
Kudos to NYRR for a well organized event in spite of all the fine points of added security. Once again, we had fine weather.
Thank you CPTC Social Media Committee; yes, beer is the ultimate recovery drink.
Captain Hank
CLUB STANDINGS AFTER BROOKLYN
OPEN MEN: 4TH
40+ MEN: 3RD
50+ MEN: 1ST
60+ MEN: 2ND
Race Reports from the Women: Brooklyn Half
From Lauren Carter of the Open Women:
This scoring race took Lady Orange out to the borough of Brooklyn where we proved our strength at yet another distance. From the Brooklyn Museum through Prospect Park and down to Coney Island, we proved that we can be a force to be reckoned with no matter what borough we are in!
The women’s open team was led by Kate Pfeffer’s blazing 1:22:57. Following her lead were Lauren Carter and Alysia Dusseau, with a 1:24:26 and 1:24:36 respectively. Jenn Busse made her return to the road with a stellar 1:25:11, and Annie Onishi rounded out the scoring with a 1:26:01. The team took second behind NYAC.
Huge congratulations to Sari Aviv who made her a comeback from 13 months of battling injuries to finish in 1:31:44. Unsure of what kind of shape she was in, Sari started the race very conservatively. This allowed her to pick it up by 20 seconds per mile in the second half of the race and finish just one second off her PR!
Congrats to all who finished!
Lauren
From Ani Go of the 40+ women:
The masters ladies turned on the hipster groove and represented in the Brooklyn Half this Saturday! our own tri-star Ms Stacy Creamer (S.Creamer in the house!) lends her running talents to score first for us in 1:35:09 (4th in her age group, and a whopping 81.39% AG). Next is superwoman Nicole Rodriguez posting 1:36:39, a yooge PR for Ms Nicole! 22mins in the half! Holy cow patties! Nicole has ran and scored in all of our points races this year so far. Rounding out and debuting as a master on our scoring team is Bhaviksha Ranchod, with 1:49:55. Hello, and welcome to the masters league, Bhaviksha! In addition to running for this scoring race, Bhaviksha is also raising money for diabetes research. Thank you ladies!
Congrats to our open women (2nd) open men (3rd) masters men 50+ (1st!) masters men 60+ (3rd).
And that’s not all! The NYPD Memorial 5k was Sunday!
The amazing and versatile Judy Stobbe ran the NYPD Memorial 5k this weekend and came in 3rd overall in the time of 19:32! An adult PR! Looking forward to seeing her go sub-19 (you will!). Go Judy!
Coming back from injury is tigress Terry Ballou, right on Ms Judy’s heels in 19:33, and winning her age group. No surprise there! Welcome back to the game, Ms Terry!
Next on the scoring races is the Mini 10k. Yes, I’ve already done the email semaphore dance alert that its closing, but here’s one more pitch for it:
http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/2013/oakley-new-york-mini-10k
Also, for the Yankee or Mets fans, we still have tickets left for the subway series on Weds, May 29th. Tickets are $61 each. The only thing better than running with the team is sitting around, watching a ball game and drinking with us! Let me know if you’re interested. It’ll be a really fun night!
GO ORANGE!
–ani
CLUB STANDINGS AFTER BROOKLYN:
OPEN WOMEN: 2ND
40+ WOMEN: 4TH
50+ WOMEN: 7TH
60+ WOMEN: 2ND
Jane runs 34:46 in the 10k at Penn Relays!
Jane ran a 2 minute PR in the Olympic Development 10k at Penn Relays! Official Time 34:46.61.
#2 on the CPTC All-Time Track List – Congrats!
Race Reports from the Men: Boston Marathon
From Greg Cass of the Open:
Monday’s unfortunate events have cast a shadow on the typical celebrations around the Boston Marathon. Even after some time has passed, it’s still hard to believe the scenes of pain, chaos, confusion, and sadness.
I think I speak for the entire Club when I say that we will continue to keep those impacted by the horrific events in Boston in our thoughts for the days and weeks to come. We are all fortunate to have a built-in support network from our coaches and fellow club members – we should take comfort in that and use it to help work through any lingering feelings.
As difficult as Monday afternoon was, we should still take a moment to recognize the great successes our members had out on the famed Boston course. Taking advantage of beautiful spring weather and months of preparation through the cold winter, our Men’s Open team turned in a number of stellar performances. A quick count shows that at least 10 men in orange and blue conquered the hills and finished under 3 hours – very impressive!
The scoring team was led by Francois Lhuissier (2:32:03, with a solid negative split), with Brian Valentini and Brad Weiss each clocking a 2:48:50 to round out the group.
Other performances to congratulate include:
Ron Brooks (2:49:00)
Stephen Curtis (2:51:22, over a 1-minute PR!)
Rohit Mitter (2:55:06)
Gerd Zeibig (2:57:15)
Ken Tso (2:58:06)
Itaru Fujieda (2:59:19)
Jeffrey Holy (2:59:48)
Neal Sussman (3:03:47)
Kieran Garvey (3:07:11)
Jonathan Stenger (3:14:45)
Brendan Rickert (3:18:26)
Chris Solarz (3:44:19)
Well done team – happy resting and recovery. Hopefully we can ride this momentum through spring races and take over Brooklyn in May!
Rolanda opens the season with a world-class time!
Rolanda opened her steeple season with 10:08 for the win at Princeton’s Sam Howell. That time puts her as #7 on the 2013 World Top List for the Steeple, according to All-Athletics.com.
(Photo by Sue Pearsall from New Balance Games indoor steeple)