Six members of the KC Smoke packed the team's new Saucony jerseys and set off on a memorable trip to Portland, Oregon over the weekend to compete with some of the nation's best in the Portland Track Festival.
The festival is an elite event which featured the likes of Olympic hopefuls, including Lauren Fleshman and 2008 Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein.
Three Smoke members threw down in what was perhaps the most competitive Masters mile ever assembled, with an unheard of 13 runners running sub 4:35, 9 of which finished sub 4:30.
Rikki Hacker (34) battled hard, going for the win and leading the race at one point during the final lap, but was unable to hold on finishing in 7th place in 4:25.40 (a meet record for his age group).
After falling off the lead pack, Randy Wasinger (36) mounted a late surge coming up just short of the leaders, finishing 5th with a time of 4:22.09 (a near 4 second PR in the mile), just over 2 seconds behind the winner Tim Gore who ran 4:19.81.
Ron Kochanowicz (40) knocked a full 8 seconds off his mile performance from the previous week, coming up big with an outdoor PR of 4:33.24, good for 11th place overall and 7th place for those Masters 40 and over.
Other notable Masters in attendance included Pete Magill (M50 American record holder for 5000m), Mike Blackmore (who just missed setting the M50 American record for the mile in this race) and Nolan Shaheed (who broke the M60 American record for the mile in this race and just missed breaking the world record). You might also know Magill from Running Times Magazine, where he is a regular columnist.
Of course the race is available on video! See it here: http://youtu.be/aiPWjWEtBFw
Complete results are available here: https://sites.google.com/site/ormastersmile/2012-results
Next up, the Smoke's Aaron Yoder competed in a rough and tumble elite 1500m that left Mike with a bloody calf and Aaron with a new PR!
Mike finished in 3:55.26, followed closely by Aaron with a 3:55.98.
Go here for the video of their heat: http://youtu.be/_gibbe8fL_A
And here for the complete results: http://www.runnerspace.com/download.php?file_id=272 which features 13 runners going under 3:50 and 3 at 3:40.
Last but certainly not least was the Smoke's Aaron Davidson, who knocked off a huge PR in the 5000m finishing in 14:45.14.
The camera phone photo to the left is a little blurry, but that's Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein lining up next to Davidson. Ritzenhein ran both heats of the 5000m, winning the first heat in 13:19 and running another sub 14:00 5000m minutes later, finishing in 13:58.
Davidson's inspiring effort was also caught on video and can be seen here: http://youtu.be/W9QKR-psWDY
The 5000m results can also be seen at: http://www.runnerspace.com/download.php?file_id=272
Salina Festival Fitness Five – 5 Mile Run
As Aaron Davidson was in Portland competing this weekend, he was unable to defend his title in the marquee road racing event in his hometown of Salina, KS.
The Smoke's Kory Cool represented well, however, finishing as the runner up in 25:10.
Go here for coverage of the event: http://www.salina.com/sports/story/Festival-Fit-Five-final
Fire Hydrant 5k
Melissa Todd ran a huge “altitude PR” over the weekend, winning the Fort Collins, CO Fire Hydrant 5k outright (men included) in 17:04. Melissa's previous best performance at altitude over 5k was 17:59 on New Year's Day.
Kevin Miller Featured in Running Times Magazine
Finally, if you're a subscriber to Running Times, make sure and check out the Masters section where the Smoke's Kevin Miller is featured in this month's edition!
The article details a bit of the training regimen that has made Miller the premier age-graded Masters runner in the country during 2012.
