BLAST FROM THE PAST DECEMBER 2001 RUNNING SHORTS SBAA WOMEN TAKE TOP 4 AT SB 36-MILE 9-TRAILS RACE It took a desperate and muddy 3-mile downhill sprint at the end of the race to win this year’s edition of the Patsy Dorsey inspired 36-mile Santa Barbara 9-Trails race held last month. Cheri Savage, 46, was in the race and wondering about a repeat. Cheri admitted her training for the race was spotty. She missed most of October while in Canada. She only had 4 training runs over 2.5 hours before the race. Still, this was Cheri’s course. She had won this race 4 previous times, including last year in 8:35 in good conditions. For Susan Petronio, 38, this year’s 9-trails would be her first trail race and her longest run ever. Still, she committed to this race 6 months previously, mostly running at lunch time during the week, then a mountain bike ride on Saturday and a long mountain run on Sunday. Her mountain runs were with friends and up to 5 hours in length, and her weekly mileage was about 40. Also in the race were the SBAA’s Carrie Blakemore, 38, Linda Phillips and 12 other women. 58 people started and only 25 finished. Soon after the race started, it started raining, turning the trails to mud. Cheri ran most of the race in a plastic trash bag, with holes for her head and arms. “The main problem was my glasses kept fogging up”. Looking at the splits of the race Cheri had the same times as Susan to the turnaround at Romero Canyon, which after 18 miles they reached nearly together in 3 hours and 54 minutes. Susan: “I lost the lead at the turnaround when I changed my socks, which was dumb, because 10 minutes later they were wet again”. Carrie Blakemore was just 10 minutes behind at the turnaround, in 4:04, and Linda Phillips came in at 4:37. Susan quickly took back the lead starting the 18-mile trek back to the start. They were still within a minute of eachother at San Ysidro at 4 hours and 42 minutes. Carrie was now at 5:00 and Linda at 5:59. In the next hour Susan finally started to pull away. She had a 7 minute lead at the Gibraltar checkpoint, the 6 hour mark, with another 2 hours to go. “I wasn’t stopping at the aid stations, just grabbing my drop bag and going… During the steepest hills I was power walking otherwise I ran the whole way… I didn’t know how far back 2nd was… My right quad started to tighten up”. Meanwhile, Cheri’s “legs were feeling good.” At the Tunnel checkpoint, after 7 hours of running, Cheri was only 2 minutes behind. At Inspiration Point, at the 33-mile mark, the sun finally came out. Susan: “I was running with Jay who had dropped back, but when I turned around at the top of Jesusita trail I was shocked to see Cheri instead”. Cheri: “I was feeling good, but I didn’t know where Susan was, so I was surprised when I caught her at Inspiration Point”. There were 3 muddy downhill miles to go. Susan: “I really wanted to win. I ran out of fear that last downhill stretch. I was looking back the whole way. I passed 2 guys at the end”. Cheri: “Susan’s a real good downhill runner. That last downhill section was all mud. I was sliding… I turned my ankle twice…” Susan won the race in 7:53:51 (13 minutes per mile), with Cheri happy with her second place time of 8:00:49, 35 minutes faster than last year. Carrie Blakemore finished in 9:14:23 and Linda Phillips 10:52. Asked if she had any strong memories from the race Susan replied “it was all a blur. At the top of Inspiration Point it had stopped raining and I just told myself that This Was It. I thought my legs would get wobbly but they never did. Coming down Cold Springs the trail was a river”. Susan Petronio is a sales manager of infrared cameras for Indigo Systems in Goleta, and thus gets to travel and run in Europe and Japan. Susan’s plans for the future include 2 weeks of skiing this winter in Crested Butte, Montana, and to defend her title next year at 9-Trails. Cheri Savage is a director of the philanthropic Santa Barbara Foundation, and usually trains after work around 4PM. Her training consists of 6 miles a day, 4 times a week, then a long run on the weekend. She would like to try other trail races since 9-trails is the only one she has done. Other SBAA finishers: Peter Park 6:01, Mike Swan 6:31, Aaron Goldschmidt 7:30, Jim Kornell 7:41, Jeff Vinion 9:33. Dianna Hall, Steve Bertrand, Frank Ogilvie and others ran ½ way to psyche up for next year. Greatest mens marathon field ever at next year’s April 2002 London Marathon: so far Khalid Khannouchi, Abdelkader El Mouaziz, Antonio Pinto, Paul Tergat, and Haile Gebrselassie -- Felix Limo, a 21-year-old Kenyan from Nandi, ran the fastest 15 kilometers in history at the Zevenheuvenlenloop (Seven Hills Run) in The Netherlands. His 41:29 (4:28 per mile) beat Paul Tergat’s former WR of 42:04. Gebreselassie was 2nd in the race, also under his WR, in 41:38 -- At the Long Beach ½ marathon the SBAA’s Melissa Marsted took 5th, 2nd American, in 1:24:32, 6:27 per mile -- John Keston is the oldest marathoner to break three hours at age 69, then he broke his hip on a bike training accident. He came back at 71 to run the fastest time (3:00:58) for anyone past his 70th birthday. This year, at the Portland Marathon, John ran 3:22:55, becoming at age 76 the oldest runner to break 3-1/2 hours. Keston has an unusual training regimen: he walks ½ of his weekly mileage. “I figured that I could save my running muscles by just walking two days in a row (usually five to six miles each day) and then running long (typically 14 to 17 miles) on the third day. Bill Rupp and Margie Withrow spent 8 hours under a tarp in the rain on Gibraltar Rd. to manage the aid station for the 9-trails race. Bill said “one guy had hypothermia so bad we had to warm him up in our car using the car heater” -- According to Goleta’s USATF Road Running Information Center, the numbers of females are increasing significantly in both the running/jogging and race entrant populations and continue to approach 50/50 male/female. -- I’m sorry to have to report to you that a 6-year old girl has run a 21:06 5K, and a 9-year old boy has run 18:36. -- Olympic and World Marathon Champion Gezahegne Abera won the prestigious Fukuoaka Marathon last month in 2:09:25 by outsprinting 2 competitors over the last 200m -- 99-year old Erwin Jaskulski ran a 62.3 200m, and trains every day to improve -- SBAA member Sue Smith is the American Record holder for her age group in the Pole Vault. How does your breathing change during runs and races? Do you start with a 2 to 2? When do you go to 2-1 and 1-1 in races? -- The symptoms of thyroid disease and overtraining are similar -- Catherine Ndereba’s ½ marathon splits during her WR 2:18:47 last month were 1:10:15 then 1:08:32 -- 33-year old Monica Scholz from Ontario ran sixteen 110-mile races last year, a women’s WR. She trains 10 miles a day with her German Shephard weekdays, and longer runs on weekends. -- 2002 marks 30 years of running and racing for me, 1972 to 2002, truly a blessing. Running got me some needed initial self-confidence in 1972 as a 9th grader: I was an insecure short kid until winning the D-class Mile Run at Paul Revere Junior High School in Los Angeles in 5:23, a school record. Following that was 30 years and counting of running and racing with friends. Knowing Paul Gilbert allows me to think I have at least 40 more to go. What a trip! HARD CORE SBAA RUNNERS ENCOURAGED TO BECOME KAIHIGYO MONKS Kaihigyo monks are spiritual athletes from the Tendai sect of Buddhism in Japan. They have a 7 year program of spiritual study which culminates with running two marathons a day over rough hilly tracks for 100 days. Only 30 priests have managed the feat in the 20th century. For the first three years, the Buddhists walk 40km for 100 consecutive days. In the fourth and fifth years, they do the same distance over 200 days, more or less a full marathon every day for more than six months. In the sixth year, the monks do 60km for 100 days and then the following year, this is upped to 84km. The 84km run can take up to 20 hours, leaving little time for sleep. There is also a nine-day fast, during which time you are not allowed to sleep. You must wear sandles. UCSB CROSS COUNTRY TEAM 17th AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS November 19 the 18th-ranked UCSB Gauchos traveled to South Carolina to race against the nation’s best collegiate runners in the Collegiate championships. It was the first time UCSB had qualified to compete. Josh Horton ran out of his head, finishing 17th, just 11 seconds behind Alan Webb, in 29:49 for 10K (with hills). He had moved up from about 50th place at the 5K. Second for UCSB was Goleta native and DPHS grad Eric Gans in 102nd (72nd scorer). UCSB now ranks in the elite top 4% of all Division I programs in Cross Country. With five of the top seven members of the program walking on to the program without scholarship money, few teams have such a collection of overachievers. The SBAA’s Gordon McClenathen traveled to the meet and said athletes had transponder chips in their shoes so that individual AND team results could be displayed on a huge screen, both at the 5K ½ way mark and immediately at the finish. Colorado beat Stanford by one point to win the men’s team championship.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:50:56 +0000
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