|
|
|
|
Running (# 462)—January 10, 2005 Bill Shaw I’m finishing up this column in my head Friday about 8:30 a. m. in the third mile of a four-miler after a 13-mile bike ride against a 20 mph wind. I tabulated the 2004 race results and statistics earlier this week to revise the year in road racing in this first column of 2005. Last year did not reflect a renaissance in road racing. Participation in the six road races for which I have complete statistics shows a 19 percent increase in finishers. In 2003, 15 local records fell, in 2004, only six. Susan Walters of Wallis broke the open female record in the Spectacle Spectacular 10K on January 3 in 40:30, a 6:32 mile pace. Walters now holds both the Spectacular 5K and 10K records. In the April 3 Gator Gallop 5K, Walters broke her second record, going the 3.1 mile distance in 19:45, a 6:32, to post the fastest 5K pace by a female runner in 2004. Randall Krauskopf of Sweeny broke his first of two records in the Gallop. Krauskopf romped the one-mile Gallop route in record time, 4:37. Two weeks later on April 17, Krauskopf broke the San Jacinto Festival 5K open male record in 16:38, a 5:22 race pace. Now in her 40s, Melissa Hurta of Jones Creek, who holds six of the 10 open female records in local runs, finished first in the female masters competition in the San Jac 5K in record time, 20:37, a 6:39 pace. In the Gallop, Dan Connelly of Lake Jackson won his first of three 5K male masters (40 and over) titles in 18:16, a 5:53 pace, the fastest male masters mark of the year. Connelly won the masters titles in the April 25 Flapjack 5K and the May 8 Brazosport Memorial Hospital 5K in 18:36 and 18:29. Runners established records in the inaugural Family Fitness 5K on May 1. Weston Caceres and Liz Shuster posted, respectively, 20:29 and 24:34 marks in the open competition. Bill Harding of Galveston posted a 20:28 male masters mark. Melissa Hurta won the female masters competition in 21:16, a 6:52 pace, her second consecutive female masters record. Hurta ran the fastest female masters 5K in the July 31 Mosquito Chase, 20:47, a 6:44 pace, but fell 15 seconds short of the female masters contest record set in 2000. Luis Armenteros of Houston ran the fastest 5K in 2004, 16:16, a 5:14 pace, in the Mosquito Chase. The fastest 5K times in the 13 years I have covered road racing in Brazosport stood unbroken. Two San Antonio runners hold the open records in the Rotary 5K, which is no longer run. Jose Inequez finished in 15:30, a 5:00 pace; Tabitha Dominguez finished in 17:49, a 5:28 pace. Male masters runner Rich Fredrich of The Wood Lands posted the fastest male masters 5K mark in the now-cancelled Resurrection 5K in 1997, 17:11, a 5:33 pace. In the 2000 Resurrection 5K, female masters runner Regina Schuetze of Houston finished in local record time in 20:32, a 6:38 pace. In 2004, male and female runners 40-49 constituted 28 percent of the race finishers. Males 30-39 and 50-59 made up 18 percent, and female runners 30-39 made up 25 percent. Males 13-19 and females 20-29 made up the third most active groups with respective percentages of 14 and 16. The 2005 road racing season gets underway on January 29 in Angleton with the Spectacle Spectacular 5K/10K, which welcomes walkers. Online registration is available at www.signmeupsports.com. For additional information, call Patrick Henry at 979-849-8752 or e-mail phenry@angletonisd.net. See you at the starting line on January 29 to get the new year off to a running start. |