The team arrived late (really late after flight delays) Thursday night in order to preview the course on Friday before racing Saturday.  While running the course, a light snow started to come down.  Little did we know that those would be the best conditions we could get all weekend.

Waking up Saturday, we knew it would be a brutal one.  By race time, the temperature had dropped to below 20 and winds were around 20 mph, with even gnarlier gusts.  The course consisted of 2 or 3 loops (2 for the women, 3 for the men) around an open grass field, so there was no avoiding a run in with the wind.

The first race of the day was the Master Women’s 6k.  Even in the brutal conditions, the Master Women’s team placed 7th as a team.  Leading the way was Jill Vollweiler in 8th place followed by Sue Pearsall in 28th place and rounding out the scoring (Master races score 3 deep) was Devon Martin in 49th place, making a transition form coach to althete for the early part of the morning.

The next race of the day for Central Park was the Open Women’s 6k.  In a stong field, the Central Park Women ran strong to an 8th place finish in the team competition.  Leading the team was Aileen Conlon in 12th place (22:22).  Following her, with a breakthrough race, was her younger sister Emily Dusen in 58th place.  Rounding out the team were Natalie Gingerich in 69th place, Lauren Gustafson in 70th place, Lauren Esposito in 80th place, Kate Irving in 85th place and Zoe Swenson in 109th place.

On the men’s side, Central Park fielded their first team at the cross-country championships.  The team finished 21st overall.  Scott Kallgren lead the team with a 65th place finish (33:01).  Next on the team were Brian Gertzen in 132nd and Carl Dambkowski in 142nd.  Rounding out team were John Roberts in 190th place, Peter Derby in 192nd place, and Sean Fortune in 245th place.

Overall, it was a stong showing for all Central Park Track Club’s teams, especially considering the brutal conditions on race day.  Congrats to all those who ran and survived!

I called Stuart up to get personally inspired and to find out more about what motivated him to take on a marathon/10k double in two weeks. Everyone has a different motivator – for Stuart what primarily drove him was to win the 50+ age group in both races. And he did – in Philly he won by seven minutes, and at the 10k by 15 seconds.  

That desire to win the age group worked in an unintended way at Philly. At around the 20 mile mark there is a turnaround on the course, and Stuart spotted a runner ahead of him who appeared above 50. With a clear head, Stuart timed the distance to make up to be 88 seconds, and set off after him. It probably wasn’t easy, but Stuart ran his fastest 5k of the race from 35k to 40k, and caught him at 24.5 miles. “I treated that 5k as if it was the end of the race – I didn’t care if I crashed and burned,” he said. The only flames were from the bottom of Stuart’s shoes, as he sped in. Postscript: It turns out that the runner was an old-looking 49, but having that chase made his race. Stuart says it was his first negative-split marathon. 

Hey, many of us ran marathons in the fall, and maybe someone else ran negative splits. What were we doing two weeks later? Unless you are Yasuhiro Makoshi, not running a near-age-graded PR in a 10k. Stuart had planned from the start to run the races back to back, since he is part of the CPTC 50+ team that was challenging for the points championship. Since just three athletes score in the 50+, he knew he was needed and didn’t want to let down the team. More motivation in the 10k came from knowing his competition – there are several 50+ racers who Stuart has been squaring off against all year, and he wanted to end the year with a win.  

The season will slow down for Stuart the next few weeks – he may run the 15k this weekend, then will dial back and rest up for the indoor track season. Last year Stuart finished fourth in the World Indoor Masters Championships in the 3000 meters and is aiming for the U.S. Masters Championships this year at the same distance. 

While Stuart had the best age-graded score for the men in the 10k, Sylvie Kimché had the best for the women (83.6%). Sylvie’s year is distinct for her having the top CPTC age-graded result in each of the races she ran this year. 

On the age-graded PR side, we had just one: Andrea Ostrowski came off the track to whip around the park in her fastest road race of the year. Four athletes won their age groups: George Hirsch won the 70-74 for the first time this year, Stuart won the 50-54 for the third time, Yasuhiro prevailed in the 55-60 for the infinityith time, and Sylvie took the 60-64 for an incredible 15^th straight race. She hasn’t lost a Road Runners race since 2005.  

At the Holiday 4-miler the team had a bit of a light turnout. Which gives me some space to spotlight Frank Morton for having his best race ever as a masters athlete. He ran a 27:13 for a 73.1% and a trip to regional-class land.  

Tom Phillips won his age group by a mighty minute and a half, as did Sylvie Kimché for the 16th consecutive race, and by two and a half minutes. Sylvie was the top performing CPTCer for the seventh time this year.  

Looking back a few weeks, at the frigid and sodden Pete McArdle 15k cross country race in VCP, the indomitable and inimitable Sid Howard won his age group for the fourth race in a row.  

Finally, we won the annual points competition for the 50+, both men and women – congratulations to everyone who contributed to those teams all year.

dgreenb300@aol.com

Men’s 10k:
Carl Dambkowski
Peter Derby
Sean Fortune
Brian Gertzen
Scott Kallgren
Armando Oliveira
John Roberts

Women’s 6k:
Aileen Conlon
Emily Dusen
Lauren Esposito
Natalie Gingerich
Lauren Gustafson
Katharine Irvin
Zoe Swenson

Masters 6k:
Sue Pearsall
Jill Vollweiler
Devon Martin

Two of the contests are within two points and the other is just 11 points apart.

Here are the standings:

Open Men:

West Side Runners: 120

CPTC: 118

Greater New York RT: 86

Open Women:

NYAC: 147

CPTC: 135

Running Divas: 102

Men 40+

CPTC: 127

Warren Street: 126

West Side Runners: 121

Women 40+

Running Divas: 139

Greater New York: 113

CPTC: 107

Men 50+

CPTC: 153

Taconic: 111

Witold’s Runners: 89

Women 50+

CPTC: 127

Taconic RR: 116

NY Flyers: 87

Some club members were not content simply to show up, trot, and collect their medals. In other words, the number of PR’s was impressive, at least based on a casual sampling of race results. Resie Caffrey, who had run in Prospect Park only once before, took third place, running a nearly three-minute PR of 32:04. At the same race, Noah Lansner ran a PR of 27:10, and club president John Roberts, the defending Prospect Park Turkey Trot champion, squeaked out a two-second PR of 25:37, taking second place and thoroughly disappointing his sister (”I thought you were supposed to win this,” she said afterward).

Elsewhere, in the rolling hills and farmland of the Berkshires, Mel Stafford took 12^th place by running a PR of 38:33. In Rockland Lake, NY, Kate Irvin also PR’d, a 28:53 that also happened to be a course record and moved her to #3 on the CPTC all-time list. That’s not even the impressive part: it’s her fourth consecutive victory since 2005, and each year she’s set the course record. Kate, don’t disappoint us in 2009.

Even some runners who didn’t PR still managed to dominate their local races: in New Hampshire, Will Seidel made his local paper by winning a 5k in 16:57, while Josh Rayman placed 7^th overall and 1^st in the 30-39 division with a 17:26 5k. In his 5-miler, Brian Gertzen led from wire to wire and finished in 26:02, in the process showing South Jersey’s wanna-be runners who was boss. In Washingtonville, NY, Joy Romulus won her Turkey Trot over a hilly course. Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Aileen Conlon won her 10k Turkey Chase in 36:16. Her partner in crime, Jay Barry, took 8^th place (27:30) in a 5-miler on Long Island.

Speaking of Aileen, during his 5k race Joe Kennedy was leading comfortably when he apparently hallucinated, thinking that Aileen was about to pass him (a frequent occurrence during workouts at Columbia’s Baker’s Field). It turns out that the fast-moving girl with a ponytail whom he had glimpsed was Jenn Donovan, who runs for New Balance Boston and recently edged out Aileen at another race earlier in the month. Avenging his teammate, Joe attacked the hills on the final mile and won the race in 16:54.

Although he didn’t end up winning the race, Cary Segall led for much of the way before placing second in a 5-miler in Port Washington, NY — an event he has now run 20 times. It was his best-ever result in a race, and he called the experience of leading an amazing one, but at the same time “anxiety-provoking,” since “you feel like you are out there by yourself.”

By listing all of these impressive performances, though, I don’t want to give the impression that winning is an end in itself. Everyone knows that winning is all about prizes. And CPTC’ers made out like bandits. If you hear that one of your teammates ran well in a Turkey Trot, odds are that they took home some nice loot: apple pie; a quart of maple syrup (talk to Will Seidel), chips-and-salsa and a fuel belt (Kate Cushing’s third-place prize); a souvenir duffel bag (although Margot Sheehan points out that the Prospect Park Track Club ran out of them after handing out 1200); a new pair of shoes; $30 (Alex Bruskin’s good for a round of drinks); and, to the chagrin of Lauren Esposito, who would have preferred a Thanksgiving-themed prize, plain old medals.

There is one honorary member of CPTC, however, who disagrees with Lauren. Kieran Calderwood, the six-year-old son of Stuart and Stacy, has been wearing his finisher’s medal from the Philadelphia Insurance Companies’ Turkey Trot ever since Thanksgiving. Stacy reports that he completed the five miles with Stuart in 57:05, while Stacy herself took second place in 33:19. Kieran was certainly the only six-year-old in the 14-and-under division, although Stuart and Stacy plan to have him run only in the occasional NYRR kids fun run. If you want to hear more about his race, Kieran has produced his own written account, including three illustrations.

In a similar tableaux of father-and-son running, Bill Wells ran a Turkey Trot in Miami with his girlfriend, brother, and father. He described his surprise when he came to the second-mile marker: “Who do I see standing there but my dad, only a few feet past the starting line, waiting for me to come around so he can cheer me on. I laugh and say as I run by, ‘Why aren’t you running??’ ‘I was waiting for you!’ he says. I finished the race in 9th place, followed by brother, then girlfriend, and finally dad in 1,834th place. Next time I’ll make sure my dad knows that when the gun goes off, that means you are supposed to START RUNNING.”

Coach Devon might have been able to reinforce this valuable lesson had she been down in Miami, but she was busy running in Prospect Park, a Thanksgiving ritual that is now part of Lansner family tradition. Her account of her race has surreal touches: a mysterious man in an orange T-shirt (”orange man”), along with a man running behind her who was barking like a dog. Still, Devon recovered to run the last mile in under seven minutes, and then dry-heaved at the finish line. What a perfect way to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

Ticket can be purchased at http://www.centralparktc.org/awardsdinner/

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
Tuesday Dec 16
6:30pm

New this year:
4 person relay
Get your TEAM together!

Each runner runs 1 UPPER loop (1.4 miles) of Central Park. E-mail your team, names to:
mike@mkcoaching.com
 
Start, exchange area, and finish will be on 102nd St transverse. 

Donation: $10 per bell

Each bell will be wrapped with a “Doug Stern” ribbon

Donate $50 or more and receive a
2nd Jingle Bell Run for Doug t-shirt! 
 
Post-relay PARTY at 
Super Runners Shop, 89th St and Lexington Ave
 
Make checks payable to:
MSKCC
“In memory of Doug Stern”
Kidney Cancer Research
 
$2700 was donated from the 1st Doug Run in 2007.
2008 goal: $5000

For any further information please contact Mike Keohane at:

mike@mkcoaching.com       

I asked John how he has continuously improved over the year. The answer was threefold: more miles, faster miles and a deadline.  While he is not a marathoner at this point, he came to realize that higher mileage has a positive affect even on shorter distances. So he kicked his overall weekly mileage up to around 50 from 40, including a 16 miler each week.

But no dead-legged Lydiardian, he. A regular devotee of Thursday nights with Webster, John has amped up his tempo runs, to the point where he runs several per week. It is clearly working: “The tempo runs helped – I am comfortable running at lactate threshold,” he said, adding that he went into today’s race aiming to run a fast third mile and was able to do so even in the hills.

Longer and faster we covered – but what about that deadline? John is a surgeon associated with Doctors Without Borders, and he is awaiting another assignment in Africa, probably to happen in the next few months. Given the hours and safety issues involved with his work in Africa, he says it is unlikely that he will be able to run much. “Now is the time to get PRs,” Dr. de Csepel says. He will try to continue his streak at the Joe Kleinerman 10k in December, but after that, competitive running will be a lower priority.

John is the rare masters athlete who is still setting absolute PRs. “I never feel bad about getting older as long as I can continuously run PRs,” he said, as I headed out for a tempo run.

One of the intriguing aspects of masters running is how some successful athletes - like John - come to the sport relatively late in life, while others have been running virtually their entire lives. Catherine Stone Borkowski , who also set an age-graded PR on Sunday (80.1%) and had the best age-graded result of all the women, has been an elite runner since high school. An All-American at the University of Arkansas, she has struggled at times – like all of us - to keep the competitive fire going as she has responsibilities including her business, the QiGong Wellness Center in Butler, NJ.

In February she had foot surgery, which put her off the roads, and “running became a secondary thing.” After the surgery, Catherine was able to get up to 15-20 miles per week, but wasn’t racing. Until the fall.

Watching the NYC Marathon as a bystander was more than she could take. Seeing thousands of people searching for accomplishment and aliveness got Catherine going again.  She called Devon and told her “The fire is relit – I want to run.”

The two of them devised a plan to get Catherine back on the starting line, and immediately Catherine was able to run 6:30 pace for a four-mile race, despite not having done any speed work at all. “It was just wild,” says Catherine, and attributes her speed to a mental shift rather than intense training. “Devon made that happen,” she added.

Catherine is looking to stay off the track for a while, even though she says “since I’ve been with CPTC that’s what I’ve been known for.” Her reputation as a track athlete is well earned; as a masters athlete she ran the 800 in 2:19. Short term, she may run the Kleinerman 10k. Her intermediate goal is to get up to 35 miles per week, run a half-marathon and qualify for the 2009 New York Marathon.

The roads appeal to her for several reasons, not the least of which is that road races aren’t so precise as racing on the track. “It’s kind of nice when you are not under a microscope,” Catherine says. “I don’t want to put pressure on myself. I just really enjoyed the last two races. The fire is back, it’s been relit. It’s been years, but it’s exciting.”

George Hirsch also set an age-graded PR today. George has done just three races this year – let’s hope he is gearing up for more. This 20-year CPTC veteran ran 30:36 for third in the 70-74, or 79.5% - almost reaching the 80% national-class level.

Other athletes of note: Yasuhiro Makoshi came back to amaze us again - this time by recovering quickly from the marathon - and again won his age group (24:14). Tom Phillips can (almost) not be beaten this fall – winning his age group for the fourth time in five races with a 23:19. Frank Wilson won the 65-69 age group for his first triumph in several years.

Some notes from other races: The great Tom Phillips finished his undefeated NYRRC cross-country season with a win in the 50-54 at the championships. Cross-country specialist Salih Talib won the 60-64 with a 20:58, and the legend himself - Sid Howard -  won the 65-69 with a 22:23.

The five toughest Orangemen of all ran the Knickerbocker 60k in the heat, humidity and rain on Saturday. Ramon Bermo was the top CPTCer, finishing second overall and first in his age group. He ran 7:28 pace for over four and a half hours. Other CPTCers who completed the 37 miles: Benjamin Gutman, Leandro Germosen, Harry Morales, and Chris Solarz. 

dgreenb300@aol.com