Masters Running

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Aamos! We made the front page of the sports section today.... (Read 282 times)

    Hi Aamos and all.... Thanks to you, John Stifler didn't list me as George Karin this year in the "guys who also ran" section of the Daily Hampshire Gazette (something he has done in the past----Geez, just because I don't have a real last name...!) I can't remember how to hot link this...sorry folks, but here's the article below (John's "On the Run" series). It was front page above the fold of the sports section. Big grin yeah, yeah, we call this the Hamster Gazette since it's probably used to line cages more than it's read, but I am keeping this one! It was awesome to meet you Amy and I am hoping we can spend more time together soon. Incredible running Amy and talk about someone with strength of character and a joy for life---YOU! You are so very cool and reel off the fast marathons with ease. Karin Great day for Valley runners BY JOHN SIFLER Monday's Boston Marathon drew more than four dozen Valley runners to the starting line in Hopkinton, and it also brought some former area residents who, though now living elsewhere, sent fond greetings to all their old running friends, plus any new ones they may not yet have met here. Write the words "Pioneer Valley" on a sheet of paper, hold it up in the finishing chute, and friends and strangers turn up promptly. One finisher, a very fit 54-year-old woman, looked at my sign and said, "Hey, I used to live there!" She is Amy Yanni, formerly a legal-services worker who lived in Florence, now a public defender in Rapid City, S.D. Yanni finished in 3 hours, 35 minutes, 22 seconds, good for 40th place among women over 50. She was looking for former Florence neighbor Karin George, who had finished a mile or so ahead of Yanni in 3:26:37. Most conspicuous among the Valley expatriates, as always, was Ed Sandifer. Now 55 years old and a seasoned math professor at Western Connecticut State University, Sandifer was previously a graduate student at UMass and ran regularly near the front of western Massachusetts races during most of the 1970s. Now he holds one of the most remarkable distinctions in the Boston Marathon. He ranks seventh on the list of longest streaks - most consecutive years of finishing this great old race. As a senior at Dartmouth College, Sandifer first ran Boston in 1973, recording a time of 3:05 and beginning an annual love affair that turned into an enduring marriage between athlete. In 35 more Bostons since then, he has run a best time of 2:40 and a worst of 4:33. That worst time came way back in 1978. "I got tired," Sandifer explained. "I stopped and took a nap." Monday Sandifer finished in 3:27:40. More impressively -- but perhaps not surprisingly considering Sandifer's vast experience and his superior head for numerical calculations -- he ran negative splits. That is, he ran the first half in 1:46, the second half in 1:41. To run negative splits is normally a good indicator of having paced oneself intelligently, but it is a hard trick to manage in Boston, where the first half of the course includes long, fast downhill stretches, while the famous uphills come in the second half. First on the all-time streak list at Boston, by the way, is Neil Weygandt of Drexel Hill, Pa. On Monday Weygandt finished in 4:34:55, extending his streak to 42. Yes, Lance Armstrong ran Boston, finishing 496th to great applause in 2:50:58. And yes, eternally endearing coach and pundit Tom Derderian had something to say about it. "I'd just as soon see Lance Armstrong run from Hopkinton to Worcester," said Derderian, suggesting that there's a distinction to be drawn between being a very good athlete and showing off. Be that as it may, Armstrong will hear no complaints from the beneficiaries of his LiveStrong foundation, to which he added several hundred thousand dollars this week. The U.S. Olympic women's trials marathon in Boston Sunday was just about as exciting, and as excitingly different from Monday's marathon, as anyone in the sport could wish. The four-lap course made it possible for spectators to see all 124 finishers pass by eight times, and the small field of select women was a concentration of talent and training rare in such numbers in one place on one day. No women's marathon finish I've ever seen has been more tense than Monday's, when Dire Tune of Ethiopia and Alevtina Biktimirova of Russia ran the final six miles elbow to elbow and then changed the lead twice in the final dash down Boylston Street, with Tune winning by two seconds. On the other hand, Magdalena Lewy Boulet thrilled the crowds Sunday by opening a huge gap on the field in the very first mile of the Olympic trials race, widening it to nearly two minutes, and holding off everyone else until the 22nd mile. Ultimately just one woman could catch Lewy Boulet, and that woman was the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Deena Kastor. On paper Kastor, the American record holder, was much faster than Lewy Boulet or anyone else in the field. Kastor's qualifying time was Kastor's qualifying time was 2:19, while second-seeded Elva Dryer had not cracked 2:30 and Lewy Boulet had qualified with a time of 2:42:38. Lewy Boulet, formerly of Poland but now a naturalized U.S. citizen, said later, "I knew the race wasn't going to come to me. I had to go and get it." For a while it appeared even to Kastor that Lewy Boulet might indeed get it, but ultimately Kastor's speed and experience were enough for her to win in 2:29:35, with Lewy Boulet arriving less than a minute behind her and Blake Russell taking the third and final spot on the U.S. women's Olympic marathon team in 2:32:40. Those results were gratifying to many observers. At the 2004 Olympic trials, Russell finished fourth and Lewy Boulet fifth, thereby missing that year's Olympic team by the smallest possible margin. Nicole Kulikov-Hagobian of Hadley, the only local runner in the trials, ran a steady race on Sunday to finish 44th in 2:43:19. "I'm extremely happy, considering everything," said Hagobian, explaining that she had been sick with a cold, cough and sore throat for the week before the race. "I didn't have a particular plan for the race. I just wanted to see how I felt, take it a little easy, pick it up at halfway. After 12 miles, I stopped looking at my watch." Hagobian added that her training had been compromised by a hip injury, but that also she had been busy with another activity - Tyler, her 10-month-old son. "I'm looking forward to the next year," she said. "After today, I know I can run in the mid-2:30s, especially if I get a good day, I'm not sick, and I haven't just had another baby!" John Stifler, who writes a biweekly column about running and other sports, can be reached at jstifler@econs.umass.edu.
      soooooooo cool Karin and Amy!! woooooooooohooooooooooo!!

      denise

        Wow.....neat.....Thanks for sharing George....urrr.....I mean Karin.
        Vista
        SteveP


          Karin, How the heck could any one mistake you for a "George"?? It's kewl to stand out among tens of thousands of other runners. Sweet.

          SteveP

            Awesome...tell the sports writer that the Masters at RA thanks him! That's some good journalism right there, I tell you what!
            Quit being so damn serious! When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. "Ya just gotta let it go." OM
            TammyinGP


              very cool! and since Aamos will be checking this later . . . I wanted to leave another message for her . . . I'm probably the last to have discovered this, but as I was reading through my RW the other night, I saw your name mentioned as 1st place of the Northfield marathon. I can't imagine running a marathon on a track like that, but wow! Way to go! Sometimes I am just really in awe and humbled that 'virtually' I know some great runners across the country. When you coming out west to run a marathon? I want to meet you!

              Tammy

                There's no doubt that this is a heckuva great group of runners (or group of great runners, if you will) to be part of.

                Doug, runnin' cycling in Rochester, MI

                "Think blue, count two, and look for a red shoe"

                  You know, I specifically asked about and told him to follow up with you, Karin. I figured he could find you in the phone book--if not there. Since I'd met you Friday, I even was able to give him a detailed description so he could look for you--I knew you finished faster, and hoped he had your time. When he didn't, I figured maybe since you were a corral or two behind, weren't physically in yet. Sheesh, men! Wink Did you get any coverage in the Springfield Republican? You were on the Springfield Running Club bus, no? Did you ever post on coolrunning? The very talented and gracious lioness over there is Neil's SO, or so I believe. grins, A
                  Masters 2000 miles
                    Hi Aamos! The Sringfield Republican is always a lot better and Thursday is their running column day. I'll let you know if we go two for two! I didn't know about the lioness connection-- cool! I mostly lurked on Cool Running and then just as I screwed up the courage to post (after the Hartford marathon on October '07) the whole conversion--migration mess happened. I remember seeing posts from lioness. When I got back to the Springfield Harriers bus, one of the head guys (it's operated out of the Fast Feet store in Springfield---owned by runners and a non-profit) said: "Hey, you're back already, what did you run? " I told him and he said: "I didn't know you were that fast, want to join our master's team?" Uh? Did I look like a piker or something? It was a compliment and all, but it sounded so funny to me. I may join the team since they go to the cross country nationals and they are in Tacoma, WA next year. I loved, loved cross country and only ran track to stay in shape to run through the woods and the trails and over hay bales. Anyway.....thanks for making John notice. Oy! I usually run just under the radar....suits me fine! Big grin Grand to meet you too Amy----I'll be in Buffalo while you are in VT. I am driving my super granny there to see her younger sister and planning to jump into the Buffalo half-marathon. Do tell me when you are next in the area. Karin