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 6^th.

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 (9^th 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 8^th fastest time ever for a CPTC masters runner: 34:34, winning the 40-44. That goes along with his recent listing at 6^th 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

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!

Race Reports from the Men: Scotland 10K

From Thom Little of the Open:

CPTC men’s open team performed like we knew they would and captured 3rd place in last Saturday’s Scotland Run 10k.  The men truly ran as a team with only 29 seconds between our 1st place scorer and 5th place scorer.  The team was led by Phil Falk who ran a PR of 32:53.

The team scorers were:

CPTC New Balance            02:45:10

Phillip Falk                      32:53

Greg Cass                        33:00

Stan Berkow                   33:02

Rob Gill                           33:03

Daniel Clayton                33:12

The team had a large number of PR’s including:

• Neil Sussman ran a 36:26 PR (previous 37:19)
• Anthony Chan PR 36:28 (previous 37:59)
• Ken Tso 37:40 (previous 37:57)
• Keiren Garvey PR 36:15
• Daniel Clayton 33:12 PR (previous 35:14)
• Greg Cass PR 33:00 (previous 33:18)
• Herb Plummer PR 36:53

From David Greenberg of the 40+:

Racing in the 40-49 is a good way to set personal records – we had six age-graded bests and two flat out PRs at Scotland. Not bad for the second race of the season.

The scorers were James Charlton, Richard Nelson and John Milone and the team took fourth.

Scotland was the first race with CPTC for James, and he made his mark with a 20 second PR and his best age graded performance ever in CP (36:04/80.59%) – his first race over 80% in the NYRR database. I think it was the orange that did it.

Richard ran a 70 second PR and all-time best age graded score (36:28/79.70%) in just his second CPTC race, despite having legs sore from some pre-race skiing. I think we’ll see a good deal more from Richard as the year goes.

John Milone showed his versatility and dependability with his 36:44/77.37 – bettering his AG score from last year. John was the only repeating scorer from Coogan’s.

Breakthrough race of the day honors go solidly to En Pum Cho, who ran a 39 second PR, and made a beamonesque leap through the age graded hierarchy – he entirely skipped the 73s and broke into the 74s. Those are the races we remember for years.

Michael Caggia also had a breakthrough race, hitting the AG 68s for the first time in a few years, and had what looks like an all-time CP PR at 10K: 43:18.

Laurence Go hit an all-time best AG score for NYRR races: 43:59/66.08.

In the ‘we can always go faster than last year’ category, Nigel Francis indeed ran faster than he ran at the 2012 Scotland race.

2013 debut races were had by Matthew Febles and Eric Cheung.

Our highest finisher in the groups was David Greenberg, with his 6^th in the 45-49.

Finally, the pounda pasta award goes to Frank Ayala, who not only ran a better AG time at Scotland ’13 than he did at Scotland ’12, but came back the next day in the Colon Cancer 4m and finished 2^nd in the 40-44.

The on the roads on the road running and repetition award goes to new member Peter Brady, who won the 40-44 at Cherry Blossom with his 56:53/82.40%. That time is the fifth fastest CPTC masters performance ever over ten miles.

Clearly we have some quick new blood on the team – they will continue to help as the year goes.

Next up is the Brooklyn Half on May 18. The good news is that registration will reopen on April 10 at noon.

Update on our field trip to the Newport 10k on May 11: We should register as individuals, and then we can sign up as a team once we get there. We may need USATF #s – bring ‘em if you got ‘em.

Please let me know what scoring races to which you can commit, and good luck out there.

David

From Andrew Moore of the 50+:

Congrats again to our 50+ team for another solid performance on the roads of Central Park.  The 50+ team is now two for two by placing first Saturday morning in the Scotland Run 10K with some fast running and great team depth.

We were once again led by Alan Ruben, taking second place 55-59 in 37:46. Alan was followed by our honorary 50+ Yasuhiro Makoshi who won his 60+ division in 39:38. Our third scorer was Chris Donnelly, 7^th in his division at 39:40.  Dennis O’Donnell came in in43:20, Budd Heyman in 44:55, Oscar Garcia in 45:39 and Stuart Alexander in 48:40. That’s six competitors for us this race – a great showing and excellent running by all – thanks!

Good luck to those team members running next Monday in Boston (hope it is a little cooler this year).

Next up for the team is the Brooklyn Half, May 18^th   Hope to see you there.

From Hank Schiffman of the 60+:

Our 60+ men took first in 2:04:37 to Taconic RR’s 2:09:40 and GNY’s 2:12:50. We accomplished this with our talent and depth.

Although an open team can score with 60+ runners (not that they would be competitive) the 60+ division can only score with 60+ runners. Out of the 4077 men who finished this race, only 177 men were 60+. That means only 4% of the men’s field was eligible to count towards the magic three finishers needed to qualify for a team score. Out of the 48 CPTC men who crossed the line, nine were 60+. Look at it this way. CPTC men constituted just over 1% of the total male finishers. But just under 18% of our men were 60 and older. It must mean that it is easier to race a 10k when you are an old guy!

Our most gifted runner, Yasuhiro Makoshi, ran a sub 40 minute 39:38 (20 seconds faster than last year) at a 6:20 pace, 222nd overall men, 84.24% (20th overall AG). He was first in men 60-64, besting Jack McShane by 26 seconds and Tim Delaney by another 13 seconds. His time would have been good for fourth men 55-59. He is a low weight monster in running shoes. May all our younger male runners tuck away in the back of their mind to remember when they get to 60, can they run sub 40?

My time was 41:12 (4 seconds faster than last year), once again a bridesmaid. I figure if I keep this up I will beat Alan Ruben in the year 2597, I’m not sure this would impress Gordon, who pulled up and passed me like I was a meat loaf. But at least I am currently an uninjured meat loaf.

Chris Neuhoff, the White Rabbit, ran a 43:47, 77.61%, 103 overall AG, 9th men 60-64, putting him in the upper 2.5% of men age-graded. The great Sid Howard told me that Chris is our most talented track runner.

Youngster Phil Vasquez was our first backup in 46:44, 71.44% AG. Phil carried the potential to keep us in first place had one of our scorers come to naught.

Allan Dias, running this one on a whim, as he doesn’t have the training mileage, but he certainly has the potential, finished in 47:03, 71.59% AG. Like Chris, he was very fast when young and is finding his way back.

Kevin McGuire, CPTC’s mens 60+ most committed runner, ran 48:32, 69.4% AG, 365th out of 4077 overall AG. Last year he ran this race then went on the disabled list after a serious medical situation, and was back running in the fall. It has been a year for Kevin who never lost sight of climbing back up.

Dan Molloy, who puts only 1/3 of his training in running in his pursuit of triathlons, ran 49:27, 68.74% AG 409th overall AG. He was our fastest leg of our men 60+ 4 x 400 at The Millrose Games and will run for us at the Penn Relays.

Further backing us up was our oldest runner at 67, Fred Trilli in 56:12, 63.3% AG, 837th overall AG.

Dave Delano, also in the 65-69 year group, ran 56:50, 62% AG, 988th AG. This, and Fred’s AG, was still in the top 1/4 of men running overall.

Between those sitting on the bench recovering from injuries, those on the bench because their injuries are unrecoverable or have nothing left to prove having achieved greatness in their youth, and those who specialize in track, our mens 60+ group shines.

We are tied for first with the titians of Taconic Road Runners.

Next up is the Brooklyn Half on May 18th.

Captain Hank

A further note beyond the wrap up to our 60+ guys:

I am not a coach, just one of you who read and train. My regime evolves and my training revolves around free time and determination. Personally, I felt this race reflects a good balance of the above. We all want to achieve our potential. I feel I’ve come close to this because my mile splits were consistent and I had stuff left for the dash to the line.

Having achieved a base both aerobically and structurally (toughening my frame to handle the training) my week is 3 basic workouts:

Tuesday VO2 max track workouts (thank you Tony) would appear to be very difficult. However, regular attendance, warming up slowly and running the correct pace makes this a pleasurable workout. Sharing the session with others does as much as anything else to feel part of CPTC.

Thursdays I run Tony’s tempo, but I do it solo. For me, I can run this longer distance at my own pace and not be away from my wife this one evening each week. That said, I find this to be the most difficult workout of the week. But I also believe, but cannot prove, that this has been the key element missing in my past training where I did a compromised tempo run on my own. Sticking with Tony’s game plan is best.

Sunday, I do a solo long run at an easy pace. I find this to be my easiest workout. Lately I’m running 14 miles. Last year I was jogging back from the track on 6th St with Alan Ruben. I asked him how fast he runs his long runs. He told me that sometimes he runs at a 9:30 pace. I’ve dialed back my speed on these long runs since hearing his story. If it isn’t comfortable it is too fast. Let’s look at it in this light. If you push so much in any workout that you have not recovered by the time of your next, you will not get the benefit you need and you are setting yourself up for injury. Each Saturday, unless the weather is dreadful, I cycle all day, usually on mtn bike on trails. It is aerobic yet does not stress my legs. It is where I build and maintain my uphill capacity. As the days grow longer I’m hoping to get in some more base mileage, but even now being paranoid about an impending injury is de rigueur for my addled brain.

Jack Daniels statement rings true when he advises how to run a 10k: run the first 2/3 with your brain, and run the last 1/3 with your heart.

Cheers,

Hank