Posted April 28, 2008

Cornell Stephenson made a return trip to Puerto Rico in 2007 after winning four medals (including two relay golds) at the 2003 world masters championships there.

Four years ago, Cornell Stephenson of Los Angeles helped set an M40 world record in the 4×100, joining Speedwest teammates Frank Strong, Kettrell Berry and Willie Gault in a 42.20 clocking at the Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, California.

At the 2003 Penn Relays, he had been runner-up in the M40 100 with an 11.40. That summer culminated with gold medals at the Puerto Rico world masters championships in the 4×100 and 4×400. Cornell also took silver in the 100 and bronze in the 200 at worlds.

In addition, Cornell claims an M40 masters best of 48.94 in the 400 and a world record in the distance medley relay.

Not bad. Plenty to write home about.

But unlike any other masters track athlete in history, Cornell has done more than just recount his favorite meets and feats. He wrote a novel – 212 pages including an index and seven pages of black-and-white photos.

“That Masterful Season,” self-published this year under the Xlibris imprint, is the first literary work of fiction to make masters track and field its centerpiece.

Author Cornell Mark Stephenson, a middle school coach and teacher, says many people had enjoyed his memoirs of worlds, Penn and the various vacations associated with masters meets and encouraged him to write a book. “Once the feeling came from within,” he told me recently, “I gave it my best shot.”

The plot is simple: Eight M40 or M45 elite sprint buddies – four on the West Coast and four on the East – prepare for Penn, compete at the 2003 Relays, juggle work and personal lives and finish up (most of them) at the 15th World Masters Athletics Championships in Carolina, Puerto Rico, in July 2003.  It’s a quick read – I finished its 45 bite-sized chapters in two sittings.

Early on, I applauded Cornell on how he nailed the complicated lives of masters athletes – who fight daily battles to balance jobs, family duties and training sessions. Many sports novels focus on the young and care-free, certainly not athletes fretting about expanding their sales lines or navigating office politics.

I didn’t expect Hemingway or Steinbeck, but Cornell managed to hold my attention and draw me into his characters and their challenges. It’s written in the third person, however, and its constantly shifting scenes – like a time-shifting Hollywood movie with an ensemble cast – gets confusing at times. (Who is Greg again? What was Bernard up to last?)

But aside from the imaginary drama of midcareer men balancing the demands of track, family and work is this intriguing subtext:

Everyone in the book was inspired by a living, breathing person.

So here’s why I really paid attention:

Cornell is shown leading off the gold-medal American 4x400 relay at 2003 worlds with a 48.9-second leg.

How much of M45 character Dr. Beree Riggins — an East Coast heart surgeon in the book — is drawn from true-life cardiothoracic surgeon Ray Blackwell of Delaware?

How much of M40 character Alan Simpson — whose cherished wife, Linda, is undergoing chemotherapy — is true-life star Sal Allah, whose beloved wife, Lynn, died of breast cancer in 2005?

How much of M40 character Greg Jackson of Los Angeles – with an ex-wife and a teen-age daughter – was San Diego’s Kettrell Berry, who has an ex-wife and track-star teen daughter?

Even M55 superstar Bill Collins of Houston, M40 hurdle champion Darnell Gatling and USA Team Manager Sandy Pashkin have cameos in “That Masterful Season.”  In the novel, the team manager at Puerto Rico is Sheila Proctor, and a 400 hurdler on the American 4×4 team is Donnie Garrison.

And take one guess who this is:

“It was finally time to start the 400 finals for the 50-54 division. The race was highly anticipated due to the presence of Houston native Colin Williams who at one time or another owned a dozen different masters records from the 100 to the 400 as well as both sprint relays.”

Even foreign athletes get their moment in Cornell’s sun. The novel mentions “current world record holder (at 400) Pietro Franconi” of Italy. Of course, this is a tip of the hat to real-life M40 WR man: Enrico Saraceni of Italy (who didn’t run at Puerto Rico, by the way.)

And I doubt the book’s Tri-state Allstars are anything but Sprint Force America.

Cornell doesn’t deny the obvious, telling me: “All of the main characters are based on combinations of masters competitors whom I’ve admired, but with fictional lives.”

Therein lies the rub. How do you build a gripping novel – which normally includes bad guys, good guys and dicey situations – when the key characters are based on real people (and respected friends)?  You can’t.

Although I appreciate the way Cornell depicts the lives of elite masters sprinters, the book’s tone is unrelentingly optimistic. Setbacks are minor, conflicts few. Just about everyone runs a 50-flat quarter, wins a medal or sets a record, and the main characters are all solid citizens. How dull.

Although I appreciated Cornell’s careful sketching of masters circuit details (slipped blocks, dropped batons, hamstring tweaks, etc.), we never really get into anyone’s head. The book reads like a screenplay, with exhaustive details (sweatsuit colors, auto makes, shoe brands) carefully sprinkled throughout. But instead of learning what the characters feel, we only hear what they say. Dialog is essential to a good screenplay, but inner conversations are lacking in “That Masterful Season.”

I asked Cornell if he’d ever written for movies, and he replied: “I’ve never written a screenplay, but this idea actually started out as one. However, that takes a lot of experience and a book can always be adapted into a screenplay.”

Further, he told me: “The initial inspiration stemmed from witnessing Sprint Force America set the 4×400 record in 2001 and feeling that we had enough talent on the West Coast to defeat them once we turned 40 for the 2003 season.”

Besides offering some bad guys, “That Masterful Season” could have picked a prime protagonist. Cornell almost does that with Marc Minor, a single guy with feisty-girlfriend problems. Marc appears in the opening and closing chapters. Marc shares elements of Cornell’s own life story.

Cornell, who describes himself as “a single father with a 7-year-old son who will be faster than I was,” registered for my masterstrack.com Forum on March 19 with a familiar handle. On this message board, he goes by marcminor.

Sex is suggested at various points in the book, but no raunchy details. And guess which character has the most fun?

On page 121: “Marc was ecstatic and pulled Diane into bed with him and slowly caressed her loveliness. He told her how inspired he’d be with her in the stands supporting him. Diane was very thrilled to see Marc’s reaction and showed it with a long hot kiss. Together they displayed their affection for one another late into the warm summer night.”

Aw, Cornell. Don’t stop now!

A blurb written to promote the book says, “ ‘That Masterful Season’ ” reads as fast as its characters run but doesn’t feel rushed. It will move and inspire you to do what truly brings joy.”

That’s nice, but novels generally don’t set out to inspire true-joy-seeking. They’re supposed to whisk you into an invented world and excite your imagination.

“That Masterful Season,” while creative in its situations and honest in its depictions, ends up tripping, uninspired, at the finish line.

Jack Greenwood, 82, was surprised to learn that someone had broken his M50 world record in the 400 hurdles. Not because he thought the record was that great, but because he didn’t know anyone was still running the event. Tonight I called Jack at home in mile-high Aurora, Colorado (his number is listed in the 1998 USATF membership directory), and he was a delight. “By golly, that’s all right,” he said of Howard Moscrop’s 57.68 to beat Jack’s 58.1 from 1976. “I wish him good luck, and I’d like him to see if he could lower it some more. It’s fine with me.” Jack says he hasn’t gotten National Masters News in five years, and has no Internet access at home, so he wasn’t aware that the event was still being contested.

Read the rest of this post »

The king is dead. Long live the king. That’s my reaction to news from across the Pond that after 32 years, Jack Greenwood’s untouchable M50 world record in the 400-meter hurdles has fallen. A British-based masters mole sent me the link to this report on Howard Moscrop’s latest eye-opener. A week ago, Howard at age 50 ran the 400s in 57.68 — admirable even as a flat-400 time. And he told reporter Gareth Moorhouse: “I think I can knock a little bit more off the time. If the weather conditions are favourable I think I can go under 57 seconds.” Incredible. A masters world champion, Howard broke Greenwood’s WR of 58.1 set July 3, 1976, in Gresham, Oregon. Howard’s meet results were here.

Read the rest of this post »

Jeff Laynes, 37, improved his season best for the 100 by running a legal 10.31 Saturday at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley. He also dropped a wind-aided deuce of 20.92. Aaron Thigpen, 43, clocked a legal 10.93 in the prelims. And in the 110 hurdles (42-inch variety), Peter Grimes posted a nifty 16.21. Not bad for someone nearly 50 years old! The 49-year-old single-age record for the 42-inch barriers is listed as 17.0 by Jack Greenwood in 1975.

Read the rest of this post »

How often do we see 47-year-olds within spitting distance of Tyson Gay in a sprint race? Like once in history. In the Mt. SAC Relays photo gallery posted here, Willie is shown valiantly pursuing IAAF world sprint champion Tyson on the anchor leg of the 4×100 relay. In the masters sprints at Mt. SAC, Aaron Thigpen won twice, Houston’s Horace Grant upset Nolan Shaheed in the 800 and Mary Thane made her trip from Montana a winning one in the women’s 800. My original Mt. SAC report is here.

Jearl Miles-Clark, the four-time Olympian, teamed with Charmaine Roberts, Renee Henderson and Jane Brooker at Penn on Friday to lower the W40 world record in the 4×400. Running as East Coast Masters, the quartet anchored by Jearl ran 3:56.27 against some men’s teams. The listed W40 WR is 3:57.28 by an Aussie team at the 2001 Brisbane world masters championships. And in the same race apparently, the Sprint Force America M70 team of Larry Colbert, Mack Stewart, Rich Rizzo and Bob Lida clocked 4:24.83 to beat the listed world age-group record of 4:31.07 by a German foursome at the 2006 European masters championships in Poznan, Poland.

Read the rest of this post »

Meanwhile in Des Moines, Iowa, masters ran the 800 Friday and mile today in bitterly cold and windy weather at the Drake Relays. M45 John Hinton, traveling from North Carolina, easily won the masters mile in 4:26.87 — 10 seconds off the listed WR of 4:16.75 by New Zealand’s David Sirl. John needs a rabbit, I guess. The masters 800 was won by David Nash in 2:03.20. David is 40 and lives in Iowa, I think.

Read the rest of this post »

Southwest Sprinters TC won the featured masters 4×400 at Penn today, and I mean featured. Unlike some open invitationals than shunt the masters to the earliest hour of the meet, the M40 4×4 took place in the primest of prime time — in front of 50,000 fans right after Allyson Felix’s team won the women’s 4×100 and right before the men’s featured 4×100 where seven teams (including one with Tyson Gay) broke 40 seconds. Cool. Later, Joe Summerlin of the Dallas Masters TC won the geezer 100 (75 and over) in 14.92. Joe is 76. Amid all this, the Houston Chronicle reported that Bill Collins’ winning 11.44 in the M55 100 yesterday at Penn was a WR. Not so. Long story.

Read the rest of this post »

FerringUSA’s sponsorship of Sprint Force America has already paid off. The M70 SFA team of Gary Sims, Wayne Bennett, Larry Colbert and Bob Lida clocked a sensational 51.96 today in the 4×100 relay at Penn to smash the listed age-group world record of 53.03 by Germany at the 2005 San Sebastian world meet. (The event is listed as M60, but all the runners for SFA are over 70.) The M50 4×1 also must have been sensational, with Californian Marty Krulee holding off (or overtaking) Texan Bill Collins on the anchor as Sprint Force America beat Houston Elite 46.12 to 46.16 in SFA’s first foray under the Euflexxa banner. Later, Collins and Lida won their age-groups 100s.

Read the rest of this post »

American masters needn’t worry about being drug-tested at domestic meets. USATF has no budget for it. But if lightning strikes while you’re at a WMA world or European masters meet, and you’re asked to relieve yourself in a labeled bottle, it’s good to know what’s kosher. So World Masters Athletics has teamed with an outfit that lists banned substances on the WADA list. Stan Perkins, the Aussie who acts as WMA drug czar, writes about the proMASTERs-FINDEX, and says: “We are confident the list will prove beneficial to Masters Athletes’ and coaches.”

Read the rest of this post »