2006
2006
 Jeff Mann brings it home for Strider Victory! |
The race was supposed to be run in an ugly squall with The Strider’s fighting to stay in first place for the Grand Prix Championship. Instead the day dawned cool and sunny. Fletcher informed me that our usually infallible leader (Thom) had forgotten that we could drop a race, and in fact we did not even have to run to win the Grand Prix. Still our assembled team thought that winning the relay would be a fitting ending to the year….and so they did just that. Fred Zalokar led off with a very solid 24:25 that put the Strider’s in the top 5 overall and was easily the first Master. We were now 40 seconds up on WVTC and some 1:02 ahead of NB Excelsior. The next leg would be covered by our triple crown winning Senior, Fletcher Lesley, who only 2 weeks after the marathon would cruise a 25:59 leg. We were now 2:38 up on NB Excelsior. Your writer missed where WVTC masters stood at that point. The third leg pitted Alan Dehlinger against Excelsior’s Tim Wallen, but his fine 25:51 kept us 1:20 ahead of Excelsior and left us only 10 seconds behind West Valley. Jeff Mann proceeded to start sensibly and stayed right behind the WVTC runner for 1.5 miles. He then stormed home (24:26) for the win. West Valley finished about a minute later with Excelsior 1:35 back of the Strider’s The Masters had the season GP locked up after CIM, but this put the fronsting on the 2006 cake. The Striders finish the 2006 GP with 150 pts, five points ahead of Excelsior. WVJS finished third. The relay team also collected a nice $225 for their win. The club also earned $500 for the season win. |
12/03/06 - Striders Second at CIM
Lesley Takes Senior GP Title
 Jeff Teeters
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On a perfect day for marathoning, the Pacific Striders masters team took care of business be securing the 2006 Grand Prix title. By outrunning the Excelsior masters trio, the team built up an insrumountable lead with only the Christmas Relays to go. The Strider scoring team consisted of Jeff Teeters, new-member Steve Kraft and Tim Keenan. What appeared to be a walk in the park the day before the marathon, came down to a nail-biter of a race the next day. It appeared that Excelsior would not have a team, or at least a non-competitive team. However, the next day Excelsior toed the line with three solid marathons - 2004 CIM Masters Champ Vitas Ezerskis, 3-hr marathoner Ian Hersey, and a new recruit Tim Sheeper who had finished just behind Jeff at the 30K in November. With the loss of Thom Trimble to an injury in the 30K the team was no longer a cynch to defeat Excelsior. The matchup looked very similar to the 30K in which Excelsior nipped us by a mere 6 seconds. Tim Keean appeared to be our #2 guy for the marathon, hoping to run around 3 hours, and marathon-neophyte John Sun as our third guy, wo also hoped to run 3 hours. Fortunately, Thom was able to secure a new member as a result of a timely email. Steve Kraft, and Albany 43-year-old, was looking for someone to pace him to a 2:50 and emailed the club looking for a taker. Steve was convinced to join the club with promises of not only a pacer or two, but possible prize money. Well, we came through on one out of two. Jeff ran 2:44 and Tim came in at 3:01. Steve ran a perfectly paced race and came in at UNDER his goal pace with a 2:49:06. We needed every second, as the Excelsior team chalked up times of 2:42, 2:49 and 3:05. The final talley yielded a 93-second margin of victory for the Striders. Unfortunately, the Striders and Excelsior runners were watching each other so closely, that the "home-team" Buffalo Chips put together a terifically packed trio of masters, all running between 2:46 and 2:49 to take the win. The Strider seniors scraped together a team, which placed 4th and moving them into a solid 2nd place in the Grand Prix. The squad was led by Fletcher "just finish" Lesley in a time of 3:07, Julios Ratti (3:55) and Jim Flanigan (4:04) completed the team. Fletcher placed 4th in his division (PAUSATF) which was more than enough to guarantee his 2006 Grand Prix Title. by 40 points over Tamalpa's David Ripp (2nd at CIM). Super Senior Ross Franco also completed the marathon |
10/15/06 - Strider Tree-O Win Divisions at Humboldt Half
Actually four guys won titles, but that would ruin the clever title
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After many years of "almost" winning the Humboldt Half Marathon, the Striders finally came home with gold in 2006 by winning the Masters Mens' team title. Along with the team victory, three club members came away with individual titles in the Masters, Seniors and Supersenior divisions.
Jeff Teeters used an even pacing approach to win the masters division in a time 1:15:14. Jeff won $125 for the victory and earned 150 Grand Prix points which moves him into a near tie for first place in the Long Grand Prix, with two races yet to go. This was the first masters individual victory in fifteen years (last accomplished by Joe Shieffer at CIM in 1991). Fletcher Lesley ran 1:20:33 to win the Senior division by about two minutes and solidified his first place standing in the Senior Grand Prix. Perry Hayden won the SuperSenior division, in 1:27:46, also two minutes ahead of second place in that division. The Pacific Striders also won the masters team competition, with the team of Jeff Teeters, Thom Trimble (1:17:48), Lynn Mentzer (1:18:46), Tim Keenan (1:20:15) and Alan Dehlinger (1:26:10). Tim was recovering from an injury and Alan apparently picked up a new one |
| The win moves the masters team into first place in the Grand Prix, just ahead of New Balance Excelsior. Other striders competing were, open runner Guilllaume Peureux 1:20:58, Julios Ratti (1:41:47), Jim Flanigan (1:42:12) and Ross Franco (2:05:25) . The final victory of the day for the club was by Steve Whitelam. Steve, fresh off of a fourth place finish on Friday in the Berkeley LBL "Runaround" 3K, won the innaugural Humboldt 5K race in 16:03. Jeff's Race Report The watchword was "easy." Go out easy, stay relaxed, try to feel good --at least to the turn around. That was the plan that Thom and I had decided on before the race, and it describes how my race unfolded. Our first mile was 5:50, second 5:45. Not too hard. At that point I was with a small pack, with a few masters Thom, and I think Jose Aispuro, close by. Masters runner Dwight Smith started out fast and was about 40 yards ahead, and Iain Mickle was so far ahead, I didn't even see him. Balance Excelsior) and Steve Gough (Humboldt track club) and some others. The pace was very consistent, and I just followed them, not trying to push hard, but trying to keep feeling easy. Gradually, the other open runners fell back and by the turn around it was just the three of us (me, Dan and Steve). My turn-around spit was 37:35. Dwight and Iain were still ahead of me, but on the way back, they started to slow down. We caught Dwight first. He hung with the group for about a mile, but then fell off the back. Later, we also caught Iain. He also ran with our group. For a little while, I was following him, rather than the others in the pack since Iain is taller (better windbreak when drafting). I never really hurt too bad, but there were a few occasions where I felt like I was starting to strain and I worried that I might fall off the pace. The last concern was near the mile mark, where we had to run up the main "hill" in the course. Fortunately, I was able to keep up and was with them as we crested. Shortly after that, Dan congratulated me, saying that I had the Masters wrapped up. I was not thinking about that, but instead, just concentrating on maintaining the pace. Also, I wasn't sure it was really true, because I was worried that another master’s runner could pass me with a fast finish. I was still just concentrating on staying with them and staying relaxed. With a little over a quarter mile to go, Steve and then Dan started pushing. I tried, but mentally had a hard time shifting gears. I speeded up a little, but only slightly, and finished about 7 seconds behind them. As it was, my finishing time of 1:15:14 means our pack ran a faster second half than the first, but overall very even. The strategy, "easy, keep it easy, try to feel good" worked. My first ever victory in a PA USATF Grand Prix race, and 10'th place overall. A very happy byproduct of trying to run a consistent race. And lots of training. I've been running a 9.7 mile tempo run, mostly every day for over three months. Perfect training for a half marathon. Many of my training runs seemed harder than the race. Although, based on pace that was not true, since my fastest training run was just over 6 minute pace, and the entire half marathon was at 5:45. Also, the night after the race, my leg muscles had some strange soreness, which was so acute that early in the morning I difficulty sleeping. I never felt that way after a training run. |
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09/24/06 - Strider Masters Win 10K National Team Title! The double-loop mostly flat course made for great spectating, and fast times. Returning champion Dennis Simonitis from Draper Utah had to work hard to retain his title with a blazing 30:30, just 11 seconds up on runner up Paul Aufdemberge of Redford, MI. Third place was Sean Wade of Houston, TN. The Striders were without thier top two men from the previous race - The Banana Chase 5K - but were able to work together to ensure a solid 1-5 times for their scoring team. For the first four miles the top four Striders worked together in a pack - Fred Zalokar, Thom Trimble, Jeff Teeters and Lynn Mentzer - with senior Fletcher Lesley close behind. It would have been a 5-man pack, but a struggling Alan Dehlinger had to back off due to hamstring tightness. At four miles Jeff pressed the pace to go after the runner ahead of the Strider pack. Jeff caught the runner from Ojai, CA before the 5 mile mark, with Fred and Thom following suit shortly thereafter. The three Striders ran much of the last mile still together before Fred pressed the pace again. Thom stayed in contact with Fred until the last 1/4 mile with Jeff just behind. The three finished within 10 seconds of each other. Fletcher Lesley hung just behind the Strider pack and finished as second senior overall in 35:45. Fletcher was scored on the National Masters team along with Lynn Mentzer (36:08) Mike Maguire was also a member of the masters team, and was used to fill out the scoring PAUSATF team to secure the win, and allow Fletcher to score on the PA seniors team. The seniors team, in addition to Fletcher, was represented by Joe Schieffer, Perry Hayden, ,Julios Ratti and Ross Franco. Perry recorded a 39:21 to win the National Title for 60+ runners. Julios was the 4th man on the team which placed 3rd behind Excelsior and WVJS. The Masters have won three of the last four races. This win puts them 1.5 points ahead of Excelsior in the PAUSATF Grand Prix. The Seniors sit in third behind Excelsior and WJVS. 09/17/06 - Striders Sweep Banana 5K The Pacific Striders did not let a good opportunity slip away at this years Banana Chase 5K in Golden Gate Park. Both the masters and seniors teams took top honors and a nice paycheck in winning their divisions. In addition, two Striders took individual titles - Fletcher Lesley in the seniors and Len Goldman in the super-seniors. The masters squad brought a dozen guys to the race and the battle for the scoring team was quite intense. The team finished over a minute ahead of the Aggies and Excelsior, and were led by Rob Elia's PR time of 16:18. Following Rob were the Reno trio of Jeff Mann, Alan Dehlinger and Fred Zalokar. Jeff Teeters was the final scoring Strider. The victory, combined with Excelsior's third place finish put the Strider Masters into first place in the Grand Prix by 0.5 points. Fletcher Lesley, who was actually the club's #3 masters runner, led the Senior team to its first victory of the year. Fletcher's time was not only a big PR but his 16:52 destroyed the old club senior record by an amazing 28 seconds! Joe Schieffer was the team's second senior in 17:53, which set a new club 55-59 record by 15 seconds. Len Goldman and Perry Hayden were dropped down from the super-senior division to fill out the winning team. Len and Perry went 1-2 in that division with times of 18:56 and 19:21.
Thom, Fred, Lynn and Jeff (behind Thom) work together on first lap.The Pacific Striders earned the first national road title in club history by winning the Heritage Oaks Banks 10K. For the fourth year in a row, the National Masters 10K Championships were held in the small central coast town of Paso Robles. Eleven Striders made the trip down to represent the club in both men's masters and seniors divisions.
Perry Wins Super Senior Title
Fletcher at 3 Miles
Second Senior
Rob Elia - 16:18
Jeff Mann - 16:35
Top club banana for the race was Steve Whitelam who recorded an impressive 15:52 over the rolling 5K course. New member Guillaume Peureux was the second open Strider in 17:26. The remainder of the open team were masters drop-downs and included Lynn Mentzer (17:26), John Sun (17:28) and Craig Whichard (17:41). The open team placed 6th
 Fletcher Lesley, 2nd Senior
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The Strider Masters Mens' team came within a PA card of winning the Fleet Feet Mile Champs in Davis. Due to a mixup with a team designation, the club's #3 runner was not allowed, thus moving Excelsior into first place by a few seconds.
Always one of the best spectator races in the series, the double-loop Davis mile provides plenty of excitement to not only the runners, but the spectators. With large display clocks at each quarter mile, there is added drama to each race. Also, the 10-year age groups, some with A and B heats, ensures a division title to the winner. No guessing as to whether your competitor is in your age division. The Striders Super Seniors were the first to test the asphalt course, with its seven right-angle left turns. Fred Martin hung tough with last year's winner, Frank Condon, to take 3rd, but both were well behind new Super Senior Don Porteous. Don shattered the course record with an amazing 5:08. Frank however, at 63, running a 5:14 shot to the top of the Age-Graded Performance chart with a 0.9123 scoring. Fred time of 5:30 earned the top Strider Performance of the year with his 0.8602. Len Goldman was just five seconds back in 5th with a 5:35. Third scoring member was Perry Hayden in 5:55 for 7th place. Despite going 3-5-7 the team was nipped by Tamalpa's 1-4-9 finish. The Men's Masters team didn't have much hope of repeating as Mile Champs without the help of the Reno guys, who were racing a 200-mile relay up in the mountains the day before. However, a last minute addition of new-member David Kaminsky gave the team the boost that made them competitive. Thom Trimble led the squad with a 4:50, followed closely by training partner Tim Keenan in 4:53. David came in as our third man with a 5:01 followed by Jeff Teeters in 5:05 and an injured speedster John Lehman in 5:10. The preliminary totals gave the Striders the win, but a later DQ moved us to second. The club is protesting the DQ. Fletcher Lesely led the depleted men's Senior team with a near-winning time of 5:01. Fletcher made a strong move on the second lap to move from 5th place up to second. His last ditch sprint to the line was just a bit late as he just missed passing winner Brian Davis. Another 20 yards and he would have had them. Bill Brusher, hobbled throught the racde with a hamstring pull to claim the #2 spot for the club, with Julios Ratti and drop-down Ross Franco filling out the team. BZ Churchman was the lone Strider woman to compete. She finished in 13th place with a time of 6:16. |
07/01/06 - Striders Heat it Up at PA Masters Track Champs
 Steve Whitelam Wins Open 1500m |
The 2006 PAUSATF Masters Track Championship was hosted by Fleet Feet Racing at the Sacramento State University Track. It was a professionally run meet which ran on time, and used the latest electronic timing system. Six Striders competed in either the 800m or the 1500m or both. The club came away with a couple victories, a couple club records, and for the most part, excellent efforts. The 800m heats began at 10:30 with the 60+ men. Fred Martin took on a full field including one of the top supersenior middle distance runners in the country - Frank Condon (member of 4x400 WR60 team). Fred hung tough through the first lap keeping in contact with the leader, coming through in about 69 seconds. This proved a bit fast but Fred was able to hang on to a solid second place and eclipse his own club record with a 2:26.8. This places Fred as #3 on the 2006 Masters Outdoor Track Rankings. In the Seniors race Bill Brusher placed 6th and just missed his goal of 2:30, with a 2:31.1. Bill also took it out hard (72) and hung on for the second lap. |
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The masters 800m was run by Thom Trimble and Tim Keenan. A couple of LA runners with fast credential made the trip up and made the race very fast. The leader (a 2:10 runner) hit the first lap in 63. Thom clocked through at 64.5 and Tim at about 66, both well ahead of their planned pace. Both were able to maintain a good pace over the second lap, with Thom outkicking a man down the stretch for second. Both Tim and Thom recorded masters personal bests. Tim ran 2:15.06 (4th) and Thom reset the club 40-49 record with a 2:12.62. The open race was run by Strider Matt Bogdanowicz who took control of the pace from the gun. Clocking a 60 second first quarter, the rest of the field was left struggling to keep up. Matt held his 5-10m lead through the second lap and finished about 2 seconds up on the next runner with a 2:04. In the 1500m the seniors and superseniors ran together. The first heat started at about 1:20 and the temperatures had reached the mid-90s. Fred Martin again placed second in the 60+ with a 5:09 (#3 on 2006 Outdoor Track List) , while Bill Brusher was about 6th senior in 5:16. In the masters 1500m Tim Keenan was able to evenly pace himself to a respectable 4:35 for third place. Thom Trimble struggled to hang on to fourth in 4:48. In the Open 1500m Steve Whitelam, fresh off a solid 4:32 at the Strider Mile, was looking to find some competition. He would not. The field hung with Steve for the first lap in 69, but then quickly faded back. Steve hit 800m in 2:17, then pushed the next lap in about 65 (3:22). With 300m to go, there was no one within 80m of Steve, who kicked the final 400 in at around 61 seconds to record a 4:08, good for the 5th spot on the Strider Alltime list. | |
6/24/06 - Masters Repeat at 8K Champions
Lesley and Goldman Take Age Group Titles
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The expected broiling heat did not arrive until later in the day, but that did not keep the Strider Masters team from smoking the field. For the second year in a row, the club has won the 8K Shriners title with a solidly-packed team. Added to the victory parade were individual titles by both Fletcher Lesley (seniors) and Len Goldman (super seniors). The win for the masters moves them just 2.5 points behind Excelsior in the Masters GP. This year's Shriners race was layed out on yet another new course - the 4th one in 10 years. It retained one of the two loops through the tree-lined residential aread, but this year, the first one and a half miles were routed south through an industrial area. The Shriners band, situated at the 1/2 mile out and 1/2 mile to go mark provided an interesting array of music for the runners (if you consider "It's a Small World" to be inspirational) Alan Dehlinger and Fred Zalokar took off with the lead masters, while Tim Keenan, Thom Trimble and Chatham Ross took things out a bit slower, in expectation of very warm conditions. Fletcher Lesley, running his first race without rival senior Emil Magallanes in the field, ran a very well-paced effort. Alan hung tough and ran his best race of the year, placing first for the team in 27:46 (7th master). Fred, Thom and Tim finished strong over the last 200m, with both Fred and Thom just nipping rival Vitas Ezerskis at the line. The 1-4 time spread for the masters was a mere 21 seconds. Chatham Ross, coming off an injury, ran a very solid 28:53 to secure the fifth and final scoring spot. Lynn Mentzer also cracked 30 minutes with a 29:52. It should be noted also, that our entire masters team was over 45, with the exception of Tim, who turns 45 later this year. Then again, this was true for ALL of the masters teams, with 4 out of 5 being over 45! Fletcher Lesley moved slowly through the senior field, passing rivals Brian Davis and Tom Bernhardt after the 3 mile mark, then hung on for a 7 second victory. The win, along with the no-show of Emil, moved Fletcher into first place in the Senior Short GP with 270 pts. Fletcher, whose time of 28:31 was a new senior club record, was joined on the 4th-place senior team by two 60+ runners - Len Goldman and Fred Martin - along with Julios Ratti. Len won his third supersenior title of the year, outrunning runner-up Frank Ruona by 33 seconds. Fred was third in that category 14 seconds behind Frank. Ross Franco bettered his 2005 time on this course with a 42:58. Nick Scotchler followed in 47:46 The fastest Strider of the day was Steve Whitelam who placed 17th in 26:24, while Susan Putney was the lone Strider woman. She placed 15th in the masters division with a clocking of just under 7 minute pace - 34:40. |
6/18/06 - Teeters Wins Trail Challenge Triple Crown
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In order to win, you must first start. That was what Jeff Teeters proved at the 41st Annual Dick Houston Memorial Woodminster Run at Joaquin Miller Park. This challenging 9 mile trail race was the third and final event of the Trail Challenge Series. The best accumulated time over all three races becomes the Trail Series Champion. Jeff stood in third place after the first two races - Tilden Tough 10 and the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge, about three and a half minutes down on the leader. In this handicapped race, Jeff's age-group (45-55) was allotted an 8 minute handicap on the open runners, but was as much as 12 minutes after the first group to start. He took the lead in his group quickly and began passing slower runners. He pushed hard the entire race, with thoughts of possibly winning the race overall (first across the line). Despite running over two minutes faster than last year, he came up a couple minutes short on that goal. Tamalpa's Jamie Bern's (F55) 12 minute headstart on Jeff was too much to overcome. Two other early starters also finished ahead of Jeff in the field of 170. Soon after finishing in 1:03:13, Jeff realized the two runners ahead of him in the triple crown did not run this race. This gave Jeff the title by a wide margin, with second place being Alex Coate (45) who finished 6 minutes behind him that day. Other Striders who finished Woodminster included Mike Maguire in 31st with the 10th fastest time of the day (1:07:31), Jim Granahan in 42nd with a 1:17:48 and Julios Ratti in 55th with a 1:20:41.
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6/4/06 - Teeters Breaks Chabot Course Record
It could very well be the most difficult "half marathon" in California, but that doesn't keep nearly 300 trail-hunmgry runners from competing in this race each year. The Lake Chabot Trail Challenge is the second of three races which make up the East Bay Triple Crown. Strider member Jeff Teeters has been a regular at this series and almost always in the top 10 at this event.
For the 2006 race, with no clear favorite, Jeff ran a much more aggressive race. Running with the lead pack of five early the pace felt easy and Jeff surged into the lead between miles 2 and 3. Jeff would eventually slow down and lose a few places, but he would hold onto the masters title by nearly two minutes.
Jeff time of 1:26:44 not only captured the over-40 division (5th overall), but obliterated the standing 45-49 record by over 90 seconds (1:28:11). Jeff also placed just seconds behind the winner of the first Triple Crown race - the Tilden Tough Ten in which Ivan Medina was over 3 minutes up on Jeff.
In the Tilden 10M Jeff placed 7th . After two races Jeff stands in third place behind to Open men. The final race is the Woodminster 9 Mile Race on June 18. See the Results page for other Striders competing in this event.
5/29/06 - Schieffer, Goldman Win Divisions at Marin 10K
Joe Wins 55-59 Division
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On a picture-perfect day in Kentfield, two Striders carried home hardware for their age-group victories at the Marin 10K. Formerly known as the Pacific Sun, this fast, flat and tree-lined course has always provided an excellent venue for some quick times. In addition to the age-group victories, the club scored in the Men's Open, Masters and Seniors categories. Schieffer, who recently turned 55 and owns many of the club age-group records has entered a new sub-category with a bang. His 36:58 was well off his senior record of 35:44 set back in 2004, but does set a new standard for the club 55-59 category. Joe placed 5th in the 50-59 division. One of those in front of him was teammate Fletcher Lesley who just missed eclipsing Joe's senior record with a 35:54, good for 2nd place. Len Goldman once again dominated the over-60 division with a 39:09, which was only 14 seconds off his club record. Teammate Perry Hayden placed 3rd in that category with a 40:34, an improvement of 31 seconds over his time last year. Both Len and Perry were dropped down to the senior team which placed third. The fastest Strider of them all was Steve Whitelam who placed 14th overall in a time of 33:20. Top master was Rob Elia in 34:16. Rob led the masters squad to a second place finish behind Excelsior. Following about a minute behind Rob was the tightly-packed 2nd through 5th men on the team, all finishing within a span of 21 seconds - Jeff Teeters (35:23), Tim Keenan (35:28), Thom Trimble (35:39) and Alan Dehlinger (35:44). |
3/12/06 - Super Seniors Win Fifty-Plus 8K
Despite the efforts of the race management, the Strider 60-plussers stayed on course and easily swept the title for their division. Len Goldman placed second in that division with a time of 31:56. It soon became clear that the Striders had the team title wrapped up when the next to super seniors were Perry Hayden in 32:36 and Fred Martin right on his heels.
The Fifty-Plus race has been on the PA Grand Prix on and off for year, but for some reason, this year's event was flawed with many problems. Undermanned registration, inexperienced volunteers, poorly marked and manned courses, lack of aid stations, and many other problems gave numerous runners reason to complain. Some of the leaders in the over-50 race went off course and lost either significant time, or multiple places. Dangerous posts and winding narrow sidewalks also kept racers guessing just where to go.
The Strider Masters fielded a strong team too and managed to grab second in that divison. The team was led my Rob Elia's 26:59 (3rd 40-49) and Jeff Mann's 27:18. Alan Dehlinger made a much stronger showing in 28:40, after crawling through the NorCal 10 miler. Craig Whichard, back from a long injury absence, ran one of his best races in years, to grab the 4th spot Just behind him was Jeff Teeters who outleaned Tim Keenan for the final scoring spot.
The seniors took 3rd team in a very competitive field. Fletcher Lesley was 2nd in that race with a #2 alltime Strider 8K (29:06). Joe Schieffer, the current club record holder, placed 6th in 30:07. Bill Brusher and Mike Rossi rounded out the scoring team.
The Strider Masters Women scored their first team of the season, placing 5th in that category. Christine Chapon, who races without an "e" on the end of her last name, took 9th for the 40+ women in 32:54. This places her 2nd on the Strider Alltime list. Karin Kuffel, also feeling the pain of the NorCal 10 Miler last week, was second woman on the team, with Jessica Lillie secretly running in the 50+ race, was the final scorer.
3/4/06 - Strider Masters Win NorCal 10 Miler
Despite threats of cold rainy winter weather for the kickoff PAUSATF Road Grand Prix race, the only storming was done my the Strider masters team. With temperature hovering in the 40s and moderate south winds, the Striders jumped to an early Grand Prix lead for 2006. Not only did the club win that division, but new-member Jeff Mann outran two Excelsior runners to claim the over-40 individual title. Jeff's time of 56:16, over a challenging course, was his PR and ranked #6 on the Strider alltime masters list.
Club stalwarts Jeff Teeters and Tim Keenan ran together the entire race and recorded identical 58:51s, good for 7th and 8th place. Newly "seniored" Fletcher Lesley, back from a long racing hiatus, nearly pulled off a Strider double, in his attempt to snag the over-50 crown. Fletcher settled for 2nd place, about a minute down on the winner, with a time of 60:28. That time earned him the #2 spot on the Strider Senior 10 Mile list. Thom Trimble out-lumbered Alan Dehlinger as the fifth scoring member. Excelsior placed second team about 2 minutes back. Karin Kuffel was the lone Strider women and she placed 7th in the masters division despite suffering from a side stitch most of the race.
The Striders also pieced together a seniors team, despite giving up Fletcher to the theiving masters squad. 61 year old Perry Hayden led the team with a 70:01 which placed him 5th in the Super Senior division. Julios Ratti clocked an impressive 71:58 which was a 6 minute improvement as his 2005 time. Jim Flanigan (75:08) and Super Senior Ross Franco (95:33) rounded out the scoring team.
2/24/06 - Changes to 2006 PAUSATF Road Grand Prix
Due to a variety of circumstances, there have been several changes to the 2006 Road Grand Prix since it was initially approved last September:
1. HP Up and Running 10K has been either canceled or postponed, and as of now is not on the grand prix.
2. Zippy 5K has moved from 5/14 to 4/23, away from Mother's Day.
3. Susan B. Anthony Women's 5K (Sacramento) has been added as a double points race for women only on 8/12.
4. Seagate Elite 5K (San Jose) has been added as a double points race for open men only on Thanksgiving 11/23.
The complete schedule may be viewed at www.pausatf.org.
Note that this year women and open men (individuals) will be able to drop one race in the short grand prix, whereas masters and older men will not be dropping a race. No races are dropped in the long grand prix. All teams drop one race. Also, please remember that this year the Heritage Oaks Bank 10K in Paso Robles is considered a LONG race, under a new rule.
We apologize for all the changes.
Tyler Abbott, men's LDR chair
Julie Fingar, women's LDR chair
Lloyd Stephenson, masters LDR chair
