Jason Byrne and Todd Grasley are usually stretched pretty thin, so I generally hear from them on such occasions when a story is afoot, or that one should be. In the days prior to this meet, however, I began to receive a few more communications from J&T than expected:
“Just want to make sure you’ll be there.”
“How about working the finish line? Can you take photos and do interviews?”
“We have an extra hotel room; would you be interested?”
(5:00 on the Thursday before D-Day) “Where are you?”
(Later) “Do you think you could pick up 6000 water cups on the way here?” (Which, surprisingly, proved to be less than needed.)
“Can you meet Adam (Goucher) and Tim (Catalano)—with me—for dinner at Dixie Crossroads?”
And so it went.
I thought, “Feeling a little pressure, are we? What, do 4,600 runners from 186 schools keep you up at night?”
Jason started this meet in 2000, while he was a student at Florida Southern, and although he always hoped it would be as successful as it has become, I doubt he foresaw the implications in such an event. Be that as it may, he’s got it--or maybe it’s got him—and for two days each fall, it becomes the biggest cross country meet in the State of Florida. And while running is fun—well, watching someone else is—compared to other cross country invitationals, this particular meet takes a quantum leap in the direction of being more about sharing a lifestyle than being just another cross country meet. I see it as the “Woodstock of Running.”
Each year, for the better part of two days, enough people show up to inhabit a village. Between runners, coaches, parents, spectators, volunteers, and former Buffaloes, I guestimate a good 10,000 people trample the grass between the starting line and whichever side of the finish line they finally decide to stand. Like anyplace where that many people dwell—albeit temporarily--it needed a name, so I have decided to call it Byrneburg.
Dinner at Dixie’s
While eating seafood and running fast don’t mix particularly well, none present were planning on the latter. In fact, we were in a different kind of training for the days ahead. Fish, as everyone knows, is brain food, and a well-fed brain has a better chance of surviving the mental marathon that lay ahead. (Who among you had enough of an attention span to watch all 20 of those races?)
In between eating clam chowder, rock shrimp, hushpuppies, red shrimp, fried catfish, corn fritters, and grilled chicken (there’s always one in the crowd), thus being too bloated to finish off dinner with key lime pie, those present swapped stories about personal running disasters. (That’s what you do if you want to truly impress another runner.)
None, however, could surpass the Tim and Adam show. If I hadn’t seen actual photographic evidence of Adam Goucher’s lovely wife, Kara, and heard the already famous running stories of their two year old son, Colt, I’d think Goucher and Catalano were married to each other. Both University of Colorado alumni, they have that deep emotional attachment that can only come from sharing the experience of high altitude running, for long distances, thus depriving their two brains of sufficient oxygen to think clearly. So now they think as one.
(Note: although I had my interview notebook at my hip, I was too busy using both hands in claiming my share of the shrimp to spare one for a pen, so I draw much of the following from my poor memory.)
Adam Goucher, as you might know, was one of the greatest American distance runners of his era, but at 37 is feeling the effects of running too many miles at too fast a pace. Retired, his current interval work involves surgery, casts, and rehabilitation. Tim, on the other hand, has the ability to mind-meld with Adam, and was trying to convince him that he should shift gears and compete in ultra-marathons, like the Leadville 100 miler.
“Well, look, all you’d have to do is run 8:30s and—even with the rest stops and meal breaks—you’d be averaging nines. That would be enough to win it. You could do that, easy.”
Adam, being convinced—or maybe just nodding because the waitress had just asked if he wanted both rock and red shrimp—agreed.
While that is a rather shortened version, and perhaps not exactly what Tim said, you get the idea. Just like a real wife, his best friend is pointing him down that road towards eternal damnation. And Adam, rather than disagree—hey, what are good friends for, if not to empower such hare-brained schemes—said little to sidetrack this convoluted line of reasoning. It doesn’t get any better than that…unless, of course, you read their co-authored book, Running the Edge. Herein lie the lessons learned from the combined experience of a world class athlete (Adam Goucher) and his lifelong sidekick—and a not too shabby national class runner himself—who is also quite the intellectual (Tim Catalano).
At this point I could tell you all about Running the Edge, but there are still 20 races to summarize, and I want to keep you—the reader—in suspense long enough to order one yourself. I will, however, get back to that subject at a later date. My autographed copy is right here. It says. “Ralph…Live the Edge!” (And I thought I already was, or at least a 63-year old retiree’s version.) Besides, what follows is almost as long as a book, and I wouldn’t want the reader to overtax his attention span for running stories.
Girls JV Blue
The earliest of races was won by a young lady in an early stage of a running. Cadi Rowe is an 11 year old sixth grader at Real Life Christian Academy.
“I started running, like, four years ago,” Cadi Rowe began. “Last week, at the Mt. Dora Invitational, was my first win.” She won the mixed JV race in 22:30.88. “But this was my best time ever—22:04—and it feels exciting.”
Asked if her school had varsity, she replied, “No varsity, but I probably would run for them if they had one.”
GJV Blue Team Results – Fort Myers, with five scorers in the top 11 (5-6-7-9-11-12-18), won with 38 points. 205 runners and 21 teams finished.
Boys’ JV Blue
That morning, Sam Shaffer woke up in a town he had only recently moved to, and hours later ran with a new uniform in what, for him, was a rare afternoon race. Despite these distractions, he looked anything but disoriented.
“It’s hot!” he said. “This was my first afternoon race in two years, but it played out well.”
I suggested that he seemed to have quickly adjusted to an afternoon race, despite Florida’s unique blend of heat and humidity.
“I guess so, but I wasn’t liking it. I’m from Ohio, which has a completely different climate. Also, in Dover, we weren’t run by varsity or JV, but by divisions. We had three divisions in the state. Ours was Division 3. (At invitationals) we had at least 100 in each race.”
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. His recent athletic adventure proved, if nothing else, that this fourteen year old freshman is truly cosmopolitan.
“This is my week of school (at Viera)—I moved in with my father, who is a physician at Health First in Viera--and my first race for the school.”
His race tactics show a maturity that exceeds the level of the race.
“My intentions were to first go out with the pack and see if it was legit, then right around mile two, see what I could do with the leader. If he held the pace, I’d stay with him, if not take the lead and see what I could do.
“Right around mile two, they (the other leaders) were fading with the heat, and I took over.”
Sam ran a second over 18, which placed him first among 299 finishers.
BJV Blue Team Results – So often this year, there has been Trinity Prep, then there was everyone else. In this meet, however, Fort Myers was about closer than heat exhaustion. Prep won with 35 (3-6-7-9-10-35-57), but FM had 43 (2-5-11-12-13-15-17). 29 teams and, as mentioned, one shy of 300 made it to the water table.
Another Close Shave
As the proud owner of my very own Sno Cone machine—and not afraid to use it—I’ve long considered myself a connoisseur of “ice-de-la flavor.” At this meet, I got my comeuppance.
“This,” Penny Dixon emphasized, “is not a snow cone. It is shaved ice.”
To prove her point, Penny carefully unwrapped the plastic covering of a rounded block of ice, and then proceeded to slice off a layer. As it caked off like winter’s frost from a car windshield being cleared with a plastic window scraper, she carefully filled a brightly colored cup with the shavings….Wait, let me rephrase that. With over 20 years of experience at the wheel-o-fun, she hand-crafted a cup of the finest frozen water that money can buy.
“What flavor would you like?” she asked.
“Something that would show contrast in the photo,” I suggested.
We looked at her red shirt.
“Red won’t do,” Penny surmised.
Thinking ahead to what we would do with this huge pile of cool relief after I took the photo, I looked at my own blue shirt. (As one with a “mature” male torso, I often find myself one a drip away from an embarrassing stain.)
“Blue Hawaiian?” I asked with an innocent look on my face.
“Blue it is.”
While she searched for just the right shade to match my sporty new flrunners.com polo, she told me a little about herself, and gave me the business side of a hot and tired runner’s next stop after the finish line.
“Sometimes I call myself Florida Ice. I live in Leesburg, but if you’re trying to load up on our flavored ice, we’re in Fruitland Park. We also do a lot of races.
“We have about 30 different flavors of syrup, which we purchase from a place in New Orleans. In my opinion, they have the best stuff. Our cups come from Hawaii.” (Hence their “tropical” colors.)
It was an agonizingly long several minutes in arranging the perfect “look” for the photo (read: smile everyone), but then came the best part of this particular interview; enjoying the fruits of my labor. (It was a tough job, but someone had to “clean up” afterwards.)
Small School Girls
Before the race, Olivia Rovin (Shorecrest Prep) and Christina Hamilton (Satellite)—she’s at Patrick’s AFB--had never met, so I took care of that. (What better way to introduce “bitter rivals”—a little literary license here--than to interview them together. I started by asking a simple question, and before long, they were doing the interview without me.
Ralph: “Describe the race.”
Olivia: “We were together pretty much the whole race…until about the last 800.”
Christina: “About the mile mark, I passed two girls in front of us—they were wearing blue and white stripes.” (They were probably Megan Elliott and Christina McKinney, from Mt. Dora, who finished third and fourth, in 21:06.90 and 21:10.80, respectively.) “Olivia came with me. At the end of the race
she was able to kick into gear and push forward.”
Olivia: “I’ve been working really hard this season. I think I kicked in today. Plus, I’m used to the heat. I train in St. Pete.”
Christina: “I just moved here from Stuttgart, Germany.”
Olivia: “Do you speak fluent German?”
(This would be the part where I lost control of the interview.)
Christina: “No. I spoke a little when I was younger, but I forgot when I moved to Colorado. Then we moved back to Germany, and I picked up a little French. My best friend—Marie—is French. Her father is in the French military.”
Olivia: “I’ve been to Nice. I loved it.”
Christina: “I ran cross country in Stuttgart…at Patch Barracks.”
(Here is where I stage a “coup de interview.”)
Ralph: “Olivia, is this your first win?”
Olivia: “Yessir. It’s only my second season.”
Ralph: “Now that you have a win under your belt, will you run the same way next time?”
Olivia: “It depends upon who I am racing against, but I think I’ll use the same strategy and stick with what I know.”
Ralph: “Have you two met before?”
Olivia: “No…but we kind of used some elbows, but I don’t think it was on purpose.”
Christina laughs, and Ralph is, once again, forgotten. I slowly faded into the background.
Christina: “You did great for this kind of heat. It’s amazing….”
(Note: Olivia’s time was 19:47.90, and Christina’s was 20:06.30.)
Girls Small School Team Results – Led by Rovin’s win, Shorecrest placed 1-5-11-21-28-32-38 to score 66 points and win. In all, 189 runners and 24 teams completed the race.
Large School Girls
There are those days when you can’t catch a break, and others when even the grass seems to lay down flat for your running convenience.
“I got to come out of school for sixth and seventh period for this meet,” Amanda Spring told me after her race, “and I had to take a test sixth period.”
Before we get too jealous, however, first consider her follow-up statement.
“I’m still going to have to take it on Monday, and I had two other tests and an essay to finish before I left. A pretty eventful day,” she concluded.
Three tests, a writing assignment, and a championship-level race at FLR XIII, all in the same day. Maybe there is another way to look at it all. Her race strategy was equally objective.
“In the race, I didn’t want to go out fast and burn out. So when they went out—really fast—I kind of laid back. I came through the mile in about 5:56 or six minutes. I was in about fifth place, give or take. I actually only got the lead at about ¼ of the way into the last mile. I had some girls who wanted to stay with me, but I picked up the pace and they fell off.”
Amanda’s time here was 19:18, which is just one second off her personal best (November 11, 2011 3A Region 3 Meet), and would have stacked up well in any one of the girls’ races, including the ROC.
When asked if it was her first win, she answered, “I also won my last race, and one last year, so that’s three altogether. Today was, by far, the biggest one.”
The Northeast senior’s career choice, incidentally, is to become a veterinarian.
Large School Girls Team Results – This race’s team championship was, literally, as close as you can get. How close is that, you ask? Both Columbia (5-6-29-36-44-45-46) and South Fork (7-13-19-33-48-97-112) finished with 120 points. Columbia had a secret weapon, however, code-named “Morse,” as in Nicole Morse. Her sixth place team finish (45th overall in 22:42) made the difference, and made her Columbia’s “queen for the day.”159 girls and 20 teams competed.
Project Graduation
Among the many vendors that lined “Athlete’s Village” was one with a grand idea that will be months in the planning.
“We put on an all-night party after each year’s graduation,” explained its chairman, Matt Horne. “It keeps the Titusville graduating seniors off the streets in a kind of ‘lock-in.’ They spend all night both alcohol and substance free.”
“This keeps them safe,” added volunteer Laura Gay.
“It’s planned to be a really fun night with lots of activities, including bowling,” offered Hillary Arena (Matt’s sister), “and since we pay for it through fund raising, it’s all free. This year we’ll have about 330, 335 in the graduating class.”
Thinking ahead. I like it.
Small School Boys
If it had been suggested to 15 year old Troy Clark that he would have to slay a Dragon to win this race, he would have thought the messenger was cloaked in armor.
“The plan was to go out pretty fast in the first mile, run a 5:20 pace the second, and then give it all I have,” Clark said afterwards. “The first mile was pretty relaxed. There were a couple of guys—the guy in the green shirt”--(Lake Placid’s Dalton Shelton)—“and a couple of guys from the same team.” (Probably one of whom was Ross Porter, of Shorecrest, who finished third in 16:59.90.)
“I just knew that one guy, who was behind me the whole way, was catching me right there,” Troy said, pointing to a spot about 100 meters from the finish. “He passed me, going really fast. I picked it up, and in a dead sprint, barely passed him. I was really out of it; pretty fatigued. But he didn’t challenge me, so I knew I had him.”
What the photo sequence in the Boys Small School file indicates is that the 3.1 mile race was decided in that final straightaway. Troy Clark finished first in 16:13.90, and in second was Dalton Shelton of Lake Placid (16:17.50). You can easily tell who Shelton is. On the front of his shirt is the name of the team’s mascot: Dragons. (I told you there were dragons to slay.)
“It was a PR by a lot, maybe 15 seconds, which was from last year’s Footlocker South Regional.” (Troy’s time there, on November 26, 2011, was 16:31. He was #4 for Florida in the Sophomore Race.)
Small School Boys Team Results – Every runner on the Shorecrest Prep team could be called the winner, because their total—140 points—was one point better than second place finisher Key West High School with 141 (16-17-19-42-47-56-87). SP’s spread was 2-21-25-35-57-61-91. 242 runners and 29 teams made it.
Large School Boys
I get a kick out of the graphs that you can pull up on the flrunners.com website. I can’t decide whether or not they mean anything, but sometimes--just out of curiosity--I imagine navigating a car on one. In looking at Zainelabdin (Abdin) Fator’s 5000 meter graph, I decided that my graphmobile would most definitely need to have a stick shift. It is also quite apparent that he starts each September in high gear, tests his transmission by going uphill a few times in October, parks in November, then starts the process all over again with a downhill run and new PR(s) the following September. This year he hopes to change all that.
“In previous years, I haven’t been successful here (at FLR), but I’ve been following the Sickles program of Gail Botton and David Rittenour,” Abdin told me after the race. “I’ve been successful so far with it, and I went into the race with confidence.”
That success can be seen in his early season times: a fourth place 16:32 at Lecanto on September 8th; a 16:02 PR win at West Hillsborough on September 15th; a 17:08.2 win at Mitchell on September 22; and a 16:19.70 win here. So far, he hasn’t parked once.
“(Today) I had to work my way up--from about the 1 ½ mile mark--to the lead pack. In the last half mile I was ahead of them, and thought ‘Why not? It’s my time to shine.’
“Right now I am trying to get a good time for a college scholarship. That (time) should be right around States. That what our program is preparing us for.”
Large School Boys Team Results – HB Plant lived up to their reputation and made mincemeat of the 25 team field. With 35 points (3-4-7-9-12-13-20), they won by 71 points over the next closest team. 202 runners are listed on the results sheets.
Dinner’s in the Kettle!
When people get hungry at this meet, they make a bee-line to Frisbee’s caramel corn.
“We reside in Mims, and we’ve done this race for five years,” explained owner-operator Keith Frisbee. “We bought the business about ten years ago, right after 9/11. It was a scary time. Since then, we’ve done ‘shows’ from Florida to North Carolina. We’ve also done Great American, but they are the same weekend this year, and we opted to stay local and support the community.”
Keith’s involvement in cross country goes back to his high school days.
“I was in the first class at Astronaut High School in 1973. I went off to college at Western (North) Carolina, and came back to coach at Astronaut under Nick Gahley, who I ran under in high school.
“That year (1977) the State Meet was in DeLand. On the way there, the father of one of the kids was killed in a head-on with a drunk driver. We passed his wrecked truck on the road.
Later that day, in the meet, we came in second. I think that finish was due to the accident. Seeing that gory scene with his truck still on the road really bothered the kids.
“The following year, in 1978, we ran at Jacksonville, and won.”
If you like Frisbee’s famous caramel corn, you’re going to love his latest enterprise. He is due to open a Twistee Treat soft-serve stand in Mims…and maybe at FLR XIV?
College Women’s Race
In my opinion, the toughest race at the meet was the one to get an interview with the winner of Friday’s next-to-last race, Anne-Marie Blaney. After finishing, she was gone like shaved ice in the hot Florida sun. Most college teams do close to twice the mileage of a high school squad, and I think after this race, their cool down lasted past dusk. (Even with Olivia Ortiz, Todd Grasley, and my wife in hot pursuit, UCF was gonzo.)
Blaney not only won this race (17:52.10), but led her team to a 19:05.34 average time, and the team title with 31 points. UCF finished in 1-5-6-9-10-12-13. 75 women and seven teams competed.
College Men/Open
Jon Mott is a 2011 graduate from, and current graduate assistant for, Webber International University. In four years, he hopes to be wearing a different color uniform, that of Team USA.
“My goal is to get to the Olympic trials in the marathon in 2016,” he told me after the race. “Right now I’m training for the Halloween Halfathon in St. Pete (October 28th). After that, I’m going to shoot for a major half, the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, in February (10th, 2013). I hope to get a 1:07, maybe a 1:06. Also, I’ll be running the Gasparilla 15K (February 23, 2013). I was fourth last year (48:44).”
In entering this race, his goal was no less lofty.
“Basically, it was a speed workout; I was trying to get the course record, but I felt flat. I’m training through this. I’m in the middle of a 100 mile week, and I haven’t taken any days off. Yesterday was a recovery day; 7 miles. Tomorrow I’ll do 14-15.”
With that schedule, his 15:38.90 is all the more remarkable. Wearing a bright lime-green shirt, Mott circled the course like a beacon, challenging anyone to follow his pace, if they could.
Like Jonathan, Long Tran was also unattached to a college team, and finished second (16:18.50). To get to the first college runner, you’d have to go down to third place, where Bryan Garcia of Florida College jusssst edged out Daniel Puentes of FIU, 16:25.20 to 16:25.60.
College Men Team Results – It was a very surprised Stetson Men’s team that won the team trophy. Injuries to at least one key team member in every single meet this year left them vulnerable to losing anything even remotely close to a team award. So they were only at the awards ceremony to acknowledge their two top-15 winners (Andrew Epifanio and local runner Jeremy Butler). Half-dressed in whatever they hadn’t discarded on their way to cool down, you could have knocked them over with a popcorn kernal when they heard “In first place, Stetson University.” Still, a close team finish—54 to 75 over FIU--wasn’t all that bad. (The Hatters went 6-8-12-13-15-16-17.)
Are We In the Zone Yet?
Still with us? Eight races down, and only 12 to go.
An important “step” in the long and winding road to finishing this reading marathon is something shocking to the eyes. (Bright colors keep those pupils open.) And in Byrneburg, temporary though it may be, The Running Zone tent was a one-stop center of all that lightweight, eye-catching, newfangled running apparel in colors that defy description. (I can’t name the colors either…probably because they’re being invented faster than Noah can come up with a definition.)
Sometimes found at 3696 Wickham Road in Melbourne (USA), the Running Zone is owned and operated by Don and Denise Piercy. (They’re the couple that I tricked into a PDA so I could add it to my “Village People” gallery for 200,000 people to look at.) Always the innovators, this year they came up with the idea of the “run-through.” This is a unique shopping experience for runners who, like Jon Mott, never take a day off, and between his job, and running 100 miles a week, he just doesn’t have time to shop—not even for re-treads. But at Running Zone, simply phone (or text) your order in to Don and Denise, and they’ll have your shoes waiting just inside the store. Of course they will be open and untied, so you can run in the front door, kick off the old shoes, step into the new ones, and run out the back door (where you can go right into your interval workout on their test track). Sound unbelievable? That’s because it is…except for the fast, runner-friendly service that has kept them in business for ten years.
Mixed Middle School 2 Mile Run
Running boys and girls together sometimes is, and sometimes isn’t, a good idea, but no one in the race complained about running first thing in the morning. The temperature was as cool as it could be, there was a nearly full moon to illuminate their way, and the race caught the attention of all the “senior athletes” who showed an interest and level of support uncharacteristically enthusiastic for the hour (7:20 AM).
A fast-moving Mason Jones was the first of four sub-12 minute finishers. His 11:15.10 was followed by Alexander Boucher’s 11:22.90; Rodrigo Madiedo’s 11:50.90; and Joshua Collins’ 11:51.40.
“It was the first race I’ve won,” Mason said afterwards.
Asked if he liked the two mile distance better than the standard 5K, he responded “Yes. It’s shorter and doesn’t take as long, or hurt as much as a 5K.”
He also had some advice for those who would follow in his footsteps later that day.
“Remember to keep your strides longer and take deeper breaths through your mouth. You can go fast even if you don’t think you can.”
For the girls’ winner, Sabrina Quijano, the toughest part of the race was finding a clear path to the finish. In the last hundred yards of the race a young man whom we shall call “Sport,” did everything short of tackling her in order finish ahead of a girl.
On that subject, she had a few choice words to say.
“I was trying to get my time for the 12 and under. I would sprint, and every time I tried to go around him, he’d step in front of me…until I screamed at him. In the end, he was still blocking me. I was just trying to run my best.”
And she did, but with her dignity in tact.
Middle School Team Results – Getting off to a good start in competitive running, the Belen Jesuit Prep boys finished 1-2-5-6-8-11-12 for 22 points and the win. For the girls, Lake City Middle was perfect: 1-2-3-4-5-8-9 for 15 points. 67 runners and 8 (total) teams scored.
Girls Race of Champions
Fort Myers junior Emily Edwards came into the race with no less than thirteen 18-minute 5Ks to her credit. Beginning in eighth grade, a certain pattern has developed: she’d run an 18-minute PR at the FLR meet, and continue on that pace—she twice ran five straight--ending in the State Meet. (In fact, her 18:18.74, which she ran as an eighth grader, was at FLR X on October 2, 2009.)
Last year was an off year, but she seems to have fully recovered, and is back with a vengeance. She kick-started this, her junior year, with an 18:23.40 at North Port last weekend. But did she leave room for something special at FLR XIII?
“My main goal here was to PR. If it was one second or more, that would have accomplished it. Maybe it was early, but I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“The first mile was one of the fastest (I’ve ever run). I was getting uncomfortable, so I decided to sit in a pack and see where I could go from there. I knew that if they came up on me, I could push it; if someone tried to leave, I could go with them—just to maintain—and slowly move up.”
With 800 to go, however, it looked as if Nikita Shah had spoiled Edwards’ strategy. The Wiregrass Ranch runner had opened a fair-sized gap, and was just motoring along, seemingly in control of the race.
Shah and Edwards passed out of sight towards the last turn. When they reappeared, Edwards had switched places with her. Emily describes her run of good fortune.
“I caught Nikita down the stretch, in the last few hundred meters.”
It was no contest after that. Edwards finished in 17:43.80, 50 seconds better than a week earlier, and 35 faster than her previous lifetime best.
Shah, too, broke 18, finishing in 17:48.50, and Julia Montgomery (Pine Crest) was third in 17:52.60.
“She”—Shah—“ran a terrific race, and really pushed me.”
And the 16 year old Edwards is now a “17.”
“It makes me really, really excited for the next few races, but also nervous. I have to think of the positives.”
Girls Race of Champions Team Results – Mighty Estero, led by Kacy Smith’s 18:04.80 fourth place finish, scored a solid 4-5-10-20-36-38-87 for 75 points and the team trophy. In all, 149 runners and 17 teams finished this race.
Publix Girls Invitational
Newsome High School senior Brianna Jackson has planned a two-pronged attack on the college of her choice. The first involves good grades, the second good times…the running kind.
“Here’s my special situation,” she confided in me—and in turn to the rest of Florida—“I was injured last season, so I didn’t run, or have times to put out for colleges. I came here to FLR--this was a big one for me—for a good (running) time.
“There were about five girls here who were ranked in the front. I was kind of a dark horse.
“The girl who was behind me—Courteney Zboyan from Jupiter—and I ran together during the summer. We went to the ‘Warrior Running Camp.’ Nikita was there, too. At the camp they had a 5K. I got first, Courtney got second, and Nikita was right there with Courtney. I got 19:12 and they weren’t that far back.”
“(In this race) I started way back—about 100 feet--stalking the lead pack for the first mile, then got the lead. Between a mile and a mile and a half I got way out front, and tried to get as comfortable as I could. I got into my ‘prancing mode,’ like a deer, or gazelle.”
“Dancing through the snow….” she trailed off. (Wishful thinking.)
Brianna, the deer—or gazelle—went on to win with an 18:57.80, which, besides being a 34 second personal best, is also a good college time.
“Now that I know what I can do, I can call colleges.”
Girls Invitational Team Results – In this high scoring race, not only did Brianna run a time that colleges will like, but her first place finish eliminated a 117 point finish at the other end of Newsome’s scoring spread. Brianna’s team won with 190 points (1-4-24-47-114-117-119). 277 runners—was that somehow related to all the gunfire that I heard?--and 33 teams eventually finished.
Boys Race of Champions
Despite a ROC preview list two and one-half pages long, in the end there was only one champion: Carlos Miranda of Palmetto Ridge. Coming in with a personal best of 15:17.71 (October 14th, 2011) was not important, nor were the athletic achievements of those who toed the line with him. What was crucial was a mental mind-set that this race was his.
“It’s always a mental sport,” Miranda believes. “If you believe that you can keep a lead, you win the race.”
According to Carlos, “they were all very aggressive, right from the start. I went out in sub-4:50… and was in sixth at the mile. They were in 4:40.
“About halfway through the race, I just took the lead to see who would come with me. Avery (Lopez, Belen Jesuit) came with me, but I didn’t look back, so I couldn’t see who (else) came.”
Carlos, though pursued, was never caught. He finished first in a personal best 15:07.90. Second was Avery Lopez in 15:13.20, and third was Dan Salas (Trinity Prep) in 15:17.60.
There were many high points in the Race of Champions, although being the schedule listed 11 more races, I wasn’t able to pursue most of them. In all there were 17 sub-16s and 46 sub-17s. Among the performances that I noticed was that of Brandon Marquez, a Timber Creek freshman, who ran (what is listed as) only his second high school 5K in 15:47.90. (The other, and his previous personal best, was 16:31.93 at the Overbay-Monte Carlo Invitational the week before.)
DeLand’s Keneth Pineiro, who runs in a part of the state where a general lack of competition has so far undercut his downward progression of times, shaved roughly 19 seconds off his best (16:12 at the 2011 4A Region 1Meet) and finished in 15:53.10, his first 15.
And lastly, with three runners now capable of running in the15s, not to mention their five new PRs, Belen Jesuit improved their team “portfolio” considerably.
Boys ROC Team Results – Belen Jesuit, with a finish of 2-9-19-23-34-44-51 (for a total of 87 points), reaffirms itself as king of the roost. 183 runners and 19 teams participated.
Captain U Boys Invitational
It stands to reason that if a team is willing to drive from (near) Atlanta to mid Florida, they came to win.
“It’s my fourth year here,” explained JC Cornett, of Woodstock, Georgia. “Last year I was 26th in the Race of Champions (16:12.82). This year I ran the Invitational.
“I don’t know any of the runners here, so I went out pretty cautiously and stayed with the leader. Right at the two mile mark the lead opened up for me, and I held it for the last mile.”
JC finished in 15:59.20, a bit off his PR (15:54.70 at the September 17, 2011 Warpath Invitational), but won by a wide margin.
“I had a strong summer, a good year of training, and a little more maturity (than last time). I also had a good year of track; 9:38 for the 3200,”—at the March 17, 2012 Rosewell Relays—“and 4:24 for the 1600.”--April 20, 2012 at the 5A Region 5 Championship—“In Georgia, we’re (now) 6A, which is the biggest.”
But for the Woodstock, Georgia team, the fun hasn’t ended yet.
“It’s a kind of mini-vacation. We got here yesterday and are staying at the Ron Jon Resort. We had dinner, hung out at the pool, and trained on the beach. The rest of today is free time for us. It’s been awesome, one of the highlights of the season.”
Boys Invitational Team Results – With 272 runners competing for 30 teams, it was predictably a high scoring race. St. Augustine (6-34-39-43-64-84-122) tallied 186 points to win.
Girls Unseeded A
Despite only having just started her sophomore year at Orlando’s University High School, Autumn Bartlett has already run around the block a few times, and with her new PR of 19:34.20 is beginning to draw her share of attention.
“I wanted to go for a 19:30, which would be a new PR,” Autumn explained after the race. (Her previous best was 19:38.53 at the West Orange Invitational on October 8, 2011.)
“They started out fast, and (if you want to win) you have to aim for the front of the pack. I knew that I had to get up to them.
“When I did catch up—at the first bend along the lake—I tried to go right past. But they were with me for a little while. (I’m not sure how long.) I then tried to break off, and it worked pretty well. You have to have a little distance. This time it wasn’t as much as I wanted, but I held the lead from a little before the first mile, ’til the end.”
Autumn finished first in 19:34.20. It was just a “little” PR—which, incidentally, I was told, is also a school record--but it comes just prior to the season-ending championship meets, and a perfect time to shoot higher.
“(This race) motivates me to keep pushing in practice, and go all the way to States.”
Girls Unseeded A Team Results – High-flying Dwyer High School (named after William T. Dwyer of Pratt and Whitney, the aircraft manufacturer), in Palm Beach County scored 138 points to win (12-19-28-33-46-53-65). 180 girls and 24 teams ran over the mats.
Girls Unseeded B
After her race, Boca Raton junior Olivia Nicholson had some simple advice for anyone who wanted to win at FLR: “Get out quick and stay in front of the pack.”
That isn’t always a quick sell in a team race.
“I like to start fast. My coach doesn’t encourage that, but it works for me.
“I tried to go out fast in the first mile—I think it was 6:04, or at least in the low sixes—conserved in the middle, and picked it up in the end.”
That worked out to a 20:04 personal best, 22 seconds faster than her previous best of 20:26.28 at the Boca Raton City Championships on October 21, 2011. In Olivia’s grand scheme of things, however, good times finish second behind good works.
“My academics come first, but I want to find a school where I can run, if possible. I do it every day, and it’s my main hobby. I love it, and I want to continue throughout my life, but I want to go into education. I haven’t decided what yet, but I want to teach…and coach.”
16 and she has success prioritized already.
Girls Unseeded B Team Results - Probably the smallest race of the day, it drew some of the closest contests. St. Petersburg High claimed low score: 67 points (2-4-9-24-28-29-52). 83 runners and 11 teams made it to the results sheets.
Boys Unseeded A
After the race, Wekiva’s Odaine Porter looked hot in his speed suit. To his competition, I’m sure he looked hot during the race as well. In a post-race interview, he reviewed his strategy.
“I wanted to see how the lead pace was going, then attack. Attack when you think ‘Should I go now?’ To do this, you have to believe in yourself.”
When asked about his primary competition during the race, one name came up right away.
“I’d definitely say CJ (Westfall, University High School in Orange City). He runs against me in track, too. (Today) in the last quarter mile he continued to run with a good stride, but that’s the part of the race where he doesn’t pick it up. When I see his pace isn’t going as fast as I could go, or if we’re evening it up, that’s when I go. He gave me a really good race. He really pushed me.”
Odaine, whose 16:58.50 improved his PR by 19 seconds, has his sights set on an even better time by season’s end.
“I’ll definitely be getting a low 16, maybe 16:20. Hopefully that will get me into the Regionals.”
Boys Unseeded A Team Results – In the running for U-A title, four teams were stacked up within 44 points of each other. Freedom High School’s 144 prevailed; 7-13-32-45-47-56-93. 183 runners and 23 teams were listed as having finished.
Boys Unseeded B
By FLR L, we’ll probably run the unseeded races all the way down to the end of the alphabet, but for this year at least, the “B” race was the last of the varsity events. And the honor of winning that went to Jonathan Klump of North Broward Prep.
“I was hoping that there would be more competition today,” he said after the race. “(After a 5:29 first mile) I led for miles two and three, then finished first (17:10, a 41 second gap over second place). My splits were pretty even.
“This was my first one. I’m ecstatic that I won, but I would have rather come in fourth or fifth and run a faster time. I set my PR—16:42--last Monday at the Spanish River Invitational. It was just sooooo hot, and the competition limited.
“Next time I will work more on hydration, and get more sleep. Yesterday, I slept for two hours on the bus ride here, but then couldn’t sleep at the hotel.”
“The inn was not a Holiday?” I asked, tongue in cheek.
Jonathan, incidentally, was born at Princeton-Plainsborough Hospital in New Jersey. Too bad that Jonathan was born way back in 1996, because he missed Dr. Greg House and his diagnostic team by nine years. But therein lies an entirely differently tangent.
“The girl who won the Unseeded B race--Olivia Nicholson—and I both work at Runner’s Edge. So we swept the Unseeded B races for them. Go Runner’s Edge!”
Boys Unseeded B Team Results – Boca Raton dominated this one with 41 points (2-7-9-11-12-15-36). 132 runners and 17 teams competed.
Girls JV
For every point, there is a counterpoint; for every strategy, a counter-strategy. But pure, simple logic runs deep, and is impossible to debate.
“I was planning to win,” stated 17 year old Eva Blais, a senior at Woodstock, Georgia, High School. “My best was 21:43,”--at the same Warpath Classic as JC Cornett—“but I’m working very hard this year and want to do better than that.
“My strategy was something I don’t usually do, which is to go out slow and steady, then build up. But when we first went out, I was surprised at how many people were ahead of me. It had to be 15 or 20.
“At about two miles I passed the last one, then tried to build a lead. It was easy after that. No one challenged me. I ran slower than usual, but tried to break 22. I did put effort into the end.
“Was it hot? Oh my goodness, yes! Plus, I’m from Georgia, and I’m not used to this.
“It was mind over body. I counted to 100, over and over again. I concentrated on breathing, but had to tune out the heat.”
And after one of the hottest races of the day?
“Right now we’re going to the beach!”
Perhaps to put “mind over water?”
Girls JV Team Results – In a race won by the runner with the hottest name—Blaaaaaise—it only makes sense that the team trophy would go to the school with the coolest one; Winter Park. The top three teams—all “local”—were separated by only five points. But WP put together a 9-10-22-23-27-38-42 finish to win with 91 points. 225 runners and 23 teams hit the water table after this one.
Boys JV
Except for a couple of non-coordinated jerseys that got mixed up in the crowd—Caden Ewing of Niceville and Frank Clemens of Fort Walton ran fourth and fifth, respectively (17:45.90 and 17:47.90)—the rest of the top nine, and eleventh place, were awash in the same color; “Belen Yellow.” Like the race itself, their top five showed up en masse for an interview.
Osiel Gonzalez, first overall in 17:17: “I haven’t been feeling 100%, but I thought that if I ran with the front runners in the beginning and ran a smart race, I could win this. Right around 1.3—before the half-way point—I was running with Bruno. I thought I had to go, that I wouldn’t win if I didn’t.”
Bruno Zayas, second in 17:26: “I was kind of beat at that point. I was planning on taking the second mile slower, and taking it out in the end…and it worked out that way.”
Alex Isaac, third in 17:41.60: “My plan was …I didn’t start with the front pack. At 1 ½ miles, when I saw them take off, it was too late. I just tried to hang with Bruno.”
Rodrigo Bustamante, sixth in a 17:58 PR: “I actually wasn’t in the (team’s) top five until the final sprint. I PRd in the first and second mile, and that kept me close. Me, Guio, and Tommy (Bello) were really close until the final sprint. But I’m not much of a sprinter.”
Lorenzo Guio, seventh in an 18:02 PR: “I felt pretty good, but Rodrigo came out of nowhere and beat me in the end. I did manage to stay ahead of Tommy John (Bello, eighth in an 18:04 PR).”
Sounds like good chemistry to me. Perhaps their order of finish, by grade level, proves that on one at least the atomic level: 11-9-11-9-11-9.
Boys JV Team Results – No mystery here. Despite a huge field—the biggest of the two days—and a grand total of 37 scoring teams, Belen Jesuit scored a miniscule 19 points. Wow! (340 boys finished.)
Mixed Open
Since this race wasn’t scored in the usual way (place, time, and team score), I might just as well do it on quality:
Place - spacey (Running at noon…in Florida? Why would anyone sign up for that?)
Time – anywhere from seriously fast, to agonizingly slow (This being the 20th race of the weekend, and my having already been out in the hot sun for five hours on Saturday alone, I deserve a medal for waiting to take photos of all the finishers…or did I? Is that another one swimming across the lake...wait, that gator sees him too!)
Team Score – In first place was Cypress Creek. (Anytime your mother/father/coach promises that he/she will run just like you did, it requires a lot of team spirit for them to finish. One question, though; were purses and water bottles a requirement?) In second place was Orange City/University (We’ve always known that Lisa Eggert was an enthusiastic coach, but now that we know she “likes” to run 5Ks, perhaps we can arrange a match race with Lopez’s Sue O’Malley.)
Footnotes: In case you’re wondering about my reference to Sue “Corky” O’Malley, here’s the lowdown. Before graduating from high school in 1978, she set her track team’s mile (5:24) and two mile (11:19) records, which, if I understand correctly, still stand. At East Stroudsburg State (Pennsylvania) she won numerous invitationals, championships, and awards, including the title of All-American in the 10K. In 1983, she won the overall women’s division of the Marine Corps Marathon in 2:45:55, which qualified her for the 1984 Olympic Trials. There, she ran a 2:43:01. And she’s still going. At 52, she is currently ranked near the top of the USATF and World Masters’ 5,000 and 10,000 meter categories. In this year’s FLR XIII College Women’s race, she finished 25th overall, in 20:22.70, as an unattached runner. She’s easy to spot in any local cross country, track, or road race: Grandma in (Brooks) neon green, running like there’s no tomorrow.