by Rick Platt
Swamp Run
Hard to believe, but Jennifer Quarles, the dominant force in women’s running for Colonial Road Runners races the past decade, with six CRR Grand Prix overall women’s titles and a runner-up finish last year, has turned 40. Quarles had her 40th birthday on Tuesday, March 6, becoming a “Masters” (ages 40-and-over) runner, and celebrated four days later with a win in the 11th annual Jamestown High School Swamp Run 5K.
The first CRR Grand Prix race of 2012 had 191 finishers in the 5K run/walk, and 26 finishers in the one mile fun run/walk. Ongoing construction around the ball fields at Jamestown HS, along with recent rains, created a muddy quagmire along the final stretch of the traditional course, necessitating a course change for the final half mile. Instead of finishing on the track, the final stretch of the race was rerouted up the bike path near the Eagle Way entrance, and finished in the bus parking lot to the side of the school. The first 2 ½ miles of the course was exactly the same as in previous years, including the Greensprings Trail, and the scenic long wooden bridge through marshland.
Quarles was timed in 19:31, a race 40-44 age group record, and her fastest time at the Swamp Run in six years. Quarles now owns three age-group records at Jamestown, for women 30-34 (an 18:52 in 2006), women 35-39 (a 19:38 in 2007), and the 40-44 mark. The previous 40-44 record was by Jamestown parent Laura Shannon, who ran 20:19 in 2007. Quarles was runner-up by four seconds last year (in 19:40), won the race in 2010 (20:08) and was also runner-up in 2009 (19:55).
Quarles’s final race before turning 40 was her first ultramarathon, the Uwharrie 40 Miler at the Uwharrie National Forest in Asheboro, NC the first weekend in February. At Jamestown Quarles won by just under a minute, 19:31 to 20:24, over another Jamestown parent, Connie Glueck, 47, of Williamsburg (20:24), with Lafayette High senior and distance star Heidi Peterson, 18, third overall in 21:01.
For the men, Lafayette distance star Kurtis Steck, 17, won in 16:58, after finishing third in 2010 in 17:10.4 and runner-up in 2009 at age 14 with an 18:01. Trailing Steck were Morgan Goetschel, 22, of Terre Haute, IN (17:30), visiting his brother in Norfolk, and 2011 CRR Grand Prix runner-up, Daniel Shaye, 42, of Williamsburg (17:43).
Other Swamp Run age group records were broken by Rick Platt (men 60-64, 19:52), with the top two in that age group under the previous record of 20:54 by Robert Wright of Hampton; Joan Coven, 70, of West Point (women 70-74, 25:44) and Ann Manciagli, 76, of Williamsburg (women 75-79, 36:31).
The Swamp Run annually showcases future Lafayette High distance stars. Steck had set the 14-and-under race record in 2009 with his 18:01. The next year Simon Watrous broke Steck’s 14-and-under record with a time of 17:51. And this year two Rams went 1-2 in the 14-and-under age category, James Hart, 14 (7th overall, 18:00) and Kurtis’s younger brother Konrad Steck, 13, an eighth grader (11th overall, 18:30). As a freshman last fall, Hart did not crack the top seven for Lafayette cross country, but in indoor track he went to the state meet as an alternate in the 4 x 800-meter relay, ran a 4:48 for the 1,600 meters, and was named the Outstanding Freshman for indoor track at the recent Lafayette athletic banquet.
Other top Williamsburg high school runners at the Swamp Run were D.J. Moniak, 17, a Jamestown senior (4th overall, 17:53), Scott Gemmell-Davis, 18, a Lafayette senior (5th overall, 17:55), Brian McManus, 16, a Lafayette sophomore (12th overall, 18:33) and Ben Wahls, 16, a Lafayette sophomore (13th overall, 18:38).
The race was again organized by and benefited the Jamestown High School Athletic Boosters Club, with co-race directors Jim Winthrop and Barb Buehrle.
Yorktwon Victory Run
Since the Yorktown Victory Run 8 Miler was revived by the Colonial Road Runners in 2005, only one time had a woman run faster than 53:40, the course record of 50:39 set by Williamsburg’s Jennifer Quarles in 2006. Quarles had also won the YVR race in 2005 (54:15), 2007 (53:46) and 2009 (53:41). This past Saturday, with 241 finishers in the popular race that traverses a scenic course from Newport News Park to the Yorktown Victory Monument, Quarles was part of the fastest women’s field in YVR race history, but her 53:18 (the fourth fastest women’s time as a CRR Grand Prix event) was only good for third overall.The race was a Peninsula Track Club event from 1976 (as a Bicentennial event) until 1990, when it was discontinued, due to the complexities of dealing with three jurisdictions (Newport News Park, York County and the National Park Service) and a point-to-point course. Daniel Shaye, vice president of the CRR, resurrected the race in 2005, and since 2006, it has been organized to perfection by the College of William and Mary Mason School of Business as a class project to teach the MBA students how to plan a detailed event. Last year’s race director Ed Moran, a world-class distance runner and Olympic Trials hopeful in the 10,000 meters, was succeeded this year by Lisa Altice of the MBA school. The event continues to benefit Kidz’n Grief, which provides grief support for children aged 3-18 who have lost a loved one to death.
Breaking the YVR course record was two-time Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier Renee High, 30, of Virginia Beach, whose 50:04 was 35 seconds faster than the previous course record. Karen Terry, 23, of Newport News, the 2011 CRR Grand Prix champion, was runner-up in 51:47, while six-time CRR Grand Prix champion Quarles, 40, was another 1 ½ minutes back with her 53:18. All three set race age-group records, with Quarles erasing the previous women’s 40-44 mark by Laura Shannon of Williamsburg (54:25 in 2007). Two weeks earlier, Quarles had won the Jamestown High School Swamp Run 5K (the first CRR Grand Prix race of 2012) in 19:31, also taking down a 40-44 age group record by Shannon (20:19 in 2007).
High won the 2006 Shamrock Marathon in 2:45:40, and improved that marathon PR to 2:45:28 at Chicago in 2010, both Olympic Trials Marathon qualifiers. She has a 1:17:48 PR from the 2010 Chicago Half Marathon, ran 1:18:02 at the 2010 Rock ‘n’ Roll Half (as the first American), and had a 1:18:52 at the 2009 Shamrock Half (fifth overall). She also won the CRR’s 2010 Icelandic Seafood Fest 8K in 29:30.
In contrast, men’s winner John Piggott, 46, of Williamsburg had the slowest men’s winning time for the eighth annual event, winning in 46:38, followed by two Ocean Lakes High School runners from Virginia Beach—John Will, 16 (47:09) and David Harrison, 18 (47:32). The men’s course record is 43:05 by Derrin Pierret, then 24 of Williamsburg in 2009. The previous slowest winning time was a 45:54 in 2008. Piggott had a good reason for his slow time, though, as he twisted his ankle on a section of the Swamp Bridge trail around 1 ½ miles, was seen limping at the awards ceremony, and had a swollen ankle the next day. This past month, Piggott has been his usual busy racing self, placing fifth overall in the Little Rock (AR) Marathon on March 4 (2:41), placing third overall in the Lower Potomac Marathon on March 11 (2:42), running a fast time at the Shamrock 8K on March 17 (27:19), followed the next day by an 8th-place overall 1:16:02 at the Tobacco Road Half Marathon (NC).
Piggott did break the race age group record for men 45-49, the previous mark 48:18 by Jim Bates in 2005. One other men’s age-group mark was broken—Williamsburg’s Rick Platt for men 60-64 with his 53:47, just 11 seconds under the previous mark of 53:58 by Grafton’s Langston Shelton in 2009. For the women, besides the top three of High, Terry and Quarles, Nicole Park, 16, of Virginia Beach broke her own 15-19 age group mark, improving from 56:59 to 56:16, and placing fourth overall.
Fifth overall for the women was Megan Moran, 29, of Wiliamsburg (Ed Moran’s wife) in 57:20. Just missing an age group mark was Carol Talley, 57, of Toano, whose 1:05:20 missed Linda Whittaker’s 55-59 age group record of 2008 by just three seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment