Club Northwest Results from 3/05/05 ( by Tom Cotner)

University of Washington Last Chance Meet

Tony Young ran the fastest mile by an American masters run on Saturday! He was in heat 1 of the mile. He went through the 440 mark in 59.8, was 2:01.0 at the half. He slowed on the 3rd lap to 3:04.2, but then he dug down and pushed hard over the final 1/4 mile to finish in 4:05:51, to grab 8th place. He was gaining on the 7th place finisher with every stride but ran out of room. His time betters the old masters best of 4:06.39 that he set at the Pac 10 Invitational in 2004.

Paul Mach had a terrific race in his first 800m race of the season. He battled the University of Washington's Tim Freeman, who had run 1:52.03 a couple of weeks earlier. Paul was in 3rd place in the early going, but in good position to move up. At around 400m he sensed the pace was slacking and made a strong surge to take the lead at around the 450m mark. Freeman ran closely on his shoulder but everyone else was back off the pace. With about 220m to go Freeman tried to move up but was thwarted by Mach.. Then Freeman seemed to slip by on the outside. But the Freeman's margin was very slim and very transitory. Going into the final turn Mach moved out to lane two and passed Freeman. Mach edged ahead a little but gradually pulled away to a 10m gap, which Freeman was able to narrow slightly at the finish. Mach finished 1st in a PR of 1:51.73, with Freeman 2nd in an indoor PR of 1:52:10.

Linda Huyck ran indoors for the first time in her life and she had an excellent race, finishing 2nd to training partner Gwen Greiner. There were only 4 women in the field, but they were four very good runners. Camille Connelly of the U. of Washington took the early lead and was on 16:40 pace for the first few laps. Connelly has run 9:48 for 3K, a level of fitness that would give her a realistic shot at 16:40-50. Sopanga Eap of Team Eugene, who ran 16:43 in college, took the lead after three laps and seemed to be running away with the race. However, Huyck and Greiner worked together and eventually caught first Connelly and 4 laps later, Eap. Greiner got a little separation from Huyck when she went around Eap near the beginning of a turn while Huyck had to pass Eap on the turn. Greiner's lead stretched to 20m before Huyck began to gain over the final 100m. Huyck finished second in 17:18, 3 seconds behind Greiner. The previous time Huyck had raced against Eap, Eap won by 1:09

Sarah Leonard also ran and she ran 5:00.26 for the mile.

Colin Fishwick raced in the 5K against a stacked field. Fishwick and training partner Ryan Gallagher were seeded some 20 seconds slower than anyone else in the field. Fishwick and Gallagher worked together to try to stay out of last place and it worked for a lot of the race, before runners began dropping out. Colin, who is still recovering from a hamstring/groin injury, ran a strong pace for almost 4K but then began to fade. He finished in 20th place in a starting field of 26, running 15:33.00.

Napa Valley Marathon

Mindy Leffler ran her first marathon at Napa Valley and it went very well., despite the warm conditions. The temperatures were ideal a the start, in the mid-to upper 40s, but had reached 72 degrees by the end of the race. She felt very good for the first half marathon. She was able to run with a good group of 13 runner for about 16 miles. Around 15 miles she began to feel her quads tighten up and from then on running became difficult. She stopped at each water station to drink, but was probably still dehydrated and was forced to walk several times. She finished in a very respectable 14th place in 3:18, and was 2nd in her age group.