You know how it is.
Life is slow, not exciting, nothing happening.
Then your BFF calls or visits, and WHAMMO!, your day is suddenly HOT!
Now I'm NOT saying Molly Huddle is my BFF---never even met the gal!--but her runaway course record-setting win in today's Tufts 10K sure improved my day!
Not to say it was BAD for 2nd placer Emily Sisson, even though her 32:18 was a HUGE 57 seconds behind Molly's CR of 31:21.
The old Course Record holder (Sentayehu Ejigi, 31:33) finished 3rd in 32:37, with Kim Conley next, followed by Brianne Nelson.
Another fairly new Pro, Emma Bates, finished far back in 16th, time of 33:54.
Tufts was the 4th Road win for Huddle since early September, and 19th overall!
Heather Kampf may be known as "Queen of the Road Mile", but Molly Huddle is Queen of the ROADS!!
Speaking of those 4 wins since September 7th, maybe her most impressive was the 10 Mile, held in Minnesota.
Huddle smashed the Course Record, AND the American Record (for a Women Only race!), running 5:10 per mile pace, her final time 51:44.
Neeley Spence was over a "lap" behind in 2nd, running 53:03
Alexi Pappas, whose TrackTown movie is forthcoming, was 3rd in 53:17.
For the Men, Sam Chelanga edged out Tyler Pennel, 46:47 to 46:48.
This was Chelanga's first race (and win!) as a US citizen!!
Dathan Ritzenhein finished 3rd in 46:53.
Supposedly the most important Road race of the past few weeks was the Chicago Marathon.
Maybe the "most important", but sure as Hell NOT the most thrilling!
Deciding to ban official pacers, and to leave the "rabbiting" to the actual competitors was a BAD idea, IMHO.
In a paced race, you STILL have the question of who's going to beat who, but you have the ADDED excitement of some top runners not only challenging each other, but the CLOCK as well!
While Chicago's famous winds were present, the slow first 13.1 of 1:05:13 for the Men was like watching grass grow!
(That is, if NBC's AWFUL "coverage" of said race didn't force me to turn it off, and rely on Twitter for updates and results!)
The main interest throughout for the Men was where Luke Puskedra would finish.
Running in the lead pack through about 25K, before falling back a bit, Puskedra was looking to improve on his 2:15+ from the Twin Cities race.
And he did!
His 2:10:24 in 5th place (behind winner Dickson Chumba's 2:09:25 and 2nd placer Sammy Kitwara's 2:09:50) makes him 23rd A-T US.
Moved OFF my list was Kirk Pfeffer's 2:10:29 from 1980!
(Keep in mind that my lists include Boston Marathon times!)
The Women's race was taken by---Duh!---Florence Kiplagat, the Half Marathon WR holder!
Her time of 2:23:43 beat Yebrgua Melase by 10 seconds.
But again, it was the top American who made the biggest headlines--as should be in "America's Marathon", as Chicago is known as!
Deena Kastor, whose 2:19:36 remains the US Record, ran 2:27:47 at Age 42 to set the "American Master's" Record.
I don't recognize any "master's" records, but even though my oldest Age record is labeled "40 & over", I have to assume it's the new "Age 42" record!
(Deena turns 43 next Valentine's Day!!)
While Deena ran negative splits (1:14:03 and 1:13:44), the winner ran only 1:13:05 for her 2nd 13.1, after a first half in 1:10:28!
Sara Hall was 2nd American, crushing her old PR by some 17 minutes (!!), running 2:31:14.
My home town (Bellingham WA) fave, Sarah (Porter) Crouch, ran just 7 seconds off her PR, time of 2:32:51, for 3rd American.
So what's what and who's who in Cross Country?
Since this weekend was fairly benign when it came to top names racing, let's take a look at those first few weeks.
On the HS scene, maybe the biggest news came from Katie Rainsberger's win in an Arizona race, in a Course Record of 16:22.
As I noted in my previous post, times aren't really important in XC, but 16:22 is significant nonetheless for a female HS'er!
For the Men, Austin Tamagno was most impressive, running a 3 Mile course in 14:38.
In another race, Drew Hunter came up the winner!
Those two could be the "Fisher-Maton" of the 2016 Track seasons (IN and OUT).
Meaning Grant Fisher and Matthew Maton, of course!
On the Collegiate scene, it's been the usual suspects, with one happy surprise thrown in!
That "surprise" was the "comeback" win for Aisling Cuffe in the Washington Invitational in Seattle.
She ran 19:41 for the 6K route, edging Alli Cash by 3 seconds.
A few Frosh made news in Seattle, as Anna Maxwell took 12th, and Hannah Long was 14th.
Brianna Nerud, once a promising Steeplechaser (She's the HSR holder!), finished WAY back!
(CORRECTION: Anna Maxwell is now a SOPH, not a Frosh!)
A "new" face on the Collegiate scene, after a VERY quiet Freshman year at UO, Sarah Baxter ran a somewhat credible race, ending in 33rd place, but 52 seconds behind Cuffe!
Missing from that race was Cuffe's teammate, Elise Cranny, who was said to be resting!
(Resting from WHAT??)
The Edward Cheserek steamroller---er, rolls on!
He played footsie with Joe Rosa, before deciding to RUN, winning easily in 23:15 over the 8K course!
As with the Women, it was some Freshmen who shone brightest.
The aforementioned "Fisher-Maton" duo ran well in their first Collegiate races--even though Fisher ran as "unattached", at least temporarily redshirting the Stanford squad.
Maton finished 8th in the Seattle race.
Fisher, as noted in a previous post, took 2nd in his 1st race!
Two other Women are looking good in the early season.
Dominique Scott won easily, taking her 1st race by a solid 20 seconds!
And Erin Finn has won TWO races, though her margins of victory were narrower than Scott's.
Keeping to my vow to report any and all Kayla Montgomery news, I'm sad to report her early Soph season at Lipscomb has started slowly!
She ran 19:05 (for 5000, not 6K!!) recently, finishing just 68th (out of 224).
(Chelsea Blaase, who could be added to the above short list of Collegiate stars, won with 17:05!)
One possible bright note for Kayla is that she acknowledges (on her Facebook page) that she's off to a bad start this fall, but seems confident she'll improve!
Finally, Mary Cain made news last week!
Made "news" by announcing she's left Portland U for Fordham U (That's in the Bronx, VERY close to where I lived for a year over 50 years ago!!).
Made "news" by saying that while Alberto Salazar remains her coach, she's basically being tutored by John Henwood, AlSal's East Coast assistant.
And made "news" by WINNING the Women's division in her first XC race of the year (and maybe since her NXN race of 2012??), albeit in a mixed field of Men & Women in a local Van Cortland Park race.
Her time was 17:11.
Yawn.
I will say one thing.
She looks "in shape" (aka "lean and mean"), and says she's happy being home again!
Also says she's looking forward to a "strong" IN & OUT Track season in the Rio Olympic year!
Don't count her---completely!---out!
So what have I been doing lately--besides going crazy waiting for the first INdoor T&F results to start trickling in??
Glad you asked!
LOL
I've been doing a MASSIVE revision of my T&F Record Book.
(Actually a better word would be a "redo", not a "revision", as the only thing changing is the APPEARANCE of the 600 or so pages, not the marks & records therein!)
A bit of background.
My book is not typed or printed!
It's written, in BIC pen ink, on CHEAP College Rule-lined notebook paper, and stuffed in a set of 28 manila folders!
When a new mark is entered, or an old mark is eliminated, I CROSS OUT the old mark, then add the new mark wherever there's room on the page!
This leads, in due time, to a MESSY page!
And the more time between page "redo's", the more the ink FADES!!
This makes SOME of it difficult to read, thus necessitating a "redo", even if that particular page has no (or few) new marks!!
Long story short, I've "REDONE" practically my entire Meet Records and National Records sections (OUTdoors only--so far!!) in the past week or two!
That meant hours and hours of monotonous paperwork!
(To paraphrase the Rolling Stones--It's only paperwork, but I LIKE it! LOL)
And it sure LOOKS a Hell of a lot better.
And I can now READ all the marks and names!!)
Part--but not all!--of this "redo" was instigated by the arrival of Wilfried Kramer's great book "National Athletics Records for All Countries in the World"--even though it goes only through the 2011 season.
My National Records sections are now more complete---and more in adherence to the actual geographical and geopolitical nature of our little orb!
And I'm still working on these changes!
It sure as heck LOOKS better!
See you after the NYC Marathon--if not before!
(Not sure if it will be in the NYC post, but I'll soon lay out my plans for--and thoughts about--the upcoming INdoor T&F season.)
If last year is an indication of WHEN we might expect the first marks to come in, then we're less than 6 weeks away!!
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