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FLRC Newsletter - April 2005 |
| St. Patrick's Day 4-Miler | |
It's time for a race report from Mecca, or, well, Binghamton.
Seamus Bisogni failed to show up to defend his title at the St. Patrick's Day 4-miler, but the home team was otherwise out in full force. Sarah Kramer (44) won the women's race in 24:04 (17th overall). The overall winner was from Ithaca too: Mike Stycznski (22) in 20:08. Gary Fancher was first master (6th overall) in 22:22, followed by Byron LeBare, who trains in Barton every Wednesday with Suzanne Myette, and ageless wonder Tom Carter, second master in 22:44. Results are on the Triple Cities Runners Club page at http://triplecitiesrunnersclub.org/y2005/stpats_4mile.html [editors' note: See the Results section for a much deeper list of local finishers than featured here by J.W.]. Christian Thompson from Candor (23:48), Suzanne (25:46, 2nd women's master) and Gill Sharpe (25:51, first police/fire person) all had great races.
This race has been a local favorite since Suzanne let the word out about the free postrace beer at the inaugural event four years ago. I will never forget the look of bliss on Chris Mansfield's face when he declared this "the best race ever," a glass of beer in one hand and a chocolate donut in the other. The postrace festivities are in the school gym, which has a statue of St. Patrick treading on a tangle of snakes in the entrance.
Race start was cold (~25°F), with slush on the streets: hat and glove weather. The course is essentially the same as the Chris Thater 5K: Down Oak St. past the church to Main, across the Main St. bridge, right on Washington (downhill first mile), back across the river, a long uphill second mile on Riverside Drive, a right on Beethoven back to Main (mile 3), a dogleg right on Chestnut, and downhill to the finish in front of the church on Leroy St.
I started out with Andris Goncarovs (13 on April 3, the day of Skunk), who was running his first official road race. After a quarter mile together Andris took pity and told me that 'You can go ahead.' First mile was 5:57, compared to 5:45 the last time I ran this race two years ago. In that race, I was deeper into marathon training and was able to run the uphill second mile at a six-minute pace. No way this time. I felt moderate-to-okay and passed a few people, but the second mile was 6:20. Just after the turn on Beethoven, Andris rolled by like I was standing still. I spent the rest of the race looking at the tail of the next pack, which included, just in front of Andris, Kevin Coughlin, Murphee Hayes-Falls (who started out ahead of Sarah but quickly got dropped), and Jeff Juran. Got passed by the usual high school kid in the last half mile. My final time of 24:41 was over a minute slower than two years ago and two minutes slower than Tom Carter, but still good for second geezer. Prizes were beer mugs.
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