Jim in high school.
Organizers of the Jim Ryun Festival of Miles have shared a list of masters men expected to compete. It’s stunning — among the best fields ever assembled. Entered are record-holders and world-class runners
Christian Cushing-Murray, Brad Barton, Tim Gore, Ahrlin Bauman, Peter Magill, Hector Hernandez, John Gardiner, Ron Kochanowicz, Ray Knerr, Jim Sorensen, David Allison, Ciro Melendez, Jayson Fultz and
Greg Houlgate. Meanwhile,
Paul Greer of the San Diego TC has unveiled the event page for the Festival on June 5.
See it here on Facebook.
The flyer for the meet also indicates 16 races are planned (4×4, naturally). The masters men’s race is for anyone under 5 minutes, and the masters women’s race is for top 12 entrants. One is
Chris Gentile, who’s been doing speed work lately with 400s and 800s in competition. If you’re late to the party, here’s
my recent interview with Jim. I’ll be covering it.
14 Responses
There’s a lot to like about this event, including the schedule: 7:50 PM for the masters women and 8:00 PM for the masters men. Nice. In many other events the masters have been relegated to rather undesirable time slots, most often very early in the meet.
I do hope that some American masters records will be broken. Let me check for a minute …. OK, I don’t see any men’s marks that look vulnerable, but for the women I think that 5:07.76 for W45 and 5:42.51 for W55 might be approached.
i’ll have to kindly disagree with peter–why would you think tony young’s 45-49 record of 4:16 is NOT vulnerable? brad barton ran 4:16 indoors, and my 3:55 1500m last year easily converts to a 4:13. of course, you may have some inside information (like what i’ll reveal now): i am NOT in 4:16 shape, and don’t expect to be by june. can’t speak for brad though (didn’t he run a fast 3k indoors this year?). not sure how you could speak for either of us, though 🙂
Here is the list of confirmed women’s entrants. There may be some more further additions to the field, I’m told
Christine Gentile
Aeron Arlin Genet
Theresa Lowry
Maureen Friend
Kirsten Leech
Kelle Taylor
Claudette Groenendaal
Tania Fischer
Now that’s what I like, Ken, a strong women’s field. I’m starting to get enthused for masters T&F again, wish I could announce this one.
If she’s in top shape and has someone to pull her, I think that Aeron Arlin Genet can run 5:07.75 or so, which would beat the American mark for W45 by 0.01 sec. That mark has held up for 12 years; it’s about time someone knocked it down.
Or maybe, just maybe, someone else among these runners who’s in W45 can run in the 5:07 range. I guess we will see soon enough.
Really Peter? No vulnerable men’s records? The fastest two posted times are both sub WR times.
Watch out for Ray and M50
All right boy’s …..someone knock me off.
Hey Peter – thanks for the info re: W45 record! It’s in my reach, ran 4:48 earlier this year at the poly invite in the 1500 and would love to go for the 12 year standing time. Here’s to a great field and fast racing by the divas!!!
Thanks, Aeron. As someone who has competed in a variety of races over the years in the masters program, including the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 1 mile, 3000, 2 mile, and 5000, and given my experience in running the sprint medley and the mile relay as a collegian in the Penn Relays, I think I know a thing or two about racing.
My only advice for the mile run is to try to feel “full of yourself” with 660 yards to go, then start to let it out. The errors I made in the mile (I probably ran that distance about 18-20 times over the years) generally involved going out too hard in the first 2.5 laps. Regardless, Aeron, I wish you well in the big meet.
Shockingly fast W45 mile WR of 4:48- Yekaterina Podkpayeva. More impressive is the 4:05.44 1500 she ran a year later at age 46 which must be an equivalent of a 4:25 mile. This would be like a M45 running a 3:40 1500!
The American Women’s AR is soft in comparison especially since the world rankings have close to 40 women running 4:48 or faster in the 1500. Time for the W45 AR mile to fall.
What’s the women’s 50 record? Kelle Taylor ran well at Carlsbad and was formerly a sprinter, I believe.
Kelly, the W50 outdoor American record in the mile is 5:15.55 by the great Kathy Martin. That record has held up for 12 years, and thus bettering it during the Jim Ryun event would be quite an achievement.
Deena Kastor, 41, is a late entry to women’s masters mile at Ryun meet. She tweets:
.@JoshCox What was a mile 2 honor @jimryun is now a record attempt? I’ll go 4 it & treat viewers 2 record or a comical last 200meters!
Great read:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-four-minute-high-school-mile-50-years-later-1431643061
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