Julie Hayden of the victorious Athena Track Club and Terry Ballou of the runner-up Millrose Athletic Association have detailed the masters experience at Friday’s Millrose Games, including their dramatic 4×4 duel. As feared, the masters were again barred from the elite warmup area. Julie noted: “We were not welcomed on the completely empty, fenced off strip of matting,” and Terry reported: “Basically, the warmup area consists of the concrete hallways outside of the track. It was very crowded with college, high school, elite, and masters runners, so it was kind of tricky getting a good warmup in. Our warmup was basically a shuffle, as we threaded our way through the crowds from one end of the hallway to the other.”  We’ll have to get crazy tough next year. Still, Julie and Terry were thrilled and honored to be there. 

Athena TC team (left to right):
Joan Hunter, Jane Brooker, Maryline Roux and Julie Hayden

Millrose AA team (left to right):
Janice Reid, Becky Connolly, Sonya Badger and Terry Ballou

Here’s Julie’s writeup:

Packet Pickup

As per Mary Rosado’s finally instructions, packets were picked up from the meet hotel in the late afternoon. Our “Athlete Support” Scott Brooker had the passes ready for us on arrival.
 
Entry to Madison Square Gardens

There was no delay into entry, or with checking-in.
 
Warmup

We were not welcomed on the completely empty, fenced off strip of matting. Joan Hunter and I and Robert Thomas and some of the other Southwest Sprinters ran a couple of strides on the empty matting and were politely told it was reserved for athletes wearing elite athlete passes. Mostly everyone warmed up in the concrete, crowded basement.
 
Marshalling

As expected, things happen fast once the first call was made. Fleet Feet almost missed out, but were I believe, sought out by a kind official.
 
The Race

The officials took us out to our starting places, staggered around the track because of the 2 and 3/4 laps per leg. We were allowed several run outs.

The start was jittery, with some athletes moving on the line. The Fleet Feet first leg was first out followed by Athena’s Jane Brooker, (44) from Spring Mills, PA, and Janice Reid (40) from Millrose. After the first turn, Jane almost fell and had to put her hand out on the back of the Fleet Feet runner to save herself. Jane is an experienced runner and was familiar with Millrose.

After that, Jane overtook Fleet Feet and Janice Reid followed her. Jane’s split was approximately 63/64 secs., and she handed off in the lead to Maryline Roux (42) from Davidson, NC. Born in the Ivory Coast, and educated in France, Maryline became an American citizen in 2008. It was her first time running at Madison Square Gardens.

Maryline was followed by Rebecca Connolly (42) from Millrose. I believe Maryline also ran approximately 63/64. I felt like Sonya Badger was closing on me all the time, but I am told that it didn’t happen until my legs tied up at the end of my run.

Apparently, Sonya closed on the inside, but her legs gave way and she tumbled to the ground. I didn’t feel her at all, but after the race when I told Sonya I was sorry she fell, she said she thought she was going to fall on me. I passed off  (having run a 70 sec leg, if only I hadn’t died!) to our anchor Joan Hunter (45) from Purcellville, VA. 

Somehow, Sonya swiftly regained her feet and exchanged with Terry Ballou (41). Joan brought us home in a new meet record of 4:23.73. again running approximately (63/64) Millrose ran a fine 4:25.86. I had no idea, but there was obviously a close battle for 3rd and 4th Fleet Feet 4:41.57 and Nike Central Park Track Club 4:41.59.
 
Post-race

After the race. we were interviewed on camera by the tall, handsome Dan O’Brien. He stated that he was 42 years old and retired from the sport, but admired the fact that we were out there running. We also had the opportunity to have a good “chat” with the Millrose girls.

We congratulated each other and agreed that we felt that the presence of both teams was good for women’s masters track and we can push ourselves to better times and greater achievements. The conversation ended with the promise to see each other at Indoor Nationals.
 
Other

The men’s race also looked exciting, and I believe that all the men’s teams ran faster than last year too. We saw lots of our  men and women master track friends and Robert Thomas and Chuck Shields were kind enough to take pictures of us to commemorate the evening.
 
We are grateful to Mary and Mark Cleary for their work in providing this opportunity.
Here’s my Q&A with Terry of the Millrose AA:

Masterstrack.com: Tell me about your team members — ages, occupations, number of kids, cats and dogs and where y’all live.

Terry Ballou: My Millrose AA teammates are as follows: Rebecca Connolly, age 42, married, 2 kids, lives outside of Boston, MA. Becky is an Investing Partner at Fairview Capital, a private equity firm; Janice Reid, 40, from the Bronx, NY, is a sales manager; Sonya Badger, 41, an administrative assistant, from Queens, NY;  and myself, Terry Ballou, 41, Staten Island, NY.

I have 9-year-old twins and a 4-year-old, and I am currently a stay-at-home mom. I’m a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and my husband is a detective with NYPD’s Counter Terrorism Unit (he’s so supportive of me, he deserves a shout-out).

Becky and I ran together at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and I met Janice and Sonya doing indoor meets in NYC about 3 years ago. Janice and I also competed at the Olympic Trials last summer in the masters exhibition 200 meter race.

How did you all get to New York, and where did you stay? Any adventures getting there?

Since three of us are from the boroughs of NYC, we didn’t have to worry about traveling, we just drove into Manhattan that afternoon and met up at 4PM. Rebecca (Becky), flew in that morning from Boston and had no problems with her one hour flight.  Her hotel (the Affinia) was where we had to pick up our credentials, so it worked out quite well.

At MSG, how was your team treated?  Where did you warm up? Did meet officials give you the same treatment as the elites?

Getting our credentials was a breeze, very well-organized and no line. In the hotel lobby, we were starstruck when we saw the elite throwers mulling around (I recognized Reese Hoffa and Chris Cantwell immediately). The lobby was abuzz with runners and the adrenaline started pumping immediately! It was very exciting.

We arrived at MSG about 4:45 PM and went right in, with no difficulty. Sonya, Janice and I have all raced here before (in the Colgate Women’s Games), so we were very familiar with the limited warmup area and the track itself, which some people find daunting because of the tight turns and short distance.

Basically, the warmup area consists of the concrete hallways outside of the track. It was very crowded with college, high school, elite, and masters runners, so it was kind of tricky getting a good warmup in. Our warmup was basically a shuffle, as we threaded our way through the crowds from one end of the hallway to the other.

However, there was some space at the end of one hallway where we could do some good 30-meter stride-outs. There was a small area that was reserved for the elite runners, which consisted of two rubberized strips approximately 60 meters long. It didn’t bother me that we weren’t allowed to enter here, especially because the sprinters really needed this area to do their accelerations. They were moving so fast; it would’ve been downright dangerous to mix them in with everyone else. And it was fun to watch the professionals warm up.

As far as treatment from the race officials, it was strictly businesslike and efficient. We were the second event, right after the women’s racewalk. They called our race, and we reported to the corral. We were given about a minute or two to change into our spikes, and then we entered the track. Everyone was polite, but firm. I still had one shoe off when they moved us out to the track. You had to move quickly! No rest for the weary. Or the nervous.

Describe everyone’s leg in detail. Splits available?

Now to the race itself: it started out horribly, thanks to a bumbled start. Our lead runner was Janice Reid, and she took her position on the line with three other women (MSG is only 4 lanes, so the officials put 4 teams on the line, and the remaining two teams were staggered up ahead, on the outside; everyone cut over after about 1/4  lap).

As the starter called “on your mark,” everyone got to the line; at “get set,” two women were moving around, very jumpy. It
was so blatant, that I thought for sure the starter would call everyone back to re-set. Instead, the gun went off, and at least one woman had jumped it. Janice, who had been expecting the field to be called back, seemed frozen and got off to a terrible start.

Jane Brooker from Athena took the lead (although she tripped on the first lap and nearly stumbled), and Janice moved quickly into second. Janice came through in 65 seconds (these splits aren’t exact, although they were timed — it was difficult because each leg was positioned at a different point on the track, making it almost impossible to get an accurate split for everyone) and handed off to Becky Connolly.

Becky maintained second for us, and it was clear at this point that it was going to be a two-team race for first. Becky ran a solid 66.7, and handed off to Sonya Badger, approximately 2-3 seconds behind Athena. From the way Athena positioned their runners, we knew this was where we really needed to move up if we had any chance of winning. 

My teammate Sonya was running well and making up ground with every stride; my heart was pounding as the realization that we actually had a shot at winning this hit me.  As Sonya came around the final curve, she started to pull abreast of Athena’s third runner (Julie Hayden) and it was then that disaster struck.

It seemed that Sonya caught her spike, and she suddenly lost her balance, tripped, and fell onto the track, going over the rail. Time just seemed to stop; but when I looked at her face, I knew she was going to get back up. Amazingly, she still had the baton in her hand, and she picked herself up and ran the remaining 30-40 meters to me as hard as she could, although she was clearly shaken.

I couldn’t see it then, but she had a pretty nice-sized abrasion on her knee and shin. Her split, with the fall, was just under 70 seconds; we figured afterwards that her fall cost about 3-4 seconds. As she ran up to me, I said to her, “it’s OK, it’s OK,” and she said “I’m sorry.”

I grabbed the baton and took off, hoping I could make up some time and keep us in the game. Their anchor, Joan Hunter,  just had too much of a lead for me to catch her, and we finished just a shade over two seconds behind them. My split was 62.5 or thereabouts.

Athena finished in 4:23.73; we clocked 4:25.86. Had Sonya not taken that fall, it would have been one hell of a race. As it was, even with the fall, our team still broke the old masters record of 4:27.28 that Athena had set back in 2007. So while we were undeniably heartbroken that we did not get the win, we were very proud of Sonya for getting up and continuing on, and very satisfied with how we all performed.

Afterward or before, did you chat with any of the elite open entrants?  What was said?

Watching the elites was just amazing. Before his race, we saw Bernard Lagat and he was so gracious, stopping to talk briefly and even taking pictures with us. After his race, while doing his victory lap, he stopped to give us an autograph.

We also saw Kara Goucher after her race, and she was kind enough to take a picture with us and even asked us about our race. She is a total class act. Without a doubt, Lagat’s race was the highlight of the evening. Even though Janice, Sonya and I all had to compete the next morning at the finals for the Colgate Women’s games (also at MSG), we decided to stay and watch his race (which went off a bit late, around 10:30). It was completely worth it — the crowd was electric and the race was phenomenal. Well worth the wait.

When you got home, what reactions did you get from friends, family and co-workers?

I was lucky enough to have my parents come down from New Hampshire to watch the race. My father was my high school coach (he is still coaching, at Kennett HS in Conway, NH, nearly 30 years), so he always gives me good advice and calms my nerves.  My mother is my biggest cheerleader, and it was great to have her there as well.

They were beyond thrilled and loved every minute of all the races. My husband, who stayed behind to watch our three boys, was very happy when I phoned him from MSG with the news. He has always been supersupportive of me and my running, and I couldn’t do it without him.

Sonya’s family was there as well. She has a huge family and they come from all over NYC and even the country to see her run. Her aunt, Murna Williams  and uncle, Cete Gillman, two of our coaches, were there. They wouldn’t have missed the race for the world. Janice had a couple of cousins come to cheer her on, so we really had a great cheering section.

Also, since Millrose AA is NYC-based, we had many members of the team there to support us as well, including long-time Millrose coach John Garlepp. Unfortunately, Becky’s husband was on a skiing trip, so he was unable to make it, but he is also a great supporter of our running, and I know he was thrilled that she was there.

Any advice
for masters who compete there? 

As to advice for masters runners who want to run there, I say by all means put a team together and go for it. Running in the Millrose games is truly an honor. Seeing such great competitors and track legends up close is inspirational. And showcasing the masters can do nothing but bolster our sport. Lastly, I want to say congrats to all the masters teams who competed. We show the world that we can be as fiercely competitive in our 40s and beyond as we were in our heydays.