You’ve trained hard, had pasta for dinner the night before, drunk lots of milk and gone to bed at 9:00 reminiscing about your recent, random acts of kindness. This race is your reward. With racing flats that seem to have sprouted little wings, you’re way out in front of 699 other runners, including a few that certainly had you worried on the starting line. Flying past the mile in 5:25, you even lengthen your commanding lead by the (mile and a half) turnaround and like the prodigal son, start your journey home--to the finish line, your family and friends, the applause, the overall trophy, and some well-deserved turkey. You imagine yourself on the bow of the Titanic.
But wait. Perhaps your imagination should have come up with a different analogy, because now you’re faced with the reality that the next 1.55 miles of this twisting, winding, and scenic--we can’t deny that Marsh Road is a beautiful country road on this kodachrome day--out and back course is clogged with the same 699 runners that you put behind you on the way out. Are you ready for some fooootball? (It is, after all, Thanksgiving.)
What began as a dream run quickly became that other type of night musing. Ducking and dodging the oncoming foot traffic, while trying to keep out of reach of equally determined fellow high schoolers Blaine Ramsdell (Mt. Dora) and Justin Shira (Ormond/Seabreeze), Andrew Epifanio had his work cut out for him. Let’s follow our pilgrim’s progress in his own words.
“The road was a river of runners on the way back. I was weaving in and out of people. John (Boyle, the race director), who was leading the race on his bike, did a really good job of clearing the path for the returning runners. But some people just refused to move. When one guy wouldn’t get out of the way, John had to stop so fast that I ran right into the back of his bike. For awhile after that, he was behind me, trying to catch back up to me. Thanks to him, however, it turned out okay and I had, all-in-all, a great run.”
With St. John leading the way, our ‘Christian in Nikes’ safely found his way through the 5Kers, and when he finally cleared the crowd, Epifanio held a slim lead over Ramsdell and a finally mended Shirar (who was unfortunately injured for part of this past HS season). From there on in, it was a sprint to the finish. First across was Andrew (17:37), then Ramsdell (17:44) and in third Shirar (17:51).
The first female in the 5K was Flagler-Palm Coast graduate and ERAU runner Florence Silva, 19.
“I was hoping to get overall. I ran a 16:54 for three miles the other day, but I’m still sore.
We just ran the Nationals (NAIA) last Saturday. I ran 19:34 and was a little tired from that. Then on Tuesday, we ran the time trial.
“Sammy (Vazquez, her husband) was pacing me for the first mile and a half, but he was running the ten and kept going, while I had to do the turn. I didn’t have anyone behind me, so I had to run by myself.”
Silva finished fifth overall, in 18:27.
When Sammy left her, after pacing her through the mile in 5:40, he seemed in firm control of the ten miler.
“I was by myself until around 5, 5 ½ miles,” said Vazquez. “Then Stanley (Maina) caught me and we ran the next two miles together, but I dropped off. I’m not used to (racing) this distance, but (ERAU) Coach Hopfe wanted me to run longer, faster runs. Track starts January 6th. I think our first meet is January 15th.”
Maina, who went through the mile in about 5:45, picked it up just enough to hold a 5:41 pace the entire way, winning in 56:41.
“I caught him (Vazquez) with three miles to go,” Maina said after the race. “When I signed up to run here, I did not know if any fast guys would show up, but someone at the race told me about him. I decided to hold back a little and see how fast he would go out.
“For awhile he had a lead of a couple of hundred yards. I started closing on him at the (5 mile) turnaround, and eventually caught him. When he started slowing down at 7, I took off.”
Stanley Maina, who is originally from Ruiru, Kenya, was a 2001 graduate of Bethune-Cookman College, majoring in physics. Currently he is a licensed practical nurse for Horizon Health Care, and only races occasionally.
“After running for college, I got tired of racing. So now I just run. But just seeing old guys run motivates me.”
There to encourage him was his friend, Sal Saldano, who modestly admits that, “I taught him everything he knows.” Somehow, despite the fact that the 200 pound Saldino was the third place finisher in the Clydesdale Division (1:18:19), it seems a stretch to be convinced that his claim holds much merit.
Also in the race was 2007 Spruce Creek graduate Alex Frazier. Like his ERAU team mate Vazquez, he was there to hold as fast of a pace as he could, for as long as he could.
“Me, that Kenyan and Sam started together. They kind of took off, and I was in ‘No Man’s Land.’ Sam told me that at 7 he hit a wall. I guess I did too, and jogged it in. Vazquez finished second (57:43), and Frazier fifth (59:23), perhaps casualties of ERAU’s hard workout two days prior to the race.
“It was our ‘end of the year time trial.’ We have one at the very beginning of the season, and one at the end, to see how we have improved. Sam stopped at two [miles] in 9:36 [but the rest of the team kept going to finish the 3-mile time trial]. Stuart (Patterson) finished in 14:13, Nick Gehlsen ran 14:23, Russell (Snyder) ran 14:27, and I ran 15:13.”
But coming off the NAIA race, it may have doomed them in their third hard run in six days.
Finishing first among the women, 27 year Katie Hoover of Ormond Beach, however, was on the top of her game. Although she never had a commanding lead through the ten miles, she was not seriously challenged, and won in 1:03:37.
“I didn’t think I had anyone near me,” she said after the race, “but when I finished and turned around, there was a girl right behind me. (28 year old Claudia Beitel, second female, in 1:03:54, 16th place overall). I probably should have kicked it in.”
This is a long one for Hoover, who is a fixture on the local road racing scene.
“This has been my longest run since the Deleon Springs Half Marathon last January,” said Hoover. “I’ve been doing higher mileage since early October, slowly, gradually increasing my daily workouts. I’ve always done well, without getting hurt, with high mileage.
“Each week I do three two-a-days; four miles in the morning and five to seven in the evening. I do one day of tempo runs, anywhere from 2 X 10 minutes to 1 X 30 minutes. One day of intervals, the distance depending upon how I feel, either longer or shorter. One day I do a long run, of up to 18 miles. And I take off one day a week. I’ll taper for Disney (January 11th).
The logic of running longer in winter, when the weather is more conducive to it, was no doubt on the minds of many of the runners who turned out for the ten mile run, helping to swell the field into becoming one of the largest fall races in the area.
TOP 10 - 5K
Males Time Females Time
1)G. Andrew Epifanio 17:38 5) Florence Silva 18:27
2)Blaine Ramsdell 17:44 29)Jennifer Schedivy 21:33
3)Justin Shirer 17:51 32)Pamela-Hanson-Peterson 21:53
4)Jeffrey Clements 18:15 35)Cecelia Fleck 21:59
6)Stephen Parks 18:35 40)Elizabeth Sridhar 22:09
7)Jordan Tager 18:36 47)Megan Elliott 22:41
8)Craig McFarlane 18:45 48)Mary Rau 22:52
9)Alec Rukosuev 18:52 51)Lauren Lankford 23:12
10)Brian LaStarza 19:02 53)Catherine LaStarza 23:18
11)Sean Kane 19:27 54)Devin Bowers 23:33
TOP 10 - 10 MILER
Males Time Females Time
1)Stanley Maina 56:41 15)Katie Hoover 1:03:37
2)Sammy Vazquez 57:43 16)Claudia Beitel 1:03:54
3)Nathan Adams 58:10 18)Kathy Rink 1:04:21
4)Brian Heisler 58:30 34)Lauren Leffler 1:09:36
5)Alex Frazier 59:23 36)Kara Niedermeier 1:09:40
6)Danny Fritz 1:00:38 38)Megan Ryan 1:09:50
7)Kayle Fisher 1:00:53 40)Stacy Bartos 1:10:03
8)Danny Stevens 1:01:00 41)Shelia Sullivan 1:10:12
9)Tomas Lepp 1:01:15 45)Sara Robertson 1:10:46
10)George Altieri 1:01:19 49)Cija Werblo 1:11:23
