Most national champions get a chance to savor their victories. Not Pete Magill. On Sunday, this Southern Californian won the USATF masters 5K cross-country title, clocking the best time of all 40-and-overs despite being 46. His 15:17 (a 4:55 mile pace!) also was the top age-graded mark among the men, worth an open time of 13:48. On Monday night, I wrote him, and he replied just after 9 p.m.: “Just got back from Saratoga (Springs, New York). A looooooooong travel day. And I have to be up at 5:45 AM, so I’ll email you tomorrow, okay?” But of course. Get rested, I replied. Some 12 hours later, he sent me a wonderfully detailed narrative of his race.

Pete wrote:

First of all, the weather was magnificent. Weather reports had called for rain all week, rain for the weekend, and (more specifically) rain during the race. But when I left my hotel Sunday AM to get coffee across the street, the sky was a perfect, brilliant blue and the sun was shining. My first thought? … Oh crap, it’s going to be too hot!
Well, some clouds moved in, a little wind picked up, and the temperatures stayed cool, but it was still the best weather imaginable for the race itself.
Personally, this race held some bad memories for me. Three years ago, I’d raced it hoping for the win, then suffered through a bout of flu (vomiting, diarrhea, and a fever of 102) for 5 days the week before the race. Still, I’d thought I was good to go for the race … until, while running second behind Brian Pope, I’d completely run out of gas with 400 meters to go (what seemed like 800 meters … or a mile) and proceeded to get passed by Tom Dalton, who destroyed me by 5 seconds over the final 200.
So this time, I was playing it safe (even though I felt healthy and fit coming in).
The course begins with a long uneven grass stretch, then switches to gravel and dirt trails through 2 miles, with both gradual and steep hills for that stretch. The final mile is a winding dirt trail through the woods – and then a long finishing quarter-mile grass straightaway to the finish.
A newly arrived master, Kent Lemme from Williamstown, MA, took out the race from the gun, with a pack of seven or eight of us in pursuit. I settled in next to Brian Pope, three-time winner of the event, and spent the first mile just watching the other runners, trying to gauge their strength. At about a mile-and-a-quarter, Lemme surged down one of the longer steep hills, opening up a sizable gap on our pack (maybe 30 or 40 yards), and I decided I’d let him get far enough out and went off to track him down.
Still, I had a feeling that Kent had made a big masters mistake in running the downhills so hard, because it’s been my experience that our aging quads don’t take that kind of pounding too well.
Sure enough, on the long climb to the 2-mile mark (a challenging hill made more challenging than the last time I ran the course by a new covering of thick gravel), Lemme started to come back to me. I caught him near the top of the hill, then stayed with him until the 2-mile mark, which we hit at 10:04.
We crested the hill a few yards after that, Kent fell back a few paces, and I decided the time had come to push the pace. Kent made the decision not to go with me, and I suddenly found myself alone and winding through the trees on the way to that final straightaway.
Emerging from the trees, I had a flashback of three years ago. And decided to keep the pace comfortable — anything to avoid a replay of my collapse from 2004. But with 200 to go, I still felt great, so put on a little kick to the finish, and got a win in 15:17 that has mercifully exorcised the ghost of 2004.
There were other great performances on the day. David Cannon from Club Northwest ran a spectacular race in the mens 50-59, beating the 16 minute barrier with his 15:58 (I edged him out by 4 seconds for the age-graded title). And Richard Larsen looked phenomenally smooth while breaking the tape first in the mens 60-69 division.
The best part of the 5K championships is that there are different races for mens 40-49, 50-59, and 60 up. It lets us “youngsters” watch our elders compete, and it showcases the older divisions’ talent. Let me tell you, it’s inspiring as all heck watching the different divisions as a spectator. It’s testimony to our ability to persevere and to excel regardless of age.
No time right now to recap the womens’ race, except to say that Kathryn Martin is without peer (male or female) — but we already knew that!

Great report, Pete! And fantastic race. You remain The Man. Best of luck in 2008.