A Perfect Day for A 20K

Like a feisty old codger who refuses to give up, Pine Run saw its 30th birthday celebrated on the rolling forest hills with a perfect day. Runners from Tallahassee left a city with temperatures in the low 50’s to arrive at the Southland’s experimental forest and find temperatures hovering in the low 40’s. Blue skies and a dry course made it the perfect day for mountain climbing, picnicking and listening to music. The footing, except for a few extra stretches of gravel, was as good as good as it has ever been.

And for Jay Wallace and Sheryl Rosen it was a perfect day to add their names to the list of Pine Run winners. Jay Wallace (42) ran 1:18:22, the fastest Pine Run time since 1998 (when Gary Droze ran 1:13:12), to win the race. Sheryl Rosen ran 1:21:31 to just nip the 1:21:35 time that Jane Johnson ran in 1998 and which had not been bested until Sheryl’s finish. Vince Molosky (27) was second in a time of 1:20:14. Michael Martinez (40) took third place in 1:21:27 to make two of the top three finishers masters runners. Kati Gosnell took second place among the women after leading the race for parts of the first seven miles with a very good time of 1:23:54. Sheryl and Kati 22 and 27, respectively, represented a strong youth movement on the women’s side. Jane Johnson grabbed the top master’s spot with a 1:29:14 finish.

Bill McGuire took advantage of the perfect weather to entertain with song and music and no one seemed in any hurry for awards. With the constant worry about the forest being sold, it was nice to see a smile on race director Joe McGlincy’s face and hear him say “we got another one in.” Thanks to Janice Baty and her crew for giving us “one more year.” Here’s hoping for number 31!