Sonja (left) and Kris are on W45 American record roll.
In a masters rarity, two women in the same age group set American records at almost the same distance over the weekend. In San Francisco, Kris Paaso went sub-5 in the W45 mile with a fabulous 4:56.28, crushing the listed AR of 5:07.76 by Jeanne Lasee-Johnson in 2002. (See results.) In Gainesville, Florida, Sonja Friend-Uhl took an even bigger bite off the listed 1500-meter AR, clocking 4:29.61. (See results.) The listed record is 4:43.21 by Joan Nesbit-Mabe in 2007. And guess what distance they’ll run at the Olympic Trials masters exhibition? The 1500. Neither is signed up yet, but Kris says she plans to enter the Eugene event. And via Facebook, Sonja said she will too, adding: “I consider Kris a friend and am very happy for her for her personal racing success. U.S. Masters women overall are a force to reckon with on the world stage. I am proud to be a part of the Masters Track family!”
Led by W50 sprinter Maryvonne Icarre of France, with world records in the 200 and 400, Europeans set a dozen WRs over the weekend at the European Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Ancona, Italy. (Here’s a list.) Maryvonne clocked 25.94 in the deuce, smashing Yank Joy Upshaw’s listed record of 26.24, and 60.17 in the 4, lowering Brit Caroline Powell’s listed WR of 61.29. She’s a mother of two who teaches English and took a 22-year track break from age 15 to 37. Germany, as usual, dominated the medals table. They won 102 golds, 84 silvers and 74 bronzes. Italy took second and the Brits were third. Nice job, all.
Maryvonne (left) races USA’s Emma McGowan at Lyon in W45 100. Emma won.
NAIA All-American Max Hampton of College of Idaho ran a great 10K PR on Friday, clocking 30:50.70 at San Francisco State’s Distance Carnival. Max’s 2015 season best was 32:40. One can only wonder what he thought about the man who finished 2 seconds ahead of him. Sean Wade, old enough to be his father, ran his fifth M50 world record of the year. (Results are here.) Distance great Pete Magill posted this on Facebook: “The man is definitely on a roll! Sean Wade just ran the Men’s 50-54 world best for 10,000m, with a 30:48.87. He’s now the fastest-ever age 50+ runner on the track from 1 mile to 10,000m. Wow. Just wow.” So now we can start using the Henry Rono analogy.
Sean Wade of Kenyan Way, his coaching gig, pulled a Rono (also Kenyan).
Here’s a Wikimedia reminder of Henry’s heyday:
The peak of Rono’s running career was the 1978 season. In a span of only 81 days, he broke four world records: 10,000 m (27:22.5), the 5000 metres (13:08.4), the 3000 metres steeplechase (8:05.4), and the 3000 metres (7:32.1); an achievement unparalleled in the history of distance running.
We could argue Sean’s achievement rivals Henry’s. Sean’s five WRs came in 56 days — from Feb. 6 to April 1. No fooling. All Sean needs is a steeple to complete the comparison.
Here are the Age-Graded marks for Sean’s M50 records:
1500 (indoors) in 4:07.01 is worth 3:35.7 for open (20-30) class.
Mile (indoors) in 4:23.07 is worth 3:50.1.
3000 (indoors) in 8:43.63 is worth 7:49.
5000 in 14:52.92 is worth 13:19.
10,000 in 30:48.87 is worth 27:34.
Sean is a few minutes off the 2016 Olympic Trials qualifying standards for the 5K and 10K, but he’d make the women’s fields:
Men
5000m 13:28.00 (24–2)
10K 28:15.00 (24–1)
Women:
5000m 15:25.00 (24-2)
10K 32:25.00 (24-1)
Results from Sean’s heat:
Section 2
1 Gabe Arias-Sheridan (SO)St. Mary’s (Cal.) 30:17.19
2 Russell Brown (SR)St. Mary (Kan.) 30:28.13
3 Wil Norris (SR)Arkansas State 30:28.47
4 Jeremy Porter (SO)Azusa Pacific 30:28.82
5 Cody Drisko (SO)Azusa Pacific 30:30.59
6 Pat Letz (SO)Nebraska 30:38.40
7 Josh Spooner (SO)St. Mary’s (Cal.) 30:38.41
8 Edward Chance (FR)St. Mary’s (Cal.) 30:39.32
9 Matt Seidel (SO)Seattle U. 30:45.04
10 James Withers (FR)Utah State 30:45.16
11 Abdul Hamid (SO)American River 30:48.11
12 Rogan Meza (SR)Unattached 30:48.54 13 Sean Wade Kenyan Way 30:48.87 WR M50-54
14 Max Hampton (SR) College of Idaho 30:50.70
15 Turner Wiley (SR)Seattle Pacific 30:53.09
16 Benji Preciado (JR)San Francisco St. 31:00.55
17 Steven Velarde (FR)Chico State 31:01.65
18 Alejandro Garcia (JR)Chadron State 31:06.47
19 Baxter Arguinchona (SR)Seattle U. 31:10.01
20 Dylan Stansbury (JR)Chadron State 31:10.47
21 Caleb Diaz (JR)Southern Oregon 31:16.82
22 Cooper Gill (SO)Fresno State 31:23.32
23 Ricardo Banuelos (FR)Allen County CC 31:24.91
24 Derek Gibson (SR)Alaska Anchorage 31:26.64
25 Andrew Cobourn (JR)Chico State 31:29.54
26 Omar Padilla (SR)Humboldt State 31:36.49
27 Jonathan BriskmanStrawberry Cyn 31:43.18
28 Yonny Castillo (SR)Willamette 32:01.88
29 Ben Monk (SO)Seattle U. 32:19.04
30 Will Rial (SR)Run Fast 32:26.19
31 Kenny Trejo (JR)San Francisco St. 32:39.76
–Chris Montgomery (JR)Pittsburgh DNF
Max Hampton, you now have something to tell your grandkids about.
For the past dozen years — since turning 50 — I’ve been a regular at the Pasadena Senior Games — aka the California Senior Games. An eternal presence was Cynthia Rosedale, who has helped her friend Christel Donley put on a first-class track meet at Caltech. Thursday I learned that Cynthia had died of cancer. (Pasadena Weekly listed her age as 64.) I’m bummed. Cynthia did a lot to keep the meet going (overcoming local neighbors’ opposition because of noise). She passed away Tuesday, and the local paper has a good profile.Jim Hanley also sent an update: “If you have not heard the news already, it is my sad task to announce that Cynthia Rosedale passed away early this week from complications of the cancer that she so bravely fought. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 10, 2016 at the Salem Lutheran Church in Glendale. The address is 1211 Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91202. The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Pasadena Senior Games c/o the Pasadena Senior Center.”
My Seattle friend Dave Ortman turned 63 this week, and he’s celebrating by telling a dramatic story about heart failure and comeback success. Dave begins: “In July 2013, I won the National Senior Games (Cleveland/Berea) 400m in the M60 world leading time of 56.78. Nineteen months later, on February 3, 2015 (and 10 days before I was scheduled to join a Syracuse Chargers Track Club M60+ 4×4 Relay at the Millrose Games in New York City), I was hauled off by ambulance due to a heart attack. A heart attack is a real false start. In fact you don’t even get to get in the blocks.” He says he’s had episodes of chest, neck and jaw pain that he suspected was “inactive angina.” After many details, he concludes: “I know several other masters athletes who have problems with their tickers. Perhaps we all should be wearing T-shirts that say, “I (heart) Track and Field. Not Dead, Yet!” Read his story. It’ll tug at your heartstrings.Take it 10 minutes before the procedure, and this will allow you to reduce tension during the https://tittlelawfirm.com/buy-ativan/ waiting period for pain or trouble.
Wayne sprinting 10 years ago. He’s not much slower now.
Wayne Bennett of Texas turns 80 in October, but he won a wind-aided “200 Meter Masters” race Saturday in 20.91 seconds. Yes, he did. But meet results left out a word: handicap. (His race distance was about 129 meters.) Wayne reports: “At the University of Texas Arlington Bobby Lane Relays last Saturday, we ran an age-graded 200, a real crowd-pleaser.” He told the ages of other entrants: Lindy Raney 53, Reggie Garner 55, Marcus Santi 44, Ed Jones 70, Jeff Brower 56, Ed Gish 61 and John Dolan 63. “Distances run were determined by multiplying the age-graded factor times 200. We have done this several times over the years and gives us the opportunity to show the college kids and their parents what staying in shape and training can do for you. We open a lot of eyes about aging.” Indeed, and how cool to see a 79-year-old outleg a guy, 53, even with a starting point closer to the finish.
The 17th annual Front Runners New York Indoor Track Meet at the Armory track in New York had a lot of masters, including sprinters and middle-distance runners. One 4×200 relay team called itself Three Geezers and a Baby. But buried in the results was a 1500 in 5:07.11. Nice run for a 70-year-old. Results show Gary Patton pulverized the listed M70 American record of 5:27.4 by Austin Newman in 1986. (The world record is 5:03.79 from 2010.) Gary was profiled in Runner’s World by Mike Tymn in 2014. Credits his success to cutting out “junk” miles. His latest metric mile was a gem.
Geoff Power, our aptly named Canadian scientist friend, shared his team’s latest research on the oldest masters tracksters. Geoff writes: “Participants consisted of 29 elderly males and females with no known neurological, musculoskeletal, metabolic or cardiovascular health conditions. The Masters Athletes consisted of track and field athletes ranked in the top 4 of their respective events at the world masters championships (including 7 current world record holders).Event specialties ranged from sprint and power events to middle and long distance running events (800m up to marathon).” Conclusions: “World champion masters athletes in their 9th decade of life had a greater number of surviving motor units, reduced collateral reinnervation, better preservation of neuromuscular transmission stability and hence better preservation of excitable muscle mass as compared with age-matched controls.”
Names aren’t given for privacy sake, but here’s data on the geezer guinea pigs.
Sean Wade ran a 5000 Friday at Rice University in Houston and found himself “a little shocked” by his time, he says. No wonder. At age 50, he lowered the world age-group record to 14:52.92, just nipping the listed WR of 14:53.2 by Britain’s David Martin Rees in 2003. The listed American record is 15:41.67 by Mike Heffernan in 1991, but Pete Magill ran 15:06.8 just before turning 51. Sean said he was just trying to break 15, but “had a great 1200 racing the college kids.” On the Age-Graded Tables, his 14:52.9 is worth a 13:01 for an open run. Insane! The meet should be kosher for record consideration under its NCAA sanction. It was the 34th Annual Victor Lopez Classic. See his results here. So this is Sean’s fourth WR of 2016, after three indoor marks — 1500, mile and 3000. Don’t stop! Read the rest of this post »
On March 20, the British Masters Athletics Federation posted the official IAAF video of the men’s masters 800 at Portland. (See it here.) On Thursday, I was sent the official women’s 800 race video. So I uploaded the 700-meg file to YouTube. Even though (as Tom Phillips says) IAAF and WMA did a poor job of showcasing the events live (when it would have helped), at least they did a good job with video editing. A great souvenir for the entrants and promo for masters track. Yes, even you might compete at worlds!
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
