Train High, Race Low. With winners coming down to the flatlands from Alamosa, that seems to be a pretty good formula. Or just be fast as the wind like Joe Moore of Minneapolis. Rumors were spreading quicker than Joe’s 1:06:52 win in the half. Who is this guy? Have you heard he is also a master? But he only looks 29! I caught up with Joe at the awards ceremony and he reminded me that he used to run for the Kansas City Smoke, our USATF Elite Development Club to the South, and yes, he’s only 28.
The weather wasn’t as bad as it could have been but wasn’t too good either. The real heat and the rain held off, but it was windy and humid. Made everyone’s accomplishment all the more impressive.
The increase in prize money drew some serious talent from outside of the area this year. Marathon winner Mario Macias of Alamosa, CO clocked 2:21:56 despite being reduced to a shuffle in the final stages. The fastest time in many years, I hope this trend continues, raises the bar considerably for the Good Mates.
Women’s Half Marathon winner Angie Sandy, also from Alamosa, is the wife of former Team Nebraska mate Ben Sandy. Ben and Angie are living in the rarefied air and training full time, living every runners dream. I’ll see Ben again at next month’s Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth.
I’ll do some digging in the results for a final count but we had a whole host of our Omaha Endurance Group compete yesterday. Thanks to Enita Larsen for hosting the annual post race bash, lots of good stories about a difficult day.
We had 41 Team Nebraska runners in the combined races yesterday. The Lincoln Marathon is our Major Sponsor and we are privileged and proud to be associated with Nancy, Gary, the staff and the city.
In the marathon we had 6 men in the top 15 and 5 women in the top 15. In the half we had 9 men in the top 20, our lone entrant in the women’s half was 3rd. Great representation to be sure.
Myth buster. I’ve been told that you can run a marathon, or half marathon, “for fun” or “have fun” while you are doing it, something I’ve never accepted. Linda & I did just that yesterday, using the half as our final long run going into this coming Saturday’s 25K National Championships. Of the 10,000 entrants in the race, we were the only 2 actually having “fun”. We started out at 10:00 pace and worked our way slowly through the 9s and ended up averaging 8:30. Every single person we saw was just as serious and was working just as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen in any race.
It was a blast to see so many of our friends during the race. And it was cool too to notice the volunteers and cheer squads and hoopla, something you do largely miss when in the zone of utter concentration.
How about Ron Olsen and Anne Medeiros? Ron turned in a 4:13 at age 65 and Anne ran 4:36 at age 68. Catch them if you can!
Aaron Carrizales was our first finisher in the marathon.
Cameron Cummings, last year’s champion, would follow next.
James McGown, our 2 time USA Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier, still running well at age 37.
And young Kyle Custer making his debut at 26.2 a good one.
Dustin Llewellyn (center) and Jeff Nielsen (left) would be the next two across the line. Brian Wandzilak (right) had a tougher 2nd half of the race. This example of teamwork is a hallmark of Team Nebraska!
Ricky Trevino is also part of our younger corps of distance men.
Meghan Schneider led the women for Team Nebraska. At 23 years young, her 3:10 is just the tip of her potential at the marathon.
Haleigh Riggle is just 22 and her time of 3:17 also shows a lot of promise. Jen Viehrig is also pictured.
At 42, Natalie Jetensky is one of the toughest and most consistent runners on the club. Her 3:18 was good enough for 12th overall.
46 year old Stacy Shaw is also one heck of a masters runner, she ran 3:20 for 15th overall.
Rounding out our top masters, CeCe Carson, age 43, made her Team Nebraska debut a successful one running 3:26 fpr 23rd overall.
Worth noting that Roxi Erickson would have been right up at the top had she been in the race. Roxi was hit by a truck while riding her bike earlier in the week and had internal bleeding. We wish her a speedy recovery and return to the roads.
Tomorrow, some photos of our half marathon studs. All pictures courtesy of Amy and Justin Mollak.
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