The old and the young found themselves running for records this morning, May 15, at St. Marks with the help of a touch of cool weather. Tim Simpkins (45 – the old) and Ryan Deak (13 -the young) each raced over this flat course in search of special times. This 5K race started at Ft. San Marco in sight of the water and followed rough roads to the St. Marks Trail. By the time Tim and Ryan reached the turn around point almost a mile up the trail, they knew their goals were reachable, but only with superb efforts.
Tim was seeking his fastest race time in more than four years. The previous Saturday night he ran a disappointing time in Seminole Twilight Meet. (This was the same meet in which Breeda Dennehy ran an outstanding 15:54.) He bounced back with a vengeance Saturday morning by running 16:11 to win the race. Ryan was looking to break a junior national record for age 13. He had recently run 3200 meter track times of 9:54 and 10:04 to signal he was ready to go after the 16:28 record held by Juan Ortega. Running a national record is hard enough, getting it counted as such requires a bunch of extra steps. Bill McGuire raced around to verify the accuracy of the course (it was 6 inches off) and timers and spotters had to be lined up to satisfy the statisticians. Gary Kenney took the lead on this. So, with everyone looking on, Ryan responded to the pressure and crossed the finish line in second place in a national record time of 16:27. It was close. Remember that road times must be rounded up. That means if your time is 16:27.01, it goes in the books as 16:28. There were three timers and their splits were 16:26.83 (the official time), 16:26.83 and 16:26.82. It is a good thing nobody sneezed before hitting their clocks. Now we just have to wait to see if the stats people find the work acceptable.
Sarah Docter-Williams set aside planning for the GWTC social long enough to win the women’s race in a time of 17:35. Fran McLean was next running 20:38 for the master’s trophy. Phillip Yon set a record for wheel chairs on the course with a 20:58. It was a PR for him as well. Of course as far as we know, he is the only wheel chair participant to complete the course, this being his second straight year. James Dexter broke 6:00 minutes (5:59) to win the one mile by over a minute. Nina Reich was first girl to complete the course – finishing in 8:15. Click for complete results.