First Colony Run

By Rick Platt

At Saturday morning’s First Colony Run for Shelter 5K, Lafayette High senior Patrick Cunningham won his third road race of the year, runner-up Stephen Chantry came within two seconds of his all-time Colonial Road Runners record for men 55-59, five-time CRR Grand Prix champion Jennifer Quarles won her umpteenth CRR event, and 77-year-old Bill Fenwick broke his own all-time CRR mark for men 75-79.

Cunningham, 18, won the men’s overall title in 16:58, with Chantry second (17:08), and Bruton High’s Ryan Canoy, 17, third (17:29). For the women, the top three were Quarles, 38, in a course-record 19:03 (breaking the previous mark of 19:25 by Linda Kidder), almost two minutes ahead of triathlete Connie Glueck, 46 (21:01), with Caroline Fornshell, 32, third (22:38). All six were from Williamsburg.

Cunningham just started competing last fall with the Lafayette cross country team, where he was hampered by a summer-training stress fracture, but was the alternate for the district and regional meets after a season-best 18:31. He trained for the Colonial Half Marathon over the winter months, running a 1:28:46, then interspersed road races and track meets this spring. On the track his bests were 10:34 (3,200 meters) and 4:59 (1,600 meters), but he much prefers the roads. He won his first road race, the Dorchester (MD) Crab Half Marathon in early April in 1:24:42, then was part of the six-man Lafayette High team that set a course record (212 miles total) at the Sandy Bottom Nature Park 24 Hour Relay. In May he ran a PR 16:46 for third place at the Queens Lake 5K, then won the Chick-Fil-A 5K in 17:02 the next week, before winning again at First Colony (16:58).

Fenwick has been breaking on a regular basis the all-time CRR mark for men 75-79. Virginia Peninsula Road Racing Hall of Famer Andrew Polansky had the previous record, a 26:51 at age 75 at the 2003 Queens Lake 5K. Fenwick, then 75, broke it for the first time with a 26:39 at the 2008 Vineyards of Williamsburg 5K (the neighborhood where he lives). He smashed that time with a 25:52 at the 2008 Heritage Humane Society 5K Run at Ford’s Colony, re-broke it with a 25:46, at age 76, at the 2009 Vineyards race, then came close again with a 25:52 at the 2009 Governor’s Land 5K. Saturday, now age 77, he placed second for men 65-69 with the new 75-79 record of 25:36.

Those four CRR courses, Queens Lake, Vineyards, Ford’s Colony and Governor’s Lane, are noted for being the fastest in Williamsburg, and First Colony now joins the ranks. The race has only been run twice, first in 1998 (as a Heritage Humane Society event) and last Saturday (as a Housing Partnerships event), but there are three all-time CRR marks there--Rob Hinkle’s course-record and men’s all-time 30-34 age-group CRR mark of 15:20 from 1998, and Polansky’s all-time men’s 70-74 mark of 21:56 from 1998. Other notable marks from that 1998 race included Steven Henn running a 16:28 at age 16 (his father, Ron, was the starter and finish line coordinator this year), and Tom Ray running a 20:18 at age 65.

First Colony race age group records this year included Greg Dawson (men 40-44, 17:56), Chantry (men 55-59, 17:08), Fenwick (men 75-and-over, 25:36), Quarles (women 35-39, 19:03), Delores Jones (women 65-69, 51:49, as a racewalker), and Pat Eden (women 75-and-over, 44:28, also racewalking). Eden’s time is close to her all-time CRR mark for women 75-79 of 43:53 from the 2009 Mental Health 5K.

Ann Hirn, 64, of Portsmouth (25:55) was close to Nancy Patron’s 60-64 record of 25:43. Two women, Robin Corson, 56 (24:45) and Rose Crist, 55 (24:56) had better times than the women’s 50-54 record (25:10). Jim Goggin, 56 (19:37) was one second better than the old 55-59 record of Bob Spencer (19:38), but Chantry got that record first. Two weeks earlier, Chantry broke the all-time CRR mark, and the Virginia state 55-59 record, with his 17:06 at the Queens Lake 5K.