February 2003 Newsletter

My Athletes of the Year

I wanted to get a posting about the Hobart meet out before Diane Sherrer, but she's a pro and beat me to it - it will be hard to top her comprehensive story and Lorrie Marnell's eloquent account. At the risk of redundancy, I do want to add another spectator's version, because yesterday's record-setting performance by the FLRC masters team of Suzanne Myette, Lorrie Marnell, Shirley Woodford and Gillian Sharp was one of the most exciting and - I'll say it - inspiring team efforts I've ever seen.

We'd been hearing for some weeks about Pete Glavin's plan to include a masters womens 4 x 1,600 relay event at the Holiday Classic meet at Hobart. Diane and Lorrie were too gracious to say, but the GVH team included one ringer, Checkers team member Sue Munson, who ran a 5:10 1500 at the December FLRC meet. So the cards looked to be stacked against our local team from the get-go; although both teams appeared capable of breaking the record set by the 1981 FLRC team, the smart money was on the hardware heading to Rochester. Even always indefatigable Lorrie sounded pessimistic on our last noon run before Christmas.

Jim Miner, Tim Ingall, Herb Engman and I drove up from Teagle with the FLRC banner in Jim's PT Cruiser. It's depressing to drive to a track meet with a bunch of old guys; all they do is complain about aches and pains, how they can't see the display on their watches any more, and about how much better the bird is than the proposals for a new club banner. The 4 x 1600 relay was the first event (10 AM). We put the banner up in a corner of the gym, I agreed to put a watch on the FLRC B team, and we gathered to watch the start.

The FLRC and GVH teams were structured very differently. FLRC had two exceptionally fast runners, Myette and Sharpe, while the GVH team of Laurie Kinsella, Carolyn Smith-Hanna, Susan Rowley, and Munson was made of runners all within 30 seconds of one another over a mile. Recall that the FLRC team had come out on top at the National Masters 8K competition over the same GVH team - with the exception of Munson, who was now the fastest miler on the GVH team, and who was to run the anchor leg.

Suzanne Myette took out the lead leg very fast - 2:40 at the half. Both Suzanne and Lorrie in the second leg worked against the disadvantage of running without splits. GVH didn't have a display clock at the meet (the well-paid obstetrician in charge of the clock had left it in his garage since the end of xc season, only to find it not running on the morning of the meet), and we in our idiocy had not thought to have someone giving splits. But completely on her own, Suzanne ran a monster leg - 5:30, and passed off to Lorrie with a 40-50 meter lead. Lorrie faced the same problem, and began calling out for splits. Suzanne managed to get a watch on her for the second half of her leg, but Lorrie, without much recent track work, could have used more practical support from some of us idle men on the sideline. Eventually Caroline Smith-Hanna ate into some of the lead, and the handoff from Lorrie to Shirley Woodford may have cost a few more seconds.

Shirley too faced the obstacle of running alone, on the very disorienting Hobart track. The track is the same color as the infield, green with black markings, no curb, and irregularly intersecting sprint and oval lane markings. Sue Rowley caught Shirley just after the first lap. Those of us who know Shirley's running style predicted that she would be tough running from behind, and this proved to be the case. Shirley stayed right on her competitor for the next six laps, only to fall behind a little bit in the final 200, handing off to Gillian Sharpe in 6:03.

Everybody's performance in this race was impressive, but Gillian Sharpe ran an anchor leg for the ages. She started about 50 meters behind Sue Munson, meaning, given Munson's 5:10 1500 time, that she would have to plan to run close to 5:20 mile pace to catch her. Munson looked very strong at the start of the leg. Gillan began closing the gap - often it seemed that she would gobble up a 5 meter chunk as she passed the spectators at the finish line, then back off a bit, realizing that she didn't want to make her move too soon. At 1200 Gillian ran up on Munson's shoulder, then still held back. At 300 meters to go she passed. Of course what none of us knew was what either runner had left - we only see Gillian at local races, where she wins, and she was a complete unknown to GVH except for the 8K xc race.

As it turned out, Gillian had a major hammer to drop. I had her last lap in 37-38; after passing at 300, she ended up winning by five seconds. Both teams went well under the record, and there was jubilation on the FLRC sidelines.

Gillian Sharpe's 5:21 1600 was a pr (her best mile time was 5:23, run in high school). Putting things in perspective, Patti Ford's Hartshorne Mile record is 5:17, without a baton or a handoff. Of course Patti didn't have a team to run for.

The whole team ran their hearts out in this race. This is what the sport is all about.

It has been a pretty good sports weekend. The Giants squeaked by the Eagles to make the playoffs, and as I write this I see on the Webcast that Adam Vinatieri has kicked a field goal to beat the Dolphins at the buzzer. New England teams never win games checked in progress on the web. If Cornell hadn't allowed three 3rd period goals by the #1 Maine Black Bears (who did you root for, Counsellor?),it would have been a four-for-four weekend. But I got to see the best event, right up at the top of the lake.

The Hobart meet was notable for other accomplishments - Molly Huddle ran 9:25 in the fast heat of the 3,000, just her and a bunch of guys, one of whom set a meet record, which I didn't get. Tim Ingall ran a good 3K too (10:18, and he's just an old Brit). I had a mediocre day (10:32 3K, 4:57 1500), but I managed to avoid getting lapped by Molly Huddle in the 1500.

-- John Whitman