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FLRC Newsletter - December 2004 |
| FLRC Super Seniors and Vets Win National X-C Team Titles | |
Jack Daniels wrote "the" book on running, but it's the practical applications of training research, plus inspiring teamwork, that brings home the victories.
Daniels, the head cross-country coach at Cortland State, professor of exercise science and sports studies, and author of the best-selling Daniels' Running Formula, was recruited by Ithaca senior runners Don Farley and Chuck Collins to compete as a team on October 17 at the USA Masters 5K Cross-Country National Championships, held at Saratoga Spa State Park, in Saratoga Springs.
Farley, Daniels, and Collins, representing the Finger Lakes Runners Club, won the national championship team title in the men's 70–79 division, and finished second, third, and fourth, respectively, among men ages 70 to 74.
The Finger Lakes Runners Club women's veterans' (ages 50–59) squad, with Zsofia Franck, Shelly Marino, Diane Sherrer, Mary Wenck, and Deb Yelverton, also won the national championship team title in the veterans division.
"It's kind of amazing that a little town in upstate New York can put together teams better than those from big cities like New York and Boston," said Farley, 70, who finished second among men 70–74 in 23:09, just eight seconds behind the individual national champion.
Daniels finished in 23:46; Collins in 23:50. The three men, with a cumulative score of 1:10:45, and an average of time of 23:35, defeated three other men's teams in their division, including one from Texas.
"It was nice to be asked to participate, even though I seldom race because I seldom train for racing," said Daniels, 71, who runs two miles every day. "I had no idea we would be a winning team. Interestingly, one of the guys on the team from Texas remembered me from when I coached at the University of Texas. I used to run pretty well back then. I remembered passing one or two of them during the race, and that was satisfying, since I figured they had made a real commitment to do this race. I figured teams that traveled a long way to get here would be pretty good. Maybe they are, and we were just a bit better."
Farley, Collins, and Daniels are all nationally ranked by USA Track & Field in their age group. But the senior men's race at the national championships was brimming with runners ages 60–80-plus who were capable of similar performances.
"I needed to get a decent start, and at 200 meters I noticed another 70-year-old runner ahead of me, so I picked it up even though the pace already felt pretty fast," said Farley, a Cornell University professor of engineering. "I passed him on a major downhill, in a free fall. So, I think to myself, 'Okay, I'm a better downhill runner than he is.' I hope he will fade, but he doesn't. With a half mile to go, he passed me, and I couldn't do anything about it."
Meanwhile, Daniels and Collins were playing cat and mouse with other runners, yet working as a team. Daniels passed Collins in the final half mile.
"My plan was to go out slow, and see how I felt as the race progressed," said Daniels, a former Olympic medalist in the modern pentathlon. "I prefer passing others rather than being passed. The ages on the backs did help, and a runner five years my superior kept me motivated. I was always about five meters behind a pack of five others, but managed to maintain contact. The hills were not easy for me, but the downhills and flats were more to my liking."
"I'm not that experienced in cross country, but I used to run Death Gulch on the Cornell golf course, and coming from Ithaca I figured I should be able to power up the hills," added Collins, 70, a marathon specialist in his prime. "During the race, I was trying to keep Don in sight, and really sucking air. At the finish stretch, I said, 'Come on legs,' and they said, "No thanks.'"
But thankfully, it was enough to claim the victory in a harrier's sport that emphasizes the team over the individual, as well as a pain zone of its own.
"I still enjoy cross country, and teams are what cross country is all about," said Farley, who participated in the first New York State high school cross-country championship, held in 1951. "All and all, it was an enjoyable race in the usual painful sort of way. But that's the way cross country is supposed to be.
"I enjoy cross-country running probably more than the track, because on the track it is so much reality. You know the distance is accurate, you know when you slow down and it's not fun to realize when you do not keep the pace," Daniels said. "In cross country, you can get away with just running and not worry so much about how you are doing as the race goes on."
But Collins summed up the experience the best.
"Cross country is interesting, because you're off by yourself, yet it's a team and an individual sport," he said. "But one good runner does not make a team. [Our victory] proves the old adage: It pays to have powerful friends."
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