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FLRC Newsletter - December 2004 |
| National Masters Championships | |
The tense parts of competing in the National Masters 5K Championships near Saratoga Springs with our 70+ mens team was not the race itself; it was getting the team organized in time and getting it to the starting line. Chuck Collins and I were set to go, meaning we got USATF numbers and sent in our entries with at least a day to spare, but our third potential teammate (Frank Moore) decided to go to a music festival instead! (Where are your priorities Frank?!?) At the suggestion of Diane S., I finally managed to get in touch with Jack Daniels in Cortland. This was not so easy since this was on Friday (the day before the absolute entry deadline), his email address at home didn't work, his telephone number from Google turned out to be a fax machine, and other frustrations. But I made contact finally Friday night, Jack got everything done over the Web, and I sent in the team registration on Saturday morning (the week before the race). All this never would have happened without Diane's prodding and encouragement. And we got Jack into the FLRC officially.
Chuck and I got to the race in plenty of time on Sunday the 17th. Our race wasn't until 12:45, so we didn't even need to get up at 5 am. We got there a little after 11, picked up our stuff, warmed up some, got FLRC singlets from Diane, which it turned out we all had to wear, even though nothing was said about that in the race literature. But where was Jack?? He stayed overnight in the Albany area the night before, no more than a half hour away from the racecourse. Time passes. We watch Diane's F50 team run and win, starting at 12. Ours is the next race. With 10 minutes or so to go, we leave Jack's singlet at the registration desk and head for the start. A couple of minutes later Jack arrives, gets registered, and also gets to the line. Whew.
So finally the race starts. The 60–69 and the 70+ runners, 10 teams in all plus assorted unattached runners, start off across a big field before the trail narrows. So you need to get a decent start. After 200 m or so I notice one M70 runner ahead of me (we wore age group ID on our backs), so I pick it up a little, even though the pace already felt pretty fast. He had on a bright orange shirt, so he was easy to keep in view. I passed him on the first major downhill, which I went down in more or less free fall, at about the half-mile mark. So I think to myself, okay, I'm a better downhill runner than he is. I hope he will fade, but he doesn't. Near the 2-mile mark there is a sharp turn before a major uphill, and I see that he is no more than 10–15 meters back. The uphill is tough, similar to the hill behind the Ag Quad and I am hurting at the top, but still ahead. But about a half mile later he and a 65-year-old go by me—not a decisive pass, but I just couldn't do anything about it. They inched ahead during the long flat straightaway to the finish, and that was that. I lost by 8 secs, 23:01 to 23:09. My splits were 7:29, 15:05, with an average pace of 7:28 per mile, so I must have actually picked it up some in the last mile, which was the only flat mile. The winner, Bill Butler from West Chester, PA, was unattached. Does anyone know him?
Our team won easily, since we took places 2, 3, and 4. Our whole team beat all the members of the other three teams in the race (one from Texas, one from the NYC area, and Belle Watling from the Buffalo area). Jack Daniels beat out Chuck Collins in the last 100 meters or so I think, 23:46 to 23:50. So our team was nicely bunched together. Maybe Chuck or Jack can fill in details on their races. Our average team time was 23:35, 2nd place was 25:23.
The weather turned out to be good, in spite of terrible forecasts. Damp but no rain, temperatures in the high 40s, I think, and no wind to speak of. All in all, it was an enjoyable race (in the usual painful sort of way!). It was great to have Diane and her teammates cheering us on. The course was nice too—some tough hills, to be sure, but that's the way XC is supposed to be.
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