By Glenn Stewart
Big Turn-Out of The Green at the First GP race of 2014
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| The Sub Size Boys |
The 2014 USATF-NE Grand Prix season kicked off as it has the last few years with a trip out to Amherst MA for the Jones 10 Miler. Thoughts on this race are mixed - it’s a long way to go, the course is challenging in the best of conditions and coming as it does in the tail of winter, conditions are rarely ideal. But it’s a great test of your early season fitness and Boston readiness – so I guess that’s why it keeps getting voted into the series and it does bring out the big guns from the clubs.
We had 47 Green Teamers toe the line – and perfect attendance!
Yesterday conditions were better than usual. It was very similar to last year, without the snow flurries. This year’s course was slightly changed with a new start and finish, but the murderous hills and the dirt road remain. The dirt road was so-so this year (as opposed to horrible in years past). The first mile or so was slush and muck and the last half mile solid slippery ice.
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| Andrew Downey |
However the conditions were to Mr Downey’s liking – as he channeled his inner beast and sliced an amazing four plus minutes off his 2013 time to be the first in a GLRR singlet across the line in 56:04!! In what this observer considers an upset, Andrew edged out James (The Kid) Sullivan by 7s. And James was not loafing – he posted a 56:21, which was a second faster than his 2013 breakout performance. Next in line was James’ Boston training partner Bash Zaganjori in 57:47. Also under the one hour (6 minute pace) mark was Jason Bui in 59:52. Rounding out the top five for our Men’s Open team was master runner Mike Girouard in 1:00:10. That propelled the team to a ninth place finish. Although two of the teams ahead of us were from New York – and last I looked they are not in the USATF-NE chapter. So hopefully that gives us seventh in the GP standings.
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| Melissa Scott |
On the ladies side, they were led to the finish by new member Melissa Scott who posted a 1:09:08. Next was master (soon to be senior) Trish Bourne 70s back at 1:10:18 and just edging out Jill Trotter was relatively new member (new to the GP series) Katie Gessler in 1:11:03 to round out the Women’s Open team. The ladies placed eight.
For the Ladies Masters team, the leader for the aforementioned Trish and followed by the also aforementioned Jill Trotter who crossed the line in 1:11:05 and our senior leader Liane Pancoast in 1:20:40. That placed them seventh.
For the Men’s Masters team it was support from the old dudes that did most of the work. The boys were led by Mike G, with help from seniors EJ Hrynowski in 1:01:11 and Jim Garcia in 1:04:09. And scoring all the way down from the Veteran’s division was The National Veteran Runner of 2013 – Bill Dixon in 1:05:28 (which age graded would have beaten the race winner by 47 seconds!). The only other master runner along with Mike to score was new man Shawn Conway (brought to the fold by Mike – thanks!) finishing in 1:03:21. That placed the Men’s Masters at fifth.
With all that talent scoring down for the guys you’d expect the Men’s Seniors team would be way up the standings and you’d be right. They bested all but one team. It was EJ, then Jim and Bill and rounded out by another Vet, Chip Mann in 1:10:04 and Paul Hadley in 1:10:29 to grab second place. For the Women’s Seniors, they were led as always (at least until the next race) by Liane and followed by Lynn Graham in 1:23:14 and Linda McCarthy in 1:40:07 to finish in sixth place. At the next race Trish moves to the senior ranks to give Liane some needed support.
Finally in the Men’s Veterans division – the Green Team dominated!! The team won by almost 16 minutes. Chip pointed out on Facebook that even if took away the other worldly performance of Bill Dixon, the team still would have won. Led by Bill and Chip – who also went 1-2 in the individual scoring, they were followed by Tom Peters in 1:12:14.
The five year age group breakdown was not available when this was written – a couple of green teamers may have grabbed awards – and for sure some scored individual GP points. When that becomes available you can see it at: http://www.usatfne.org/road/gp.html.
All in all – it was another fine day for the Green – on to New Bedford!
