Six years later, American 20K track records near acceptance
On June 8, 2003, M50 Paul Cook and M45 Dave Parsel ran 50 laps of the track at Orange Coast College — 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). It took a while, but when they finished both had bested American age-group records in the rarely contested event. Dave’s time of 1:11:09.20 and Paul’s mark of 1:13:48.79 smashed listed records of 1:13:42 and 1:27:14, respectively — times that date back to the early 1980s. You can guess what came next. Nothing. Records set at that Southern California meet — a USATF association championships — languished in USATF limbo for six years. The holdup? Officials didn’t have a copy of the surveyor’s measurement certificate. Yup. Everything else was kosher (as documented by the files archived here). Lap scorer sheets, FAT photos, record forms were all in order. They just lacked proof the track was 400 meters. Now here it is, and their real marathon is almost over.
Truman and Walter have held the records long enough, doncha think?
Meet director Andy Hecker is the hero in this story. His efforts to secure the certificate finally paid off, and he has sent it to USATF long-distance running recordkeeper Andy Carr in Atlanta.
Andy Hecker’s note to Andy Carr recalled the event:
This record was set as the last event of a full track meet. Results are here.
You will be able to see it was part of a combined 5K, 10K and 20K, entirely on the track and started from the center of the infield by Certified Starter Ed Austin #1280.There were 5 finishers in the 20K, 3 finishers in the 5K. The lone 10K entrant, M67 Dale Headley, DNFed. There is a question about pacing in your forms. Gus Hermes, M40, was legitimately registered in the race and ran in lock step with Paul Cook for all 50 laps, including crossing the finish line .06 behind Cook.
We held this race at the request of Cook and planned it a week in advance. Parsel (very much an ultra-runner) found out about the race that day after doing a long training run in the morning. I have come to know both these gentlemen over the last several years, they have done other events I have hosted.
Parsel was on the Team Runners High National Championship Cross Country team among other things. They are both upset the record has never gotten processed.
Based on your forms, this might also qualify as the Hour Run record. We did not anticipate that so did not take procedures to mark where the athletes were on the track at the top of the hour.
Because M45 Parsel passed his 42nd lap, 16,800 meters at 59:48, we can make a valid claim for that distance, knowing he ran an additional 12 seconds after that. Having the marked relay zone, I can even claim those extra 10 meters for certain, thus the 16,810 I entered. He ran 1:25 that lap which would have put him 56 meters beyond the finish line or 16,856 meters.
M50 Cook passed his 41st lap, 16,400 meters, 24 seconds after the top of the hour, so I do not know how much you would be willing to validate based on conjecture. Certainly he was beyond 16,200 meters at the time. All the athletes ran extremely consistent laps. He ran that lap in 1:29. By pace that would have put him about 108 meters short of the finish line or 16,292 meters. . . .
I also served as the Meet Director and by this point in the meet served as the Meet Referee (after the starter departed following the start of the race). Automatic timing was done by Mobarik Haneef who also was also our Southern California Association President. The 5th identifiable person hovering around the track throughout the race was OCC Assistant Coach Dave Fier.
I wrote to both athletes, and Paul was the first to reply.
He wrote me yesterday: “I am thrilled that this track 20K may finally be ratified as it should be. I worked with Mo Hanif (association president) for a few months trying to get a meet that would actually allow us to run the event, and putting together all of the other details that would allow me to make a run for the record.”
Here’s a quickie Q&A I had with Paul:
Masterstrack.com: Have you run faster track 20Ks or hour runs since then?
Paul Cook: No, this is the only one that I have run, mostly due to the fact that it is very difficult to get anyone to allow the race and provide all of the necessary details to make everything official. As you can see, it has taken a long time to even get this finalized.
Were you aware that your record applications were being held up by measurement certificate?
Yes, I did hear at one time that that was an issue, but Dave was able to get the information required to satisfy that early on, and I haven’t heard anything until now.
Has anyone from USATF been in contact with you about these record applications?
No. I have been to numerous association meetings and made contact to Andrew many times, but no one has ever contacted me until now. I have even phoned and written the national office and masters officials with no results.
What’s your reaction to these records being close to ratification?
Thrilled!!!!! As you know, it takes an amazing amount of preparation, plus one needs to have everything go right in order to pull off a record.
When you ran your record 20K in 2003, what were conditions like? What were your personal circumstances?
The track was perfect, as it was a good surface for distance running. The weather was superb (temperature in the 60s as I recall) with almost no wind, and it was run under the lights with no sun to heat the track, etc. . . . . I had been training pretty well with only a few races leading up to the race, so I was as well prepared as possible.
Where do you live now? What is your date of birth? Do you still compete?
I live in Orange, CA, and I was born in Yreka, CA on July 3, 1952. I have been struggling with minor but nagging injuries for the past two years or so, but I have run a couple of races recently (very slow for me though). I have been training a lot on my bike riding about 50 miles a day, so I remain in good shape.
I also run about 45-50 miles a week, and I am hoping to get better and more competitive again. I have also run some of the national cross country races since my 20K race, and I have also run the 10K road nationals at Paso Robles finishing second in the 50-54 age group. I believe that was in the fall of the same year.
What’s your advice to other age-groupers who hope to tackle 20K or hour run records on the track?
My advice is to make sure every detail regarding an official meet, etc. is well-covered. Do your training and preparation, and enjoy the opportunity that you have to use your talent and hard work to achieve your goal. Have fun and be balanced mentally, physically, and spiritually.
As long as you do your best, you can be humbled in the fact that you have done something special by just competing fairly and doing the your best.
2 Responses
The USATF record-keepers don’t just pick on master’s runners. I set a pair of American Junior T&F records in the summer of 1974, at a Runner’s World hosted 24-hour relay, yet have been unable to have these marks recognized. At age 17, I ran 50K in 3:32:14, 50 miles in 6:31:52, with the famous running author, and then editor of Runner’s World, Joe Henderson, serving as the official race scorer. The obstacle to recognition of these American Junior records? Joe Henderson no longer works for RW, and left on poor terms. He has no access to the official records of the meet. Numerous requests to Runner’s World Magazine have fallen on deaf ears. They are in the business of making money (and peddling flesh), not supporting runners. The USATF site lists the current American Junior records for these seldomly contested track distances, and unless some other unrecognized runner has run faster than my marks, I have been an double American record holder for almost 35 years. Maybe they’ll be recognized post-humously.
When I wrote my lengthy responses to the previous discussion on records
http://masterstrack.com/blog/005593.html I said “which reminds me, I need to make another phone call.” That other phone call was made to Atlas Track, who installed the track at Orange Coast College in 2001. That was at least the third such call to Atlas. Dealing with this stuff is back burner material for them. Frankly after all these years, its not the priority in my life either, but I did need to be persistent.
How I ended up bothering the track installer was part of the long legacy on these records.
We filled out the record application the night of the meet, including me verifying both athlete’s age via their drivers licenses. We knew about the measurement requirement. The Assistant Coach told me he would get the certificate to me, but it never arrived. I got the signature from the starter (who left after starting the race) at the Birmingham All Comers meets a few weeks later.
I had started off sending the applications (sans measurement certification) to the name on top of the original form–Pete Mundle. I was but a naive little 48 year old. How could that detail hold up the proceedings on an established professionally installed track? After no response, and no record being posted we knew we had a problem.
During 2004, I ran into Cook a couple of times. He was angry enough about the omission to show up at the Association meeting one night to ask questions and he got drafted into helping the LDR Committee.
I’ve continued to ask questions over the years too. The accuracy or chronology of my memory might not be 100%. This has not been continuous or rapid, more these contacts have been separated by 6 months or a year between developments.
This being an LDR Track record, there was confusion by pretty much everybody I talked to as to who was responsible for certifying such a record. Mundle never was heard from. When Pashkin took over, I spoke to her at a convention. Her short response was that it wasn’t her responsibility.
The LDR Committee went through a similar hostile changeover of their records-keeper. I do not know the backstory. The first name I was given was Basil Honikman located in . . . Ventura, CA. Yes, he lives about 2 miles from me. I’ve still never met the man. I phoned him and was told in an angry tone that he no longer handles those records.
Later research took me to Andy Carr, from the Atlanta TC. When he, refreshingly, responded; I was sent a new form to fill out (which omitted the mention of certified officials and starters but still requested the measurement certificate), the form you see in the package. After submitting the new form he replied that the only thing needed was the measurement certificate.
I escalated the, never responded to, calls and e-mails to the coaches and administrators at the college. As I officiated various meets where they attended, I sought them out. First they said they’d get the stuff to me, later they were more angry at my persistence. The last time I spoke to them they said they had paid Atlas Track a lot of money to do this for them . . . get it from them. I’ll be officiating at the Striders meet at OCC in two weeks, so after posting this, I’m sure I’ll get a friendly greeting.
My more recent contacts have been to harass the people in the office of the track installer to send me the papers. It finally got the results. Andy Carr responded “OK! This maybe MORE than enough but I will update you on the status in about a week or so.”
Its nice to get a positive response to communication through official channels.
I think I have also netted some significant progress on my proposal to have a list of certified tracks posted. Stay tuned for further developments.
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